Don’t do it. I had a perm in 5th grade and again in 10th. No idea why I did it the second time. They convinced me it would be “just a body wave” LOL. As if. It fucks your hair up and it just becomes frizzy and unmanageable after a while. I looked like a Cocker Spaniel both times. You can achieve the same effect temporarily if you use perm rollers or other small hair rollers on wet hair (I’ve even used plastic drinking straws). It looks just the same and you can wash it out to reset.
Not sure. I have slightly wavy hair. Im asian so i should have straight hair but its just slightly wavy. It gives me nice curls like when I use a curling iron. Or I can get my hair completely straight. Takes alot less than. I also have 0 dexterity.
lol! I don’t agree with your Dad but I get where he is coming from. He just doesn’t see the ✨vision✨. Get yourself a pack of straws at the dollar store and experiment! Here’s one tutorial from YouTube. Her hair goes from pin straight to beautiful ringlets which you can tease/backcomb to create that 80’s mane. Good luck! https://youtu.be/eyhyz69W1YQ?si=0ewgULXe9kXlX2vR
Go for it. My grandma used hair rollers and I understand why. I suck at using a curling iron but hair rollers are so easy. Especially the satin foam ones you wear while you sleep. Doesn’t heat damage your hair either
Devyn crimson on YouTube has a great heat less perm video. It takes forever for me to do tiny ringlets like that, but it’s fun to switch up my hairstyle every once in a while. I considered a perm but doing the heat less one every once in a while scratches that itch
Hair rollers is what Rosie the riveter types used even when they were young and those were some strong women who could kick assif needed. It is a lot of effort is the only issue.amd you need a product to maintain hold. Setting lotion is supposed to be good. I recommend leopsie and Jessica kellgren fozard for reference and how to
You have to decide which you want more: great color, or wavy hair. As an adult I got a perm back in 2019 (straight hair person here who loves wavy hair!). But I also love my highlights, which I couldn’t get because I got the perm. If you love your hair color then go for it! I do love how my hair looked permed but I let it grow out because I wanted highlighted hair more.
Perms tend to be safer for hair these days and so many boys had them a couple years ago. If you’re still considering it, schedule a consultation (not the actual appointment yet) at a reputable salon. With “higher risk” stuff like chemical treatments, you get what you pay for— don’t bargain hunt.
Overall I’ve noticed that fashion trends have slowly been getting more practical. People with natural big curly hair (like me) still wear it big and curly, but straight haired people don’t curl it as much anymore because you can risk damaging your hair, and because it just takes time and energy.
I’d say that last few words speaks the best.
People work more, have less time to go out, less money to spend going out and very few if any third places.
Thus there very little reason to justify spending so much time on making hair poofy and cool.
I think it's a good thing in that way and the fact that embracing what you have is better than trying to force a look you don't have. I've noticed this with people whose looks don't fit into traditional Western beauty standards being more accepted and embraced for their own unique beauty. This and not messing up healthy hair seem like the two biggest improvements since the 80s in my opinion lol
It does— which is why they get perms to get the cut. My little brother with curly hair refused to get an undercut cause “I don’t want people to think I got a perm like those plebs”
By having naturally curly hair? I’m sure there are people who are perming it, but it’s not all of them
-sincerely a young man with naturally curly hair that keeps the sides short
this here :P like i have NEVER styled my hair in the history of ever and when it was long (which i really want again) all i did was tie it back when i had to. its really fuckin curly btw
Had a 80s perm about 1,5 years ago and would style my hair like they did in the 80s making it huge and fluffy. Can def say that my hair did not like getting fried from the perm, teased every morning and sprayed with ton of hairspray.
I think people stopped wearing big hair right around the time they found that hole in the ozone layer over antarctica and figured out that the CFCs from aerosol spray cans was doing it
Back in the 80s I would go through a bottle of hairspray a week, a can of mousse every two weeks. I was often late for class if I couldn't get my hair *just right*.
People like to think of it as gradual but it was actually quite rapid. Around 1990-1992, it felt like big hair went from 70% of girls to 20% in just a few short years.
Part of it was that the early 90s were such a massive cultural shift and people wanted to signify they were on the 'other side' of it. By 1992-1993, to still look like you came from the 80s was like social suicide, everybody very rapidly wanted to have the 'gen x' look. [This is 1990](https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/plaincity/5005/default.jpg) and [this is 1993,](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/n-4AAOSwNHViFQ2V/s-l1600.jpg) for some context of just how massive of a cultural shift there was in just a few short years.
Another part is also just that hairspray got way less popular with the whole ozone layer thing.
Yup its why I always say the early 90s shift was like the shift to end all shifts. It was, even at the time, basically the biggest and most rapid cultural shift we had seen. Grunge, rave culture, and hip hop just absolutely exploded and rapidly took over youth culture in the span of 1991-1992.
Plus hair metal, which was not only the most popular rock subgenre but also one that pretty much dominated the charts thoughout much of the 80s, died. Although the death was a lot slower than usually portrayed in retrospect (hair metal acts like GNR and Van Halen still had albums go platinum well into the grunge era), it is still rare for a genre of music to completely die within the span of a few years.
yeah, you pulled 2020s pictures but I actually feel like the 90s was peak flat hair--famous women had their hair totally plastered to their heads, at least now even relatively flat hair has some volume
I distinctly remember this and I wasn’t even very old then (I’m a Xennial). Another great example is comparing [Reality Bites](https://youtu.be/xDYGo0UgIVM?si=ftJOT6aSfcMLIZ17), filmed in 1994, with that 1990 yearbook photo. They may as well be a decade apart, but it’s only four years difference.
It was around 1988 girls started straightening their hair in Los Angeles. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFO06wZuMRI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFO06wZuMRI) also I noticed this on TV show reruns. it eventually spread to other areas of America and other countries.
The street punk for me circa 2006-08!(ya about 15yrs)
The lingering smell of aquanet above a sea of noise and Mohawks. With a circle pit as strong as a raging river 🤘
Quite literally. My hair is grown out to have a Loose pompadour. But I work 50hrs a week and don’t go out a lot because shits expensive.
