Why did your generation let the feathered haircut die out?

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EmperorGrinnar@reddit

My hair naturally dries out like that after a shower these days, so... I dunno. I rock it.

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red286@reddit

Most guys had stopped doing this by the mid-80s. Girls kept it up for another 3-4 years.

My generation was when people started to get 'edgy'. We all dyed our hair, shaved the sides (and back unless you were a hick), and spiked the top (frosted tips if you were uber-cool).

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Snoo_56921@reddit

You're welcome to try n bring it back.....

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Haha okay, kiddo. The 70s feathered look was long, long out of style by the time any of us were old enough to have much of a say in what our hair looked like. It’s our Boomer parents who let this one go.

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PokerbushPA@reddit

No.

Again. I say. NO!

Do not bring that shit back. It's only one step away from "My wife is my sister and my brother is my uncle."

The trailer trash I grew up around all had that shit and they all played Steve Miller Band 24/7.

NO!

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GangstaRIB@reddit

The fight to save the o-zone layer banished all of the good hairspray

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iamthpecial@reddit

In my high school experience we brought it back in a big way (very much emo/pop punk crowd) and it didn't exactly leave but got a massive "renaissance" if we can in poor taste call it that with teeny bopper Bieber

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nhorning@reddit

That isn't a haircut. That's 3 months without a haircut.

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Robot-Candy@reddit

No xennial ever had this haircut that I knew. If you were 20 in the 70’s maybe.

Xennial is 77-83. That means a teen born even earliest 1977 would be 15 in 1992. This haircut would have been ass in 1992 which was peak grunge.

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probablyatargaryen@reddit

I’m confused by folks in here offering explanations. This was our parents’ haircut to let die out

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pennyflowerrose@reddit

It makes me think of my older cousins (solidly gen X) and my mom's younger siblings (young boomers). Ewww feathered hair.

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Robot-Candy@reddit

For real. No one in our generation had this unless they were extremely out of style.

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LtPowers@reddit

No xennial ever had this haircut that I knew.

Yeah, that's OP's point. We let it die out by not rocking it.

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pinkocatgirl@reddit

My answer was going to be “it’s not grunge enough” lol

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redditshy@reddit

Calling an undesirable trait “ass” as an adjective is so 1992.

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

Hey, could be worse, they could have used the period-correct term.

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redditshy@reddit

I’m not complaining — it was funny to read.

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EdwardianAdventure@reddit

NGL - I honestly never thought "ass as adjective" was generation-based slang until this comment

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Mr-Blackheart@reddit

Never had feathered hair, did have a rat tail or mullet though.

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ilikeaffection@reddit

After Mark Hamill it just couldn't have been improved upon, so innovation was needed.

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VWBug5000@reddit

I’m pretty sure Mark Hamill’s hair came in 2nd to Jeff Conaway’s hair in Taxi

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sarcastic_sybarite83@reddit

Did you forget the Farrah Fawcett wings?

gif

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Still_Strawberry8134@reddit

More layered/textured than feathered I suppose, but I distinctly recall spending a stupid amount of money trying to get the cute flippy-out style that Chloe on Smallville (I’m absolutely attributing it to the character and not the actor in this case, because ew) wore, until it became obvious that I have thin sad flat straight hair that laughs in the face of curling irons and styling products. The shag cut was cute though.

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VWBug5000@reddit

Well crap… I hadn’t even considered all the women with feathered hair. Jeff’s hair was still pretty close though

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twistedpiggies@reddit

https://share.google/images/7fINP9iRF7CgaqaAS

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hurtloam@reddit

I hear you, but also... James Spader was peak feathered hair.

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0dayssince@reddit

Back when he had hair. He was so hot.

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hurtloam@reddit

He still is. He's grown his hair out and has a Santa beard in 2025, but his eyes still smoulder

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Boetheus@reddit

A long time ago, in a salon far, far away...

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cadillacking3@reddit

Shaun Cassidy pulled it off well for sure.

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280EastBroad@reddit

Um… my idols didn’t look like John Denver. They looked grungy.

But then again, I looked like a homeless Backstreet boy cause that’s what the girls liked. (The Backstreet part)

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SatoshiBlockamoto@reddit

LoL my aunt and father in law both have this haircut to this day. She's a lesbian and looks EXACTLY like John Denver.

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Wicked-elixir@reddit

I just want you to look like Layne Staley with the dreads.

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mammajess@reddit

Mmmm sexy homeless Backstreet Boy lol

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carrierael77@reddit

gif

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daniegirl21@reddit

I don’t think we let it. It grew into the more voluminous feathered hairstyle with big bangs of the eighties.

