The writer is using pigtails to mean what we called "in two" growing up. I never would have called them pigtails, because hey, kinky hair. "In two" was a superset. Pigtails is for straight hair.

I have no idea, however, what pigs did differently from ponies, exactly, to get all this.

eta: Oh, and braids==dozens and dozens of tiny plaits or cornrows.

Steph's definitions are mine, basically, but I think that hair in two braids with elastics at the top and bottom could also be called braided pigtails. Braids without the elastic at the top are just braids.

Any number of bunches of braided hair = braid(s).

Even if the number is two?

Any number of bunches of braided hair = braid(s).

Even if the number is two?

Oh, yes. Braids trump number.

My definitions are in line with Steph's. It might be an Ohio thing.

Hmmm. I think two when I hear pigtails. I can't "hear" it, mentally, without the "s."

When I had long hair, and wore, er, double ponies? (that sounds even dirtier) I was (a) well aware that a schoolgirl connotation might be construed (b) sometimes going a little for the naughty schoolgirl thing and (c) sometimes I kinda had dirty hair and it kept hair out of my face.

And hi, skewed logic, even though you're 18 and I'll cut you a little slack. Should teenage girls not be wearing their hair in "girlish" styles, because it makes some people think they're -- GASP-- schoolgirls? Um.

Honey, welcome to the grown-up world. ANYTHING can be seen as sexy.

And sometimes pigtails are just pigtails.

Note to self: do not google pigtails with SafeSearch off. Even with SafeSearch on "moderate," almost half the results are porn.

Oh, and in my househld, growing up, two pony tails high on the head on the sides were called "Buffies" or "Buffy-tails", from Buffy in Family Affair(??) This is hw I wore my hair most often in 1st grade.

I'm old as dirt and wear pigtails.

The girl who's had short hair her whole life has no opinion, unsurprisingly.