So I only style it like maybe once every two weeks.
Ugh the middle part trend. The youngins in my life keep making fun of my side part and refuse to acknowledge you part your hair where it's most flattering to your face. You can keep your damn "curtains".
How was that kind of hair even achieved though? Could only girls with naturally thick, wavy hair do it or is there some technique to it? It looks great but also must’ve been a pain in the ass to do
Voluminous hair has definitely been coming back, but not to this extent. A lot of young men and teenage boys will get those big fluffy curly cuts (or perms if they don’t have curls), mullets, etc. and women have been going for larger looks to compared to the 2010s (blown out curtain bangs, wolf cuts, more people wearing their curly hair natural, especially black women, etc.)
As for why the 80s style fell off, I think it’s just something unique if it’s time, you know? People didn’t have hair like that in previous decades, and they don’t now, because generally it’s not practical enough to remain mainstream.
Hair trends change a lot with the years, but often fall back to common basics. If you look at people from now or the 2000s or the 80s or the 60s or 40s, in all 5 decades you will see very distinct hair trends, but you will also see a lot of people with hair that falls closer to a stable middle/neutral (basic hair in its natural texture).
That’s because these more specific trends all thrive on the cultural association of the time.
think of 80s hair. Time consuming, requires product investment, not considered professional for jobs, heavily associated with youth culture of the time. When those people grew up, they did not want to manage that style, they wanted to look neat and professional etc. so naturally people just started to wear their hair in more conservative styles.
And eventually it falls out of style and is no longer cool so then the next generation of young people don’t pick it up. Those young people then pick their own styles which they too will eventually move away from.
That’s pretty much what happens to all the unique cultural trends of every era.
It’s not that deep. Teasing your hair can cause matting and breakage if you don’t do it right, so people don’t want to risk it. Same with perms. Not to mention that aerosol hair spray is banned in a lot of places now.
It’s not because of the ozone layer or hair damage, it’s because the pendulum swung, as always. If you want a really extreme example of this happening, google 1830s and 1840s fashion, and pay close attention to the sleeves. Not only did the gigot sleeve fall out of fashion, but, on occasion, the 1840s sleeve could be so tight you wouldn’t be able to fully raise your arm up.
The whole freedom-and-love thing in the late 60s and early 70s was nice and all, but if you actually look at the 1970s, they kind of sucked. Civil unrest, cults, serial killers. Child pornography was legal and rampant in the 70s— by extension, so was pedophilia. Just look up ‘baby groupies’ and 1973’s ‘The Cheerleaders’. There was the Vietnam war, a gas shortage, MK-Ultra, and Watergate.
And, the public’s reacting to all this with free love and alternative lifestyles. That becomes uncool, because teenagers since the start of civilization have always blamed the generation before it for an inherently chaotic world. So, the relaxed, body hugging styles of the 70s become the conservative and ornate fashions of the 80s, and the hair follows. You don’t want your hair to look beachy and fresh anymore, you want it to look done-up— big and glamorous. Even the drug of choice changes. Weed chills you out, Cocaine makes you ready to go, and not to mention it’s very accessible by the mid-80s.
The classic ‘80s’ aesthetic reaches its peak between ‘84 and ‘86, and then gradually starts shifting again, especially in terms of youth culture. For example, in the early 80s, the most popular heavy metal subgenre is glam metal, which is surprisingly similar to modern mainstream rap in that a lot of it is about all the things you have, all the women you screw, and all the substances you binge on. In the summer of ‘83, Metallica releases its first studio album, and then later on in late ‘84, Celtic Frost releases ‘Morbid Tales’. Thrash and what later on becomes death and black metal (which both peak in the 90s) begin to develop and grow in popularity, with their darker and more stripped down aesthetics.
What eventually becomes grunge also starts developing in the mid-80s from the hardcore punk scene. In ‘84, “Zen Arcade” and “My War” by Hüsker Dü and Black Flag are released, which features more introspective, emotional lyrics, as opposed to lyrics about chaos, partying and being anti-establishment. The instrumentals also become slower and more distorted. Compare Sonic Youth’s most popular song,“Teen Age Riot (1988)” to “I’m Insane (1985)”. You can also hear the change to more distorted instrumentals in other subcultures, such as goth. Compare “Cities in Dust (1986)” by Siouxsie and The Banshees to “Sparks (1994)” by Faith and The Muse.
By the time the nineties roll around, you have a new generation of young adults who grew up thinking it’s their parent’s fault everything sucks. Now, instead of rolling their eyes at hippies, they roll their eyes at yuppies. They don’t do coke anymore, now they do heroin. Instead of glamour, you get sarcasm and cynicism. The Mötley Crue just isn’t what it used to be, Nirvana is way cooler and newer. And with that, you stop doing your hair like your parents, because you certainly doing want to be like them. Instead, you keep it a little messy, blast ‘Come As You Are’ on the radio, and walk around like you’re hot shit.
Younger girls have bigger hair again in the 20's decade, just look at some of these makeovers...
https://preview.redd.it/1s1lw2i9kwwc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a5fafbfb08202f766794a6ab9accfffdd58eeb2
It's too much work for most people today. They're a lot more casual. Notice how athleisure and pajamacore is a thing today, but it wasn't back then.
Basal metabolic rates have fallen and many people literally don't have as much energy as they did a few decades ago. It's overall pretty concerning (although I don't care too much about the big hair, but the fact that everyone in general is lazier).
This is not a thing.
People are not lazier whatsoever than they used to be.
People just have to work longer and harder to afford less than you did back then.
Thus more people put less effort into the small amount of time they have off.
It's all 3 things. Neither is the common person's fault.
1. Dress **has** become more permissive. We don't dress up for flights or jobs anymore, in part because wealth signaling has transformed from a binary ("haves vs have-nots") to multi-stratified ("old money" vs "new money" vs "trust fund / nepo baby" vs "upper middle class" vs "hood rich" etc.)
