For those who were alive in the 80s, did you have big hair, perm or mullet?

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MaggieMae68@reddit

I did in fact have a spiral perm in the late 80s.

Think Jennifer Grey in her "Dirty Dancing" era. Like this: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1980s-perm--714594665862590195/

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No. I have naturally curly hair. So no perm, no mullet, and I have flat ringlets. I was a little kid. The biggest problem I had with hair is my mom has thick straight hair and she kept trying to give me the 80s bowl cut hair. I ended up with little orphan Annie hair.

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Ok-Parfait2413@reddit

Big hair ya’ll. The bigger the hair the closer to God hehe. Everyone knows that! A little spray makes helmet hair and your protected from the elements, tornado, earthquake, etc.

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Perdendosi@reddit

I was a kid in the 1980s.

I had a perm. I'm a male.

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Red_Beard_Rising@reddit

I had a rat tail when I was seven,

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Swimming-Book-1296@reddit

No.

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mradamj111@reddit

Feathered. That's where the sides are swept back, and the part is in the middle. Just google 80's hairstyles.

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Tsquare43@reddit

Nope. Went to a military prep school, so hair was (and still is) short.

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Sweet_Race_6829@reddit

I was born in 77 so I was a kid in the 80s but I clearly remember one day looking around my classroom (approximately 1988) and realizing I was the only girl who didn’t have big curled/teased hair. I wanted it but my hair is fine and stick straight and does not hold a curl to any degree.

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androidbear04@reddit

Nope, just those "power stare" glasses (large lenses, dark frames)

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2PlasticLobsters@reddit

I got perms through most of the 80s, probably from 82 till after I graduated college in 87. I finally got a terrible one that totally fried my hair. After that, I was done.

IDK if it was popular everywhere, but the eastern side of Baltimore was known for the "triple process". A lot of young women there would bleach, dye & perm their hair in quick succession. It looked exactly like you'd expect. But for some reason it was popular for years, especially among the heavy metal crowd.

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Gladyskravitz99@reddit

I had big hair, and permed it so often it started breaking off. I'd get up two hours before I had to leave for school, so I'd have time to shower, blow dry and style my hair, and put on makeup (foundation, powder, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara [using an eyelash curler!]) and then brush up my brows using an eyelash brush mister with hair spray. I didn't tease or rat my hair, but I used a curling iron on my bangs and to try to perfect my curls. It rarely came out just right, and on weekends I'd sometimes get frustrated with it and start all over with another shower.

I also bought a huge new bottle of hair spray every week.

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frogz0r@reddit

Same!! Hot rollers my hair, teased and permed it ... I was up at 4 or 5 am to be able to be out the door by 7:30 for school.

I graduated 1988, so yes I remember it well.

I think I kept Sun In in business personally. I swear I bought so many bottles of that stuff lol

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

I developed curly hair in menopause and minor skin and eye issues. My routine now looks like yours then (minus the Aquanet) and I am soooo over it.

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Gladyskravitz99@reddit

Yeah, I can't imagine doing so much now. I cut that routine way down by the late 90s (although in the mid to late 90s I often slept in pin/rag curlers because I still LOVED curls but didn't want to destroy my hair anymore ... and for me that meant two hours for showering, applying product and putting in curlers BEFORE bed, but at least no more 5am mornings, haha) and actually quit it all 20 years ago. No makeup or hairstyling, just me. You get what you get at this point in my life!

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ladyinwaiting123@reddit

I can't believe I spent so much time in makeup and hair, but we were younger then. That's what we did. Isn't it freeing now not having to worry about makeup? I love that I can rub my eyes and not worry about messing up my makeup!!

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Gladyskravitz99@reddit

Yes! And cry happy tears without worry. Splash my face when hot. Drink without concern about lipstick. Run my fingers through my bangs without stressing that all the hair spray and gel will make them stick up funny. True freedom.

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ladyinwaiting123@reddit

Yes!! All that and more!!! Haha!!! Freedom!!! Swimming, too!!!!

