A Love Story

Writing the girl almost exclusively from John's perspective reminds me of Vladimir Nabokov's exposition of Lolita: Outside the maniacal gaze of Humbert there is no nymphet - outside the loving (and sometimes maniacal) gaze of John there is no Brigitte Bardot.

Indeed it is Paul, who likens the girl's appearance to Brigitte Bardot first when he and John notice her at the chip shop near Sefton Park but that's more likely to get John's attention and his approval to ask the girl out. Still, Paul finds her quite attractive and if John hadn't talked Paul out of it, maybe the story would've played out very differently.
Margaret, the Cavernite, seems to be a bit intimidated by the girl but deems her very pretty despite being disappointed to learn that John has a girlfriend.
George immediatley strikes up a close friendship with the girl and occasionally remarks that he'd like a girlfriend just like her, not because of her looks but because George thinks of her as a loyal, understanding partner and her relationship with John as sort of cool and mature (and obviously sexual).
The only impartial observer is Bertie, the Cambridge Hall barmaid, who doesn't recognise any resemblence with Brigitte Bardot at all when John proudly shows her a photo of the girl. Her verdict: Well, she's a blonde and certainly a beauty.

So, how does she look like then?

hair

The girl's long, golden blonde hair is the first thing Paul and - subsequently - John notice about her. Both Paul's and John's ideal women have long been seductive sex kittens like Brigitte Bardot and Jayne Mansfield, so coming across a natural, non-bottle blonde in a Liverpool chippie is quite a spectacle.

As much as John is enamoured with the girl's shiny locks, to outsiders she does look unfashionable and odd at best and most likely just plain unkempt - much like most people tend to view John's duck's arse Teddy Boy hairstyle with the Elvis Presley-inspired sideboards and later his Beatle mop top.
The girl's hair is far too long and not straight enough to be en vogue. She never has the iconic 60s bangs and as far as the early days go, she never wears her hair in a beehive. This earns her strange looks from the Cavernites, who would often turn up at the Cavern with their hair still in rollers, teasing and spraying it in the restroom before The Beatles' appearance on stage.

Despite what others may think, the girl actually puts a lot of time and effort into caring for and styling her hair. John notices that she has an abundance of hair utensils such as rollers, brushes, combs and a variety of novelty hair care products, like Avon's sweet as a breeze...controlled with ease Hi-light shampoo, conditioner and cream pomade along with hair ties, ribbons, headbands and bobby pins.

John often remarks that the girl's hair is soft and smells nice, suggesting that she washes her hair at least every other day - she's in the company of chain smokers after all - which is quite an ordeal. Although she is fortunate enough to have a hand-held hair dryer, drying and styling her hair takes about an hour and is in fact quite tiring as the hair dryer is bulky, made of metal, has a considerably low wattage and power and is not considered to be very safe to use, offering a risk of electrocution. The things one does out of vanity!

Since 1964 though, things are looking up, finally. She's among the first to get her hands on Braun's brand new revolutionary hair dryer, the HLD 231, a lightweight, safe, reliable and beautifully designed piece of technology - a birthday present from her absent father.

The girl often tries to accommodate John's wishes to wear her hair like Brigitte's, which means a messy half-updo. From time to time she tries to recreate the trendy hairstyles she sees in her fashion magazines, but much to her dismay she rarely succeeds. However, as long as its long and blonde, John is very much content which whathever the girl comes up with. When one of Paul's girlfriends decides to dye her hair black and cut it into a pixie, John makes it very clear that he'd leave the girl flat for at least a couple of month until the hair had grown back. This macho attitude, of course, causes a minor row but the girl also never changes her hairstyle in a drastic way during their relationship either.

Despite her rather cool and nonchalant attitude, the girl does have a penchant for whimsical hairstyles. She likes to wear velvety or satin ribbons or headbands in the style of either Brigitte Bardot or Disney's Alice in Wonderland and she's known to wear daisy chains before it's truly hip. For the occasion of her very first Christmas dinner at Mendips, she sports a little red bauble and a tiny bell - snatched from Lindt's famous chocolate Santa Claus - in her pony tail which only confirms Aunt Mimi's suspicion that the girl is too eccentric and a bad influence on John.

John also loves to play and fuss with the girl's hair - he even likes to brush it despite the inevitable shedding - and has a true knack for braiding it into intricate fishtail, Dutch or French braids - a skill he keeps under wraps as to not get teased endlessly by his mates. Most of all though, he prefers the girl's hair to be natural and wild which he lovingly calls her sex hair.

perfume

The girl's signature scent is patchouli - lots of it. She surely is ahead of time, since patchouli - and the incense she seems to burn quite often - became wildly popular only in the late 60s. And yet John miraculously found a bottle of patchouli oil whilst holidaying with Paul in Paris, which he gave the girl alongside a black beret. Patchouli blends wonderfully with other deep, amber notes like musk and French labdanum, so the girl's perfume is a quite heady, sensuous love potion. John loves it, he doesn't even mind that his clothes and bedsheets smell of the girl for days.
The girl would've loved Alysssa Ashley's Essence de Patchouli, which sadly wasn't invented yet, so instead she oftentimes wears Estée Lauder's Youth-Dew or the more budget friendly Desert Flower. Tosca is right up the girl's alley too but because it's been around since 1921, it's her mother's (and grandmother's) go-to perfume and she rather have a distinctive scent of her own.

Another potent aphrodisiac for John is Paul's (and his) Old Spice soap, not only on Paul but on the girl as well. More than once it reminds John of the good times when just the three of them were together.

Whilst visiting John for the first time in Hamburg, the girl discovers the brand new launched Nonchalance and convinces John to use Tabac from now on, which he can be seen still using in January '64 during The Beatles' stay in Paris.

In '66 the iconic Eau Sauvage is launched and the girl immediately gives John a bottle of it as a present; the combination of musk, amber, sandalwood and patchouli is what she's always been waiting for.

I'm a huge (vintage) perfume aficionado, so writing about the girl's patchouli scents is the most self-indulgent part of my story because I haven't found the perfect one for myself yet. I do know and partly own all the perfumes I write about and I love them all despite many people consider them old-fashioned granny scents.

The real John Lennon indeed used Old Spice, Tabac and Eau Sauvage and I think it's pretty cool to be able to get an idea of how he actually smelled like...

Cynhtia Lennon revealed in an interview that the first perfume John bought her was Je Reviens which funnily enough has incense as a base note and during their honeymoon in Paris, John bought her Chanel No.5, which coincidentally many people feel is similar to Nonchalance.

Pattie Boyd's favourite perfume, as I found out during research, during the 60s was Guerlain's Jicky which is almost the exact opposite of scents the girl prefers.