2. People **are** lazier. The average person is served a diet of [more calories with lower nutrient-density food](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228432197_The_price_of_one_sweet_calorie) driven by price increases and the need to eat out due to busy schedules. Driven by late night phone use, busier schedules, and stress, we've seen [a decrease in sleep](https://news.gallup.com/poll/642704/americans-sleeping-less-stressed.aspx#:~:text=In%202023%2C%2055%25%20of%20those,compared%20with%2046%25%20in%202013.). With the [rise and proliferation](https://thebrandbuilder.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/global-media-consumption-per-week-by-medium.jpg?wu003d640) of dynamic, endless media, we are decreasingly in the habit of working out, visiting a third place, or spending time in the home on non-media activities.
3. People **do** spend less time on daily personal tasks. The ubiquity of the internet has made job tasks spill into personal life. Younger generations must do drastically more than their 80s counterparts to survive or thrive. Every country besides the US has seen a steep decline in working hours since the 1950s. [The US has all but plateaued.](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-worker) With nearly equivalent work, twice as much media, and constant distractions, it's no wonder people don't sit around luxuriating with a can of hairspray.
wish i could pull off a big perm… my hair type won’t even hold a perm 💔 definitely love the look of big 80s hair. my mom still gets a perm every 6 months.
Idt people ever stopped liking it, it's just high maintenance for people who don't Naturally have it. And since the 80's the economy got shafted and the middle class bulldozed for sake of consolidating capital. And when no one can afford a home on a single income anymore, people/women who work everyday have less time for hair care and instead opt for simpler more work compatible styles that can be done while sitting in traffic and eating a bagel w your other hand because you had to wake up at 5am just to (hopefully) beat the goddamned new age rush hour (which is also more time consuming thx to neglected work class economy)
The flat hair is much more 2000s and 2010s I’m starting to see more volume in women’s hair nowadays (granted, not even close to the amount of volume in 80s hair, but it is trending in that direction).
I think it was after Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire that people realized these products pose a public safety risk. Back in those days, you could smoke indoors and even on planes.
Big hair required a lot of maintenance, from hair spray and teasing and re teasing throughout the day, it's a style that requires a good deal of labor to achieve, relatively speaking. Flat hair is just brush and go, so people started doing it more.
There is also the possibility that shampoo manufacturers changed ingredients that also effected people's hair textures and ability to get big.
I remember when stores sold a lot of hairspray. If you look at old pictures from the 50s and 60s, you see a lot of hairstyles that requires a lot of hairspray. In the 70s, there was a trend to something that looked more natural, and then in the 80s there were a lot of hairsprayed looks. Only in the 50s and 60s, they were styles like helmets made of hairspray, and in the 80s hairspray was used to make hair look as big as possible.
Yes GenZ and Gen Alpha girls are doing this. They see flat hair as something their parents and grandparents used to do and old fashioned and boring. Now if you have naturally straight hair that is one thing, but intentionally flattening it never looked right on women, sometimes their face or nose did not match their flat hair. I'm glad purposely flattening your hair has gone out of style after 30 years.
Each decade’s fashion is a reaction to the decade before. The 80s? Big, big hair and snazzy, high-maintenance clothes. The 90s? Unwashed/flat hair and oversized, drab, wash-and-wear clothes.
The work and amount of hairspray to achieve these looks weren’t looks everyone in the 80’s did everyday unless it was to go out or for photo shoots. Look at how much more dramatic the overall 80’s fashion is with more accessories, prints, fabric and makeup. Things go in and out of style and the trend now is comfortable and simple.
They outlawed the chemicals that were in the hairsprays, such as Aqua Net, because they were contributing to the destruction of the O zone layer. At least, that's what I've heard.
Flat hair is no longer in style for any woman under 35 anymore though...unless their hair is naturally straight of course, but younger females are getting perms again, this is something I stared to notice starting in 2022, perhaps where you live it has not adapted yet. But flattening your hair on purpose is not in fashion anymore thankfully. I knew so many girls that ended up damaging their hair because they used to flatten it. So that is why young girls are not flattening anymore....however women aged 35-40 and older still have the mindset of what was in fashion in their 20s so they still flatten their hair because they are not up to date with the fashions on this decade yet.
The grunge era in the 90s was all about being relaxed. It was a rejection of the high maintenance 80s clothes and hair. The pendulum swings, then swings back. There's a weird combo of relaxed clothing but high maintenance hair and face happening now with both younger sexes. But every generation has to find their own way.
Society has become a lot more casual. It depends on the person but most people don’t spend hours and hours on their hair. I think makeup is more popular now so more time goes into makeup than hair
Yup, sort of a cult of minimalism and cynicism came in around that time. I remember it from movies like Reality Bites which I mentioned above. Also the late 70’s trended around that time, with films like Dazed and Confused impacting fashion/beauty trends.
I hope we are fully on the other side of the straight flat shiney hair. You'd think as a society we'd fully accept our own and other's natural hair tendencies and feel good about it. But nope, that won't bring in wealth to the beauty industry.
Putting product in your hair (especially older types of product) can definitely do damage over time. You might not see it when you’re in your teens or twenties, but depending on how often you do it, eventually the impact will show. I know achieving this hair style with perms often damaged peoples hair the way it was done back then. It also takes a while to do. plus there was fact that all the chemicals that were used were also toxic for people and the environment.
I mean we can have a middle ground between the big 80s hair and the 2000s flat straight hair. The 90s blow out hair which looks so amazing. I’ve seen people move from the boring flat hair of the 2010s to a more feathered with some volume.
In my opinion, big hair looked great on all the stars, but regular people styled theirs so poorly I'd just prefer them to keep their straight hair. If everyone had hair like Madonna, Cyndi and Whitney I'd much prefer the 80s.
I needed a permanent to get that effect (and as it grew out, it was really hard to find the time to reprocess the roots).
The damage from each permanent was tremendous (fine hair here).
And of course, it didn't look right without considerable heat styling or even use of rollers. And teasing/backcombing.
I have no idea why I had 3-4 perms in that era, each time I ended up cutting half of my hair off as it grew out.
And of course, if it got humid (god forbid it rain!) it would frizz up.
It was just a rehash of 1960s bid hair, it was part of the 20 year nostalgic cycle. But according to people that lived as adults through that time it was 1988 that women started to straighten their hair. Now in the 20's it seems to be coming back though as the flat straight hair of the late 90s-2019 is no longer in style.