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machuitzil@reddit

My older sister was doing this in the early 90s but she was a heina. Brown lipstick, baggy pants, bangs hairsprayed into something almost like a helmet. So solid you could bounce a frisbee off of them.

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ladyinwaiting123@reddit

Heina?

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MrsGideonsPython@reddit

Heina?

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SufficientZucchini21@reddit

Same. I was thinking that was an autocorrect.

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

That describes half the girls I ever had a crush on back then.

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machuitzil@reddit

Don't talk about my sister like that. But yeah bro, same.

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wisemonkey101@reddit

I had the tub of gel and the hair spray. I use zero hair products now. The tight legged pants that you had to push your foot through were special.

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Gladyskravitz99@reddit

Where I was we "beach rolled" the bottom of our (tight, stone washed, high but cinch waisted) jeans. You'd fold up the hem, then fold the leg vertically, then fold the hem again to lock it all in place.

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wisemonkey101@reddit

Did this too!

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_alittlefrittata@reddit

Are you me? Us? Are you us?

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DerthOFdata@reddit

Rat tail actually.

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Sam_Fear@reddit

1987 Real long hair permed. Then after that started growing out, the sides were shaved but I still had ridiculously long bangs. Kind of a Flock of Seagulls mullet without the wings. Somewhere around then I pierced the top of my ear a few times too. Had some tiger stripped clothes too.

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EnlightenedCorncob@reddit

... I had a bowl cut. I'm not proud of it

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FWEngineer@reddit

Oh yeah, big hair was common. Then I moved to Texas in the early 90's and big hair (and lots of makeup) was still very common there, after most of the rest of the country had moved on.

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Karen125@reddit

Permed hair. Not the 90's mall bangs, though.

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OhLordyJustNo@reddit

Spiked with wild colors and a bright pink rat tail

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hooliganvet@reddit

High and Tight. I was in the military.

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Bluemonogi@reddit

I was born in 1974. I did have a perm but it was not particularly big hair compared to some. Big hairsprayed bangs were very common for girls when I was in high school. Not everyone but some girls had very poufy hair and tall bangs.

Most guys had fairly short hair in my school. Some guys had mullets. Not many guys in my area actually had very long or big hair like you might have seen on bands of the era.

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soulteepee@reddit

I looked like Siouxsie. Huge spiky jet black hair.

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Shiiiiiiiingle@reddit

You would have been a friend of mine. :D

I had new wave hair and loved Siouxsie and all the industrial and new wave/darkwave.

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

Damn, I don't think anybody had an older sister who was that cool.

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bedbuffaloes@reddit

Nice!

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Shiiiiiiiingle@reddit

I had new wave hair… shaved undercut, just below shoulder length, dyed platinum and then auburn, with long swooping bangs that covered half my face. I didn’t like the popular hair fashion with tall bangs.

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SawgrassSteve@reddit

no.

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Judgy-Introvert@reddit

I tried to do big hair but mine just wouldn’t cooperate. Kind of thankful for that. I really wasn’t a fan and only tried to do it because it was the style. Glad it went away.

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IrianJaya@reddit

I tried to grow my hair long, but my hair doesn't really grow long so much as it grows big and unruly. In my first driver's license photo where I wanted to look like Bono from the Unforgettable Fire era, but I ended up looking like Charles Manson instead.

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surfdad67@reddit

I had a new wave surfer cut

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Nyx_Shadowspawn@reddit

Answering for my mom- hellll yes she had big hair! Held up with aqua net.

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shelwood46@reddit

My hippie mom wouldn't let me cut my hair as a kid, so when I turned 18 in 1983 I went super short and new wave, kind of a faux hawk with a rattail. Which is when I found out my hair grew super slow, so I spent the rest of the 80s trying to grow that out.

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redjessa@reddit

I had a perm and wore my bangs like in a high curl. Lots of hairspray and heat to get those bangs up!

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

Pixie-ish hair that I worked so hard to get as high as I could make it.

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

I'm thinking Gozer from Ghostbusters.

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

Not quite, but that’s funny

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Snoo_63187@reddit

I was crapping my pants for the first few years but I had to have my first haircut at 6 months old. I do not remember what style it was.

