Hair Spray

I am a product of the 80s and I miss a lot of 80s culture. I miss the layers of socks, the stretch pants and the scrunchies. I miss 80s music and all of the day-glo fashion. I do not, however, miss 80s hair.

When I was in elementary school, 80s hair was all the rage. Girls spent hours and gallons of hair spray trying to get “mall bangs.” We all looked like we were auditioning for an 80s hair band. Our bangs were fluffy and a foot tall. What were we thinking?

Although hair spray does have its rightful place in the world, more often than not it is overdone and looks ridiculous. I usually only see older women using a ton of hair spray and occasionally the preteen who does not know any better. It seems that today’s fashion prefers a more natural, flowing look for hair. We like to pretend that it does not take any work to look as good as we do.

Even though the 80s hair fashion did survive for sometime into the 90s, it is rare that you see a hair spray junkie with “mall bangs” walking around in public these days. I see plenty of women whose hairstyles must require some hair spray, but you just do not see evidence of its use the way that you did in the 80s.

For all of us children from the 80s, we at least have the music. Most towns have at least one night spot that has an 80s night once a week. There are also plenty of radio stations out there that cater to the 80s crowd. There have even been a few films that paid homage to that fantastic decade and I still have a soft spot for many of my favorite 80s movies. Who doesn’t still love the Goonies?

Will we ever see another time quite like the 80s? Will there be a day when women everywhere are using hair spray to stand their hair up a foot high in order to bask in the 80s fashion? I seriously doubt it and it is probably for the best. We have become more sophisticated, whether it always seems so or not. I think it would be next to impossible for our culture to go back to such a colorful, silly time. Boy, I did love it though. Maybe we can just create an 80s holiday. Just think about it – it could end up becoming a day-glo Halloween of sorts. Now wouldn’t that be lovely?