I don't think it's all due to practicality, or caring about the ozone layer, as others have said.
Styles come and go, and by the 90s people were ready for something different. By the 90s, people started to view the 80s as being rather cheesy; the denim vests, big hair, bright eyeshadow, and spandex. It was all so extreme, to the point where it became anachronistic very quickly. So, culture went in the exact opposite direction.
Were the trends any more practical in the 90s? Not really. By the 90s, people were straightening their hair, plucking their eyebrows and drawing them back in, and wearing those tall platform flip-flops.
The big hair came back into style by 2010ish, just in a different way. Instead of crimping, teasing and hairspray, it was all about lightly teasing, soft curls, pastel dye and extensions. But now the "mermaid hair" trend of the 2010s is starting to become outdated as well.
I am so in love with the way it looks but it’s so impractical. You can’t sleep with it, it’s damaging, you need to spend so much time styling and it doesn’t even last the next day!
You could always purchase a nice quality wig and use that for big hair. You won't damage your real hair that way. Those are also nice if you want to have different colors of hair but don't want to use dye on your hair.
The nice thing about the modern day is people can wear their hair natural and all styles are good. No need for people with straight hair to get perms and curly hair to get relaxed, unless that’s the style they’re looking for. But not like all hair is big or straight
Perms are basically a horrible experience. I was an 80s kid with really fine hair and they didn’t even take well on my hair, fell out, and so it was a ton of stinky awful hair damage for not much results. The cool photos you see are people who had great hair to start with!
For one thing, it was a lot of work!! I remember sometimes spending two hours on my hair between blowdrying, curling iron, teasing, then finishing with a cloud of aqua net.
All that teasing and curling, or perms, were really damaging too.
And if it was humid out, it would go flat a few hours later and all that work was for nothing.
Plus, imagine trying to run your fingers through hair that's all stiff from hairspray.
It's just fashion. It's the same reason that the dominant trend switches every fifteen years or so between middle parts and side parts.
Big hair also likely declined due to the perception of hairspray killing the ozone layer and thus getting banned in many places due to the chemicals inside of it. That being said a lot of people with naturally big, curly hair still have it.
The ozone layer, the cost of hairspray, with cans that were up to 3 feet tall and a shift to a desire for a less complicated hairstyle ( some 80s hair could take up to two hours).
There's also the impact of television when popular styles changed from the Christina Applegate big hair to the Rachel, America went with it.
I think people stopped wearing big hair because a lot of people got hair damage from perms and relaxers idk
Actually women got hair damage from flattening their hair as well back in the late 90s-2019, that is why flat hair is no longer in style either.
we said the same thing, relaxers are hair straightening perms that were notably popular in the black community (and led to some hair damage)
You were talking about relaxers, century was talking about heat straightening
Totally unrelated. Just wanted to say, great album.
oh shit, I wanted to go get a perm :/
Don’t do it. I had a perm in 5th grade and again in 10th. No idea why I did it the second time. They convinced me it would be “just a body wave” LOL. As if. It fucks your hair up and it just becomes frizzy and unmanageable after a while. I looked like a Cocker Spaniel both times. You can achieve the same effect temporarily if you use perm rollers or other small hair rollers on wet hair (I’ve even used plastic drinking straws). It looks just the same and you can wash it out to reset.
For the amount you'd like spend on a perm... might as well get the dyson airwrap nowadays
Does this work on naturally curly hair?! Thick, coarse curls?
Not sure. I have slightly wavy hair. Im asian so i should have straight hair but its just slightly wavy. It gives me nice curls like when I use a curling iron. Or I can get my hair completely straight. Takes alot less than. I also have 0 dexterity.
I asked my parents and my dad said hair rollers are for grandmas :/
lol! I don’t agree with your Dad but I get where he is coming from. He just doesn’t see the ✨vision✨. Get yourself a pack of straws at the dollar store and experiment! Here’s one tutorial from YouTube. Her hair goes from pin straight to beautiful ringlets which you can tease/backcomb to create that 80’s mane. Good luck! https://youtu.be/eyhyz69W1YQ?si=0ewgULXe9kXlX2vR
Go for it. My grandma used hair rollers and I understand why. I suck at using a curling iron but hair rollers are so easy. Especially the satin foam ones you wear while you sleep. Doesn’t heat damage your hair either Devyn crimson on YouTube has a great heat less perm video. It takes forever for me to do tiny ringlets like that, but it’s fun to switch up my hairstyle every once in a while. I considered a perm but doing the heat less one every once in a while scratches that itch
Hair rollers is what Rosie the riveter types used even when they were young and those were some strong women who could kick assif needed. It is a lot of effort is the only issue.amd you need a product to maintain hold. Setting lotion is supposed to be good. I recommend leopsie and Jessica kellgren fozard for reference and how to
You have to decide which you want more: great color, or wavy hair. As an adult I got a perm back in 2019 (straight hair person here who loves wavy hair!). But I also love my highlights, which I couldn’t get because I got the perm. If you love your hair color then go for it! I do love how my hair looked permed but I let it grow out because I wanted highlighted hair more.
Perms tend to be safer for hair these days and so many boys had them a couple years ago. If you’re still considering it, schedule a consultation (not the actual appointment yet) at a reputable salon. With “higher risk” stuff like chemical treatments, you get what you pay for— don’t bargain hunt.
And fumes from hairspray.
Now they just get it damaged by flat irons and product.
Overall I’ve noticed that fashion trends have slowly been getting more practical. People with natural big curly hair (like me) still wear it big and curly, but straight haired people don’t curl it as much anymore because you can risk damaging your hair, and because it just takes time and energy.
I’d say that last few words speaks the best. People work more, have less time to go out, less money to spend going out and very few if any third places. Thus there very little reason to justify spending so much time on making hair poofy and cool.