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Yankee_chef_nen@reddit

I had a crew cut in the summer and a standard boy’s haircut parted on the right during the school year. In the late 80s when I was a teenager I went with a flat top which eventually ended up as a mullet.

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CalmRip@reddit

No perm/big hair/mullet but I did have a very civilized version of Rod Stewart's choppy cut.

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zenlittleplatypus@reddit

Huge bangs. We're talking wall!

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deepdishes@reddit

Wall of bangs. I can still smell the Aqanet.

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catdogwoman@reddit

It was a progression through all three. It started with a Dorothy Hammill cut, then big hair, then a perm and finally the mullet. There were a few others thrown in there.

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Gertrude_D@reddit

My mom still tries to convince me I'd look good in whatever modern version of the Dorothy Hamil there is. It's a long standing running joke.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

I had more of a bowl cut, then went to a spike in middle school.

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ThatCrossDresser@reddit

Yeah, I did both of these. Bowl cut was hot shit back then.

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Gertrude_D@reddit

I swear my mom still tries to get me to wear a version of the Dorothy Hamill wedge to this day.

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foxsable@reddit

Was going to say, a lot of the 80’s was bowl cuts everywhere.

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Gertrude_D@reddit

I didn't have big hair compared to the fashion of the day, but I did have some big bangs! I sometimes permed it, but mostly I didn't like it. I got good with a curling iron instead. I'd make banana curls - long vertical curls away from the face. The perfect curls would be unbrushed and line up perfectly vertical and meet at the back of the head. Don't know why they were called that, they just were. Or I'd throw it up into a banana clip cause those were cool. I don't think the two styles were related.

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the_sass_master_@reddit

Yes, yes, yup.

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yahgmail@reddit

Just an afro (I was a baby/toddler).

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TheRateBeerian@reddit

Semi-mullet

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BreakfastBeerz@reddit

I had a "spike" cut

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w3woody@reddit

I’m male.

Yes, I went through a short period of time with a perm. It sort of made me look like Peter Brady out of “The Brady Bunch.”

It’s not something I confess to very often.

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defgufman@reddit

I went straight up Bonjovi with a perm. The girls in my school finally noticed me, no regrets.

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tlonreddit@reddit

Born in 1980. No, no I didn’t.

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Cynicalsonya@reddit

My hair is naturally curly, so I just washed it, then let it dry. Poof: big hair. The only styling was on my bangs. Those were so annoying. I curled them into a particular shape, then teased them up.

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Traditional_Entry183@reddit

No. I've basically had the same haircut my entire life. (Think Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones).

My mom had a perm at times in the 80s and I hated it. I could never understand the appeal or why anyone would like that.

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Awdayshus@reddit

I was still of an age where my mom cut my hair. I basically had the same haircut as Luke Skywalker.

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Lcky22@reddit

I had perms when I was like 10-11 and felt compelled to curl my bangs in 6th grade (91/92). I was terrible at it, and so glad the style changed and I didn’t have to do it anymore

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ktp806@reddit

I had a regrettable perm

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papercranium@reddit

No, I was never that cool.

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minnick27@reddit

I’m not quite sure what you would call my hairstyle. It was spiked on top and short everywhere, except for the bottom of my hair was about 3 inches long. I wouldn’t quite call it a mullet because it wasn’t longer all over, but I guess that is technically what it was. That eventually became just a rat tail.

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Izmeralda@reddit

I had big hair with mall bangs. Aqua Net was the best hairspray ever back then.

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Nightmare_Gerbil@reddit

I had a spiky mullet. It looked rad with my parachute pants and my sleeveless T-shirt with the Japanese characters on the front.

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Evil_Weevill@reddit

I was 3 so... no XD

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Subvet98@reddit

Yeah I had long hair

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machagogo@reddit

Definitely had a mullet for a solid year or two, and for a short while a tail.

