Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Goth Challenge, Day 18

Day 18 – Worst hair experience

I've had quite a few hair mishaps.

My hair is thick, course, somewhere between curly and wavy, and gets very frizzy when it's humid.

In the 80s, everyone had bad hair as there were no really good hair products out there to do the things we wanted with our hair. So we fried, burnt and tortured our tresses.  Curly and big was in. And like I mentioned, mine is between curly and wavy. I wanted nice curls that would be easy to maintain. So, I got a perm...

Yeah, bad idea. My hair turned out looking like Rosanne Rosannadanna. (I don't have any pictures of this in my house. My parents probably do, but they live 250 miles away.)

Gilda Radner as Rosanne Rosannadanna on SNL
My mom sent me straight to the pool with instructions to keep my hair in the chlorine all day in hopes of relaxing the perm. It didn't help much. So, she helped me iron my hair to straighten it. I remember we used to use waxed paper to help keep it straight and frizz free...

Then in 1984, I decided I wanted an a-symmetrical bob. This would have been an adorable style - if my hair were straight and manageable. Sadly, it was not. And this was a disaster. I tried a few other short styles, but none worked. So, I grew it out. And by 1987, I had typical, bad 14 year old hair...

You'd think after those failed experiments, I'd have learned to never try a short cut - especially with bangs - again, but you'd be wrong. Yes, a mere three years ago, I decided that hair products have come a long way, and I also had a fancy new Chi flat iron, so I went for a China Doll cut... um, bad move.

That was a huge pain in the ass to maintain and I hated how I looked. So I tried letting it dry naturally... again, ick!



Once it reached chin length again, I was fine. And I solemnly swear to never cut it that short again!

7 comments:

  1. Oh, man -- I have some classic Bad Hair Day pics from the 80's!! Since my hair is WILDLY curly, it turns out that I'm supposed to condition the hell out of it, brush it ONLY WHEN WET, and let it air-dry . . . none of which I knew in the 80's, so I had big, frizzy, tortured hair.

    Then I tried one of the early Japanese straightening treatments in, like, 1996, and wound up having to cut all my (rib-length) hair off, because it made it WIGGLY -- not straight, not curly, and I'd have to flat-iron it EVERY TIME I WASHED IT (and I had a TON of hair -- it was thicker before I got sick), so . . . yeah.

    Tried to do a cute English-schoolboy cut (just below chin-length in front, shingled in back), on the theory that I could straighten it more easily if there was less of it, and that it wouldn't look TOO bad if left curly . . .

    . . . and then I found out that I look like a gym teacher with short hair. And the haircut made me look like a mushroom.

    There are NO PICTURES of me for several years, except at Kira's birthday parties.

    NEVER AGAIN.

    Glad they're finally coming out with products for curly hair that WORK . . . and that they have some stuff targeted for wavy hair, which Kira needs (hers isn't as curly as mine, but it's still super-thick and textured.)

    But, yeah. If you want to see funny pictures, go here:

    http://www.matermetis.com/Image/History/

    *heehee*

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  2. My hair is the same...coarse, frizzy and unruly unless straightened.

    I love your cute cut now and actually think the pics of your short cut are adorable!

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  3. I remember my first perm. My mom sent me to her "friend" who had a salon at home. The perm was an apple pectin so not only did it stink like a perm but it also smelled like green apples. Seemed at the time like it took 6 hours to do my hair. The result was a little white fat girl with an afro. It was REALLY bad. I have a pic of me that Easter with my fresh new perm and I'm holding a chocolate Easter bunny. Hilarious now when I look back at it.

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  4. Ashbet, I love your hair! But yes, I well understand your pain... Kira does have lovely hair too :)

    And those pics were great - thanks for sharing!

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  5. MzGoth, I bet that's a great picture :)

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  6. Aw, thank you!

    Kira's now been one-third-purple (the front section) since 10th grade (about 4 years now), and she says she's keeping it! ;)

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