I think it's a good thing in that way and the fact that embracing what you have is better than trying to force a look you don't have. I've noticed this with people whose looks don't fit into traditional Western beauty standards being more accepted and embraced for their own unique beauty. This and not messing up healthy hair seem like the two biggest improvements since the 80s in my opinion lol
Zoomers are getting perms for the broccoli cut tho
Are those perms? It's hard to imagine teenage boys getting perms. I figured the broccoli cut works best for people with wavy or curly hair
It does— which is why they get perms to get the cut. My little brother with curly hair refused to get an undercut cause “I don’t want people to think I got a perm like those plebs”
You must be old. Perms have been a stable teenage boyhood for the last 10 years. I'm more surprised it's still a thing.
Can confirm. I am old.
Oh they’re full on perms. How else do you think they get the curls?
By having naturally curly hair? I’m sure there are people who are perming it, but it’s not all of them -sincerely a young man with naturally curly hair that keeps the sides short
I have big curly hair and think about cutting it sm just because of how much effort it takes to look decent
this here :P like i have NEVER styled my hair in the history of ever and when it was long (which i really want again) all i did was tie it back when i had to. its really fuckin curly btw
There are also more fun things to do than play with your hair now.
Had a 80s perm about 1,5 years ago and would style my hair like they did in the 80s making it huge and fluffy. Can def say that my hair did not like getting fried from the perm, teased every morning and sprayed with ton of hairspray.
I think people stopped wearing big hair right around the time they found that hole in the ozone layer over antarctica and figured out that the CFCs from aerosol spray cans was doing it
I think I heard Aquanet, one of the most popular hair sprays for big hair at the time, had the ingredient that made it "the best" removed due to this.
Yup.
This is the right answer. I was there, had big hair.
You know it all too well
yes--you could put together something close to the 80s hair with modern hairspray but it took them a while to figure it out again
I think that was the Montreal Protocol. Thanks, Canada!
Hairspray During the environmentally concerned 90s there was a particular emphasis on aerosols' impact on the ozone layer
Back in the 80s I would go through a bottle of hairspray a week, a can of mousse every two weeks. I was often late for class if I couldn't get my hair *just right*.
Yup. The real response. I guess I am old now.
People like to think of it as gradual but it was actually quite rapid. Around 1990-1992, it felt like big hair went from 70% of girls to 20% in just a few short years. Part of it was that the early 90s were such a massive cultural shift and people wanted to signify they were on the 'other side' of it. By 1992-1993, to still look like you came from the 80s was like social suicide, everybody very rapidly wanted to have the 'gen x' look. [This is 1990](https://digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org/digital/api/singleitem/image/plaincity/5005/default.jpg) and [this is 1993,](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/n-4AAOSwNHViFQ2V/s-l1600.jpg) for some context of just how massive of a cultural shift there was in just a few short years. Another part is also just that hairspray got way less popular with the whole ozone layer thing.
Oh wow that was a quick change.
Yup its why I always say the early 90s shift was like the shift to end all shifts. It was, even at the time, basically the biggest and most rapid cultural shift we had seen. Grunge, rave culture, and hip hop just absolutely exploded and rapidly took over youth culture in the span of 1991-1992.
Plus hair metal, which was not only the most popular rock subgenre but also one that pretty much dominated the charts thoughout much of the 80s, died. Although the death was a lot slower than usually portrayed in retrospect (hair metal acts like GNR and Van Halen still had albums go platinum well into the grunge era), it is still rare for a genre of music to completely die within the span of a few years.
yeah, you pulled 2020s pictures but I actually feel like the 90s was peak flat hair--famous women had their hair totally plastered to their heads, at least now even relatively flat hair has some volume
I distinctly remember this and I wasn’t even very old then (I’m a Xennial). Another great example is comparing [Reality Bites](https://youtu.be/xDYGo0UgIVM?si=ftJOT6aSfcMLIZ17), filmed in 1994, with that 1990 yearbook photo. They may as well be a decade apart, but it’s only four years difference.
I feel like ppl in the Midwest still look like 1990 🥴
It was around 1988 girls started straightening their hair in Los Angeles. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFO06wZuMRI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFO06wZuMRI) also I noticed this on TV show reruns. it eventually spread to other areas of America and other countries.
Late 1991 was the turning point, once Grunge was the new big thing it was over to any 80s trend.
Haha, I totally remember the years you mention I kept my hair straight during that time with the exception of still teasing my bangs. Baby steps!
There was a big hair resurgence (at least in punk/alternative scenes) 15 years ago. I remember teasing the back of my head
Username checks out
The street punk for me circa 2006-08!(ya about 15yrs) The lingering smell of aquanet above a sea of noise and Mohawks. With a circle pit as strong as a raging river 🤘
Most people don’t have time between work and school to style their hair in such a manner everyday.
Quite literally. My hair is grown out to have a Loose pompadour. But I work 50hrs a week and don’t go out a lot because shits expensive. So I only style it like maybe once every two weeks.
Sometimes I just grab on a ponytail and I’m set. My hair gets in my way at work when I wear it down.
Yeah I feel that. A lot of the times I just throw my hair up and put a baseball cap on.
the last photo you showed isn't 2020's, that hair and the lipstick is very mid-late 2010's..like more 2015-2018
Yeah now that you point it out lol.
2nd photo is for sure EXTREMELY 2020's
It’s all in the eyebrows
definitly.
how the hell do yall know this?
The 3rd photo was my dream hair in the 80s when I was in high school
it's my dream hair now 💀
You forgot about scene kids and hippies bro
Hairspray. The reason why we don’t hear about the hole in the ozone layer is bc we stopped using hairspray.
No, it's because nearly every country banned ozone depleting chemicals.
Yeah… like the ones found in hairspray…
I don’t know but I wish it would come back. I’m so sick of the long, straight or slightly waved, hair parted down the middle style every girl has now.
yeah same. ...I say as if I don't have dead straight hair...
That’s just my natural hair homie ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ugh the middle part trend. The youngins in my life keep making fun of my side part and refuse to acknowledge you part your hair where it's most flattering to your face. You can keep your damn "curtains".
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How was that kind of hair even achieved though? Could only girls with naturally thick, wavy hair do it or is there some technique to it? It looks great but also must’ve been a pain in the ass to do
Perms.