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RemonterLeTemps@reddit

Alternated between perms and big hair. My husband had sort of a mullet going on, when we met in 1984

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KittyVonBushwood@reddit

“Crispy bangs”…yes, big crispy bangs

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Zardicus13@reddit

I had the Lady Di

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nautical1776@reddit

Yes, yes and yes

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rogun64@reddit

Many would probably say that I had big hair and a mullet, but I actually didn't have either. I had long hair at the beginning of the 80s, when it was unusual in my city, and I had very full hair. I didn't do anything to it, but it naturally stood up a lot from the curls.

I didn't have a mullet because the definition of a mullet has changed over the years. In fact, I fucking hated mullets, because they were just for country boys pretending to have long hair. Mine was never short on the sides or top, but it was still probably short enough to qualify for a mullet by today's definition.

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fromwayuphigh@reddit

I graduated secondary school in 1990, so I'm probably right in the demographic sweet spot. The answer? None of the above. I hated mullets, and guys with big hair wasn't as much of a thing unless you were in a metal band, or wanted to be.

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_Internet_Hugs_@reddit

Perm. It was so bad. So, so bad. Picture the worst bad perm you can think of... mine was worse.

No, I will not post a picture. I destroyed them all.

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photogdog@reddit

I was born in 83, so I just rocked the bowl cut that all little kids had.

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newton302@reddit

Mega perm

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elucify@reddit

Robert Smith goth hair, but not as big.

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Brother_To_Coyotes@reddit

Mullet. Then the Rat Tail.

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Dontfollahbackgirl@reddit

80s was pre-flat iron. Moussed hair and bangs. Some guys had feathered hair cuts like Shaun Cassidy. Nearly all of them had mini mullets with hair slightly long on the back of their neck. I still remember a guy friend in ROTC returning to college in 1990 and the back of his hair was trimmed up short. It was such a notable change at the time. His neck looked naked.

This TikTok is actual 80s footage: Late 80s upper middle class high school Chicago

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travelinmatt76@reddit

I just had a generic boy's haircut

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ColossusOfChoads@reddit

I turned 12 at the tail end of 1989. I had the little kid bowl cut.

I actually asked my parents if I could grow a mullet, but they said "no." Nobody called it that back then; I just asked them if I could grow it "long in the back." I figured it would be an okay compromise, because I actually wanted to have a giant mane like the guys in the hair metal bands.

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RawAsparagus@reddit

I was a little boy with spikes on top and a duck tail in the back. I cannot believe my parents let me do that.

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_alittlefrittata@reddit

My hair was very, like… if Ziggy Stardust and Linda McCartney had a baby.

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NorwegianSteam@reddit

Ok, now I need to see that baby.

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Waste-Account7048@reddit

I had military hair. Not quite high and tight, but close enough.

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rolyoh@reddit

61M here. I kept my hair short until I got out of the military in 88 and then got a Mohawk which I bleached platinum down the center. Had a lot of fun with it until I got a manager job and was required to "normalize" my appearance as part of the deal. LOL

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allaboutwanderlust@reddit

I was born in 1988 so I didn’t have much hair for big hair :(

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DifferentWindow1436@reddit

I had long hair. I wanted it to be super straight so I'd blow dry it to death. It was somewhat wavy though. Like Jani Lane from the band Warrant.

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CbusJohn83@reddit

Rat tail. I was the coolest.

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tsukiii@reddit

I was a baby, but my mom had a perm in all my baby photos

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theflamingskull@reddit

Mine was like a young Tony Hawk, but a little shorter.

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Chemical-Mix-6206@reddit

I had awesome big rock & roll hair for several years. Just scrunch in some mousse and blowdry it upside down, no perm needed. Didn't need hairspray either. It was magnificent.

Later I had a very precise New Wave short cut that was extremely cool and trendy.

I was not a cool kid in high school and it was such a gift to have hair that would do the trendy thing without fuss through college & into early adulthood.

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WodehouseWeatherwax@reddit

Big hair. BIG. Long hair, hot rollers, back combed and Aquanet sprayed.
I'd like to emphasize the word "big" here once more.