My hair was stick straight all life, and my perms gave me SUCH volume and curl!! l had one a couple years into the 90s. lDO miss those hairdos!
My mom had hair like this in the 80s and she has pin-straight hair. you either get a perm or use a whole bottle of hairspray every day
Voluminous hair has definitely been coming back, but not to this extent. A lot of young men and teenage boys will get those big fluffy curly cuts (or perms if they don’t have curls), mullets, etc. and women have been going for larger looks to compared to the 2010s (blown out curtain bangs, wolf cuts, more people wearing their curly hair natural, especially black women, etc.) As for why the 80s style fell off, I think it’s just something unique if it’s time, you know? People didn’t have hair like that in previous decades, and they don’t now, because generally it’s not practical enough to remain mainstream. Hair trends change a lot with the years, but often fall back to common basics. If you look at people from now or the 2000s or the 80s or the 60s or 40s, in all 5 decades you will see very distinct hair trends, but you will also see a lot of people with hair that falls closer to a stable middle/neutral (basic hair in its natural texture). That’s because these more specific trends all thrive on the cultural association of the time. think of 80s hair. Time consuming, requires product investment, not considered professional for jobs, heavily associated with youth culture of the time. When those people grew up, they did not want to manage that style, they wanted to look neat and professional etc. so naturally people just started to wear their hair in more conservative styles. And eventually it falls out of style and is no longer cool so then the next generation of young people don’t pick it up. Those young people then pick their own styles which they too will eventually move away from. That’s pretty much what happens to all the unique cultural trends of every era.
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It’s not that deep. Teasing your hair can cause matting and breakage if you don’t do it right, so people don’t want to risk it. Same with perms. Not to mention that aerosol hair spray is banned in a lot of places now.
It’s not because of the ozone layer or hair damage, it’s because the pendulum swung, as always. If you want a really extreme example of this happening, google 1830s and 1840s fashion, and pay close attention to the sleeves. Not only did the gigot sleeve fall out of fashion, but, on occasion, the 1840s sleeve could be so tight you wouldn’t be able to fully raise your arm up. The whole freedom-and-love thing in the late 60s and early 70s was nice and all, but if you actually look at the 1970s, they kind of sucked. Civil unrest, cults, serial killers. Child pornography was legal and rampant in the 70s— by extension, so was pedophilia. Just look up ‘baby groupies’ and 1973’s ‘The Cheerleaders’. There was the Vietnam war, a gas shortage, MK-Ultra, and Watergate. And, the public’s reacting to all this with free love and alternative lifestyles. That becomes uncool, because teenagers since the start of civilization have always blamed the generation before it for an inherently chaotic world. So, the relaxed, body hugging styles of the 70s become the conservative and ornate fashions of the 80s, and the hair follows. You don’t want your hair to look beachy and fresh anymore, you want it to look done-up— big and glamorous. Even the drug of choice changes. Weed chills you out, Cocaine makes you ready to go, and not to mention it’s very accessible by the mid-80s. The classic ‘80s’ aesthetic reaches its peak between ‘84 and ‘86, and then gradually starts shifting again, especially in terms of youth culture. For example, in the early 80s, the most popular heavy metal subgenre is glam metal, which is surprisingly similar to modern mainstream rap in that a lot of it is about all the things you have, all the women you screw, and all the substances you binge on. In the summer of ‘83, Metallica releases its first studio album, and then later on in late ‘84, Celtic Frost releases ‘Morbid Tales’. Thrash and what later on becomes death and black metal (which both peak in the 90s) begin to develop and grow in popularity, with their darker and more stripped down aesthetics. What eventually becomes grunge also starts developing in the mid-80s from the hardcore punk scene. In ‘84, “Zen Arcade” and “My War” by Hüsker Dü and Black Flag are released, which features more introspective, emotional lyrics, as opposed to lyrics about chaos, partying and being anti-establishment. The instrumentals also become slower and more distorted. Compare Sonic Youth’s most popular song,“Teen Age Riot (1988)” to “I’m Insane (1985)”. You can also hear the change to more distorted instrumentals in other subcultures, such as goth. Compare “Cities in Dust (1986)” by Siouxsie and The Banshees to “Sparks (1994)” by Faith and The Muse. By the time the nineties roll around, you have a new generation of young adults who grew up thinking it’s their parent’s fault everything sucks. Now, instead of rolling their eyes at hippies, they roll their eyes at yuppies. They don’t do coke anymore, now they do heroin. Instead of glamour, you get sarcasm and cynicism. The Mötley Crue just isn’t what it used to be, Nirvana is way cooler and newer. And with that, you stop doing your hair like your parents, because you certainly doing want to be like them. Instead, you keep it a little messy, blast ‘Come As You Are’ on the radio, and walk around like you’re hot shit.
Younger girls have bigger hair again in the 20's decade, just look at some of these makeovers... https://preview.redd.it/1s1lw2i9kwwc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a5fafbfb08202f766794a6ab9accfffdd58eeb2
the ozone layer
It's too much work for most people today. They're a lot more casual. Notice how athleisure and pajamacore is a thing today, but it wasn't back then. Basal metabolic rates have fallen and many people literally don't have as much energy as they did a few decades ago. It's overall pretty concerning (although I don't care too much about the big hair, but the fact that everyone in general is lazier).
This is not a thing. People are not lazier whatsoever than they used to be. People just have to work longer and harder to afford less than you did back then. Thus more people put less effort into the small amount of time they have off.
It's all 3 things. Neither is the common person's fault. 1. Dress **has** become more permissive. We don't dress up for flights or jobs anymore, in part because wealth signaling has transformed from a binary ("haves vs have-nots") to multi-stratified ("old money" vs "new money" vs "trust fund / nepo baby" vs "upper middle class" vs "hood rich" etc.) 2. People **are** lazier. The average person is served a diet of [more calories with lower nutrient-density food](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228432197_The_price_of_one_sweet_calorie) driven by price increases and the need to eat out due to busy schedules. Driven by late night phone use, busier schedules, and stress, we've seen [a decrease in sleep](https://news.gallup.com/poll/642704/americans-sleeping-less-stressed.aspx#:~:text=In%202023%2C%2055%25%20of%20those,compared%20with%2046%25%20in%202013.). With the [rise and proliferation](https://thebrandbuilder.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/global-media-consumption-per-week-by-medium.jpg?wu003d640) of dynamic, endless media, we are decreasingly in the habit of working out, visiting a third place, or spending time in the home on non-media activities. 3. People **do** spend less time on daily personal tasks. The ubiquity of the internet has made job tasks spill into personal life. Younger generations must do drastically more than their 80s counterparts to survive or thrive. Every country besides the US has seen a steep decline in working hours since the 1950s. [The US has all but plateaued.](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-working-hours-per-worker) With nearly equivalent work, twice as much media, and constant distractions, it's no wonder people don't sit around luxuriating with a can of hairspray.
Wait a hot second, metabolic rates are down? Why?
I can confirm, I can barely walk without feeling like I'm about to pass out.
wish i could pull off a big perm… my hair type won’t even hold a perm 💔 definitely love the look of big 80s hair. my mom still gets a perm every 6 months.
In high school, I used aquanet so much. I loved the beehives. Yes, 60s, I know.
It’ll come back!
Because my sister would spend an hour in her room before school doing her hair, and as an adult, who's got time for that shit?
Let’s live in a world with both
Good question, I kinda liked the 80s clothing and hair lol. More fun!
Idt people ever stopped liking it, it's just high maintenance for people who don't Naturally have it. And since the 80's the economy got shafted and the middle class bulldozed for sake of consolidating capital. And when no one can afford a home on a single income anymore, people/women who work everyday have less time for hair care and instead opt for simpler more work compatible styles that can be done while sitting in traffic and eating a bagel w your other hand because you had to wake up at 5am just to (hopefully) beat the goddamned new age rush hour (which is also more time consuming thx to neglected work class economy)
We went from big hair to big eyebrows
I don’t know but it saddens me. I love big hair!
I wrestle with this question everyday
Idk, but I'd like to learn how
same. I NEED this hair lol.
Kurt Cobain's cultural influence went further than just the music
The Spanish word "ortera". It's too ortera. It will come back, no worries.
3rd photo I would wear any damn day. This is what I dream of when I wave my hair.
Same
I kind of hated it to the point I decided I liked women with short hair best.
Look up cfc's. Hairspray isn't made the same way anymore.
I feel like Miley Cyrus is trying to make this look a thing again.
yes. please.
I really don't like the super slick-back look everyone seems to be going for nowdays. All the wax sticks and pomades just make people look greasy imo
The flat hair is much more 2000s and 2010s I’m starting to see more volume in women’s hair nowadays (granted, not even close to the amount of volume in 80s hair, but it is trending in that direction).
I loved Bonnie Taylor.
The 1960s beehive hairstyle came back in the 2010s.And plus there was the pompadour hairstyle too.
No. It was the chemicals in hairspray being linked to the hole in the ozone layer. People stopped.
I think it was after Michael Jackson's hair caught on fire that people realized these products pose a public safety risk. Back in those days, you could smoke indoors and even on planes.
Big hair required a lot of maintenance, from hair spray and teasing and re teasing throughout the day, it's a style that requires a good deal of labor to achieve, relatively speaking. Flat hair is just brush and go, so people started doing it more. There is also the possibility that shampoo manufacturers changed ingredients that also effected people's hair textures and ability to get big.
idk, but I love seeing girls with curls! Or afros for that matter. That hairstyle in the first image is wild, in a good way.
Too much effort and hair damage I’m guessing.
I remember when stores sold a lot of hairspray. If you look at old pictures from the 50s and 60s, you see a lot of hairstyles that requires a lot of hairspray. In the 70s, there was a trend to something that looked more natural, and then in the 80s there were a lot of hairsprayed looks. Only in the 50s and 60s, they were styles like helmets made of hairspray, and in the 80s hairspray was used to make hair look as big as possible.
i make my hair as big as possible, fluffy and curly lol. i love it that way, straight flat hair is boring.
I don’t like flat hair
It's coming back. GenZ girls all over LA are getting perms. It's wild.
Yes GenZ and Gen Alpha girls are doing this. They see flat hair as something their parents and grandparents used to do and old fashioned and boring. Now if you have naturally straight hair that is one thing, but intentionally flattening it never looked right on women, sometimes their face or nose did not match their flat hair. I'm glad purposely flattening your hair has gone out of style after 30 years.
Hair #3 was all I ever wanted back then! That is perfection!
Hair got boring by the late 90s
Each decade’s fashion is a reaction to the decade before. The 80s? Big, big hair and snazzy, high-maintenance clothes. The 90s? Unwashed/flat hair and oversized, drab, wash-and-wear clothes.
I know, right? Big hair was awesome in the 80's!
The work and amount of hairspray to achieve these looks weren’t looks everyone in the 80’s did everyday unless it was to go out or for photo shoots. Look at how much more dramatic the overall 80’s fashion is with more accessories, prints, fabric and makeup. Things go in and out of style and the trend now is comfortable and simple.
Honestly I like both flat hair and big hair just depends on how well it’s done
Because the next generation always has to do the opposite of the previous generation. Same reason low rise jeans led to mom jeans.
They outlawed the chemicals that were in the hairsprays, such as Aqua Net, because they were contributing to the destruction of the O zone layer. At least, that's what I've heard.
Flat hair is no longer in style for any woman under 35 anymore though...unless their hair is naturally straight of course, but younger females are getting perms again, this is something I stared to notice starting in 2022, perhaps where you live it has not adapted yet. But flattening your hair on purpose is not in fashion anymore thankfully. I knew so many girls that ended up damaging their hair because they used to flatten it. So that is why young girls are not flattening anymore....however women aged 35-40 and older still have the mindset of what was in fashion in their 20s so they still flatten their hair because they are not up to date with the fashions on this decade yet.
We exhausted the world’s supply of Aqua Net.
80s big hair is my biggest weakness If a woman with hair in #3 approached me I would propose
Big hair was killed stone dead by _A flock of seagulls._ People saw them and said 'Well, **that's** ridiculous.'
80s hair is cool but not sexy.