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limbodog@reddit

Business in the front, party in the back

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problyurdad_@reddit

Born in early eighties. There was a period of my childhood where I and every other kid I knew had mullets

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Mmmmmmm_Bacon@reddit

Mullet!

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

I was a teenager in the 1980s. Yes, I got perms and had big hair! And lots of hairspray!

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TRLK9802@reddit

Born in 1980 and had perms for years. Big bangs were also important (I will never forget how long I worked on my bangs for my 5th grade class picture). I can't believe my mom paid for my hair to get permed.

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HandyLighter@reddit

Did you do the bangs that looked like a ocean wave?? I remember using so much gel to get mine in a high wave swoop. 😂

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TRLK9802@reddit

Do you mean like this?: https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/17m7ciy/what_did_they_call_the_girls_highhair_styles_in/

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

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allstarmom02@reddit

Ummmm… all three 🤷‍♀️???

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KatGen@reddit

Me too. At the same time!

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anysizesucklingpigs@reddit

Yup. My hair was straight in the back and feathered on the sides. The back of my head looked like someone’s ass

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MihalysRevenge@reddit

Bowl cut I was a kid in the 80s

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Edithasburglar@reddit

Nope to all three. In my school, only a certain type of girl had big hair, the rest of us were preppy. My hair was too thick to consider a perm and I didn’t know any females with mullets.

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jessper17@reddit

I had all of those at various points and maybe various of them at the same time.

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DerekL1963@reddit

None of the above. I spent the bulk of the 1980's in the USN.

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Highway49@reddit

In 1989, when I was four, I tried to give myself a haircut. My mom had told me I needed to get a haircut before Thanksgiving, so my four year-old brain decided to grab the scissors and do it myself. My mother was horrified, and made my father give me a buzz cut, as I did such an awful job the only answer was to cut it all off. So the answer to your question is that I did have long hair in the 1980s, until I didn’t. :(

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Jenny441980@reddit

Yes big permed hair with the tall bangs

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Fantastic_Rock_3836@reddit

Feathered in junior/senior high school, no big hair or tons of hair spray. I had a mullet too but we called it bi-level. I did have a horrific perm that my grandma gave me in the 6th grade, I cried over it. After it started to grow out it wasn't so bad.

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NoFilterNoLimits@reddit

Perm

My husband had a Rat tail

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03zx3@reddit

Nah, I was a baby and a toddler.

My mom certainly had a perm though.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit

Rat tail.

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Honest_Report_8515@reddit

Yes

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AgathaM@reddit

Yes.

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discojoe3@reddit

I was born in 1986, so yes, I had a full perm.

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Zippity-Boo-Yah@reddit

More asymmetrical- saved on one side and down to my chin in the other. Enough Aquanet and I could get the bangs straight up. It was a magical time.

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clydex@reddit

In 7th grade (mid 80's) I had my mom dye my hair blond and give my mullet a perm. My best buddy had a 6" long "rat tail". We were the embodiment of the 80's, we were awesome.

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HarveyMushman72@reddit

Permed mullet.

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Mouse-Direct@reddit

I had a femme mullet.

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InteligentTard@reddit

I was in elementary school and I remember seeing quite a few Rat Tails lol

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WarrenMulaney@reddit

None of the above. Kept it short, almost an Ivy League haircut.

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QualityPrunes@reddit

The higher the hair, the closer to heaven. The higher the hair, the smaller the home town. Mullet: business in the front, party in the back. Rat tail: just showed how redneck you were.

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Accomplished_War_805@reddit

I had a perm because my mom insisted. When she stopped paying for it but kept insisting, I stopped getting perms.

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HuckleberrySpy@reddit

No. I just had straight hair, usually in a ponytail or half-ponytail. I was very unfashionable. No wild curls or teased hair or giant wings or sky-high bangs. Sometimes I crimped my hair, though, and occasionally I used a butterfly clip or banana clip.

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jonathanclee1@reddit

Had the most magnificent mullet :)

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spookyhellkitten@reddit

I had a perm. And a rat-tail. It was horrible and I am deeply ashamed.

I think the rat-tail was in the early 90s.

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