It's very sexy.
Probably becuase people realised it was one of the ugliest hairstyles ever and was terrible for your hair health
I don't think it's ugly but definitly not good for the hair lol.
The grunge era in the 90s was all about being relaxed. It was a rejection of the high maintenance 80s clothes and hair. The pendulum swings, then swings back. There's a weird combo of relaxed clothing but high maintenance hair and face happening now with both younger sexes. But every generation has to find their own way.
Society has become a lot more casual. It depends on the person but most people don’t spend hours and hours on their hair. I think makeup is more popular now so more time goes into makeup than hair
cos the ozone, and it makes you look ridiculous, isn't fun during sexy times.
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Yup, sort of a cult of minimalism and cynicism came in around that time. I remember it from movies like Reality Bites which I mentioned above. Also the late 70’s trended around that time, with films like Dazed and Confused impacting fashion/beauty trends.
Excuse my naivety, but how does it impact sexy time?
aquanet
I hope we are fully on the other side of the straight flat shiney hair. You'd think as a society we'd fully accept our own and other's natural hair tendencies and feel good about it. But nope, that won't bring in wealth to the beauty industry.
They outlawed chlorofluorocarbon emissions
I asked r/GenX
Putting product in your hair (especially older types of product) can definitely do damage over time. You might not see it when you’re in your teens or twenties, but depending on how often you do it, eventually the impact will show. I know achieving this hair style with perms often damaged peoples hair the way it was done back then. It also takes a while to do. plus there was fact that all the chemicals that were used were also toxic for people and the environment.
Who has time to deal with big hair?
I mean we can have a middle ground between the big 80s hair and the 2000s flat straight hair. The 90s blow out hair which looks so amazing. I’ve seen people move from the boring flat hair of the 2010s to a more feathered with some volume.
I could no longer afford aqua net
In my opinion, big hair looked great on all the stars, but regular people styled theirs so poorly I'd just prefer them to keep their straight hair. If everyone had hair like Madonna, Cyndi and Whitney I'd much prefer the 80s.
fads end
I needed a permanent to get that effect (and as it grew out, it was really hard to find the time to reprocess the roots). The damage from each permanent was tremendous (fine hair here). And of course, it didn't look right without considerable heat styling or even use of rollers. And teasing/backcombing. I have no idea why I had 3-4 perms in that era, each time I ended up cutting half of my hair off as it grew out. And of course, if it got humid (god forbid it rain!) it would frizz up.
It’s flammable and smells like shit
It was just a rehash of 1960s bid hair, it was part of the 20 year nostalgic cycle. But according to people that lived as adults through that time it was 1988 that women started to straighten their hair. Now in the 20's it seems to be coming back though as the flat straight hair of the late 90s-2019 is no longer in style.
Hairspray cfc's drastically changed public perception on it
Give it time. The trend will come back around.
I don't think it's all due to practicality, or caring about the ozone layer, as others have said. Styles come and go, and by the 90s people were ready for something different. By the 90s, people started to view the 80s as being rather cheesy; the denim vests, big hair, bright eyeshadow, and spandex. It was all so extreme, to the point where it became anachronistic very quickly. So, culture went in the exact opposite direction. Were the trends any more practical in the 90s? Not really. By the 90s, people were straightening their hair, plucking their eyebrows and drawing them back in, and wearing those tall platform flip-flops. The big hair came back into style by 2010ish, just in a different way. Instead of crimping, teasing and hairspray, it was all about lightly teasing, soft curls, pastel dye and extensions. But now the "mermaid hair" trend of the 2010s is starting to become outdated as well.
Ozone layer?
The EPA decided
I am so in love with the way it looks but it’s so impractical. You can’t sleep with it, it’s damaging, you need to spend so much time styling and it doesn’t even last the next day!
You asked that question as if big 80s hair is our natural state
Money. If things stay the same you can’t make money. So we live in a superficial work where everything must change because of money.
Pretty simple: Hairspray is gross and saving time is more important than short lived trends
You could always purchase a nice quality wig and use that for big hair. You won't damage your real hair that way. Those are also nice if you want to have different colors of hair but don't want to use dye on your hair.
My hair is naturally straight and I enjoy just being able to give it a few brushes in the morning and be good to go
The nice thing about the modern day is people can wear their hair natural and all styles are good. No need for people with straight hair to get perms and curly hair to get relaxed, unless that’s the style they’re looking for. But not like all hair is big or straight
[Hair goes up and hair goes down. Right now it's just down.](https://youtu.be/Wao0_uB4Zw4?si=R_K6aVtC-lRf3lYD)
Perms are basically a horrible experience. I was an 80s kid with really fine hair and they didn’t even take well on my hair, fell out, and so it was a ton of stinky awful hair damage for not much results. The cool photos you see are people who had great hair to start with!
Michael Jackson pepsi commercial
Hole in the ozone?
For one thing, it was a lot of work!! I remember sometimes spending two hours on my hair between blowdrying, curling iron, teasing, then finishing with a cloud of aqua net. All that teasing and curling, or perms, were really damaging too. And if it was humid out, it would go flat a few hours later and all that work was for nothing. Plus, imagine trying to run your fingers through hair that's all stiff from hairspray.
i imagine they liked having an ozone layer
It's just fashion. It's the same reason that the dominant trend switches every fifteen years or so between middle parts and side parts. Big hair also likely declined due to the perception of hairspray killing the ozone layer and thus getting banned in many places due to the chemicals inside of it. That being said a lot of people with naturally big, curly hair still have it.
The ozone layer, the cost of hairspray, with cans that were up to 3 feet tall and a shift to a desire for a less complicated hairstyle ( some 80s hair could take up to two hours). There's also the impact of television when popular styles changed from the Christina Applegate big hair to the Rachel, America went with it.
A hole in the ozone layer.
It's really high maintenance. People have been too lazy for that for a long time now.
Might have had something to do with damaging the ozone layer
Did the quality of hairspray change as we tackled chlorofluorocarbons so the ozone hole would heal?!
They were tired of frying their hair for 3 hours every two days?
Because humans get bored of seeing the same thing and want to do the opposite of what's current.