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DerpDerp-420@reddit

Because I kept waking up looking like Gumby damnit..

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Negative-Wrap95@reddit

gif

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DerpDerp-420@reddit

HaHa h that's right!

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6of1HalfDozen@reddit

When the generation before you is doing ABC, you do not A, B, or C.

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mareimbrium53@reddit

This is it. There's nothing wrong with this hairstyle, but when you grow up seeing it you want to try something different.

Frankly some of the hairstyles we had as kids were objectionable, the mullet for example I was never a fan of.

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LangdonAlg3r@reddit

Gen Z seems to like those awful 70’s mustaches for some reason too.

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thelaineybelle@reddit

And those weird glasses from the 70s. My Boomer Dad (76 years old) thinks it's hilarious his old glasses are fashionable again.

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Suspicious-Yard4205@reddit

Do you mean these? I had them in elementary school and I hated them so much.

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

Some Millennials did that look, ironically.

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LangdonAlg3r@reddit

Yeah, but I think Gen Z does it unironically. They’re kind of humorless in my experience. I think that Gen X and Millennials and us betweeners are the only ones who really do/did things ironically. I think the boomers are too self absorbed to be ironic, whereas I think Gen Z is too self-serious.

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balding_git@reddit

i couldnt take my eyes off this guy's magnificent stache during the world series

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LangdonAlg3r@reddit

In profile that’s like full on Freddy Mercury—which I’m more ok with.

This guy has the current most epic baseball mustache:

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gr33nnight@reddit

Everyone should want to look like Magnum PI.

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anjowoq@reddit

But many look like Magnum CP.

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LangdonAlg3r@reddit

The ones I see look less like Magnum P. I. and more like David Wooderson.

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Rdubya291@reddit

Or the rat tail.

Yes. I had a rat tail.

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sirdrumalot@reddit

Bowl cut.

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2much4meeeeee@reddit

I HATED the mullet but my kid decided to go for it about 5 years ago. I was actually disappointed to see it go when he got rid of it! It definitely grew on me.

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Tylerdurden389@reddit

Grew on him too (until it didn't).

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4vinoniv4@reddit

CAKE DAY! AHHHHH HAPPY

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Combatical@reddit

My friend group seems to have hit the phase of talking shit about new generations and I feel like a fucking broken record saying variations of this to them. The shit we did looked ridiculous too but in the moment the only thing that mattered was being different from the olds.

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ezmoney98@reddit

What if it's easy as 123?

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buderooski89@reddit

Or Do Re Me

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Joeliosis@reddit

gif

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Brewmeister83@reddit

gif

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Hellie1028@reddit

Socks are the perfect example of this. Every other generation rotates from short to tall socks and back again.

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

Generation before me had thick mustaches and wore Members Only jackets. I do the same. And piss on the guy at the skating rink who doesn’t want me hanging around there.

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catsdelicacy@reddit

Yep!

So that generation is up on some DEF shit, and the next generation is like, that DEF stuff is garbage, why did you guys stop doing ABC?

And around and around we go!

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Phortieteaux@reddit

Always be combin’

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BathZealousideal1456@reddit

Gen Z has completely destroyed the pattern and we have ascended into chaos

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smallmoth@reddit

Yeah. And it also looks doofy

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ARazorbacks@reddit

Probably the best answer here.

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plotholesandpotholes@reddit

Because that is a lot of fucking work and I ain't got time for that. Even when I was a child. The bowl cut was the closest but that was it. I like it short, get off my lawn!

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oriaven@reddit

That's the thing with style, it keeps changing.

But individuals find their taste and don't always keep up with the style as it changes.

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Ill-Jellyfish3123@reddit

Justin Bieber ruined it for everyone

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SimpleVegetable5715@reddit

I really hate the blunt iron straightened hair. I’ve always preferred layers, texture, and volume. You do what you like.

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whistleridge@reddit

If you had naturally curly hair, you hated this look with the fury of a thousand suns. Not to mention, it took a LOT of time and effort to achieve on a daily basis.

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karatechop97@reddit

I never figured out how you achieved it.

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whistleridge@reddit

I personally never did, and never tried. But I watched a good friend spend 1-2 hours daily setting and maintaining it, while of course acting the whole time like he did no such thing. It always looked like a real chore.

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karatechop97@reddit

I assume there is a lot of blow drying involved.

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whistleridge@reddit

Indeed there was. And hairspray. And constantly running to the bathroom to check it.

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12awr@reddit

And pocket combs! My dad and his friends would randomly pull out a comb just to make sure it feathered right.

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

This is why our parents all had blow dryers and used them constantly. None of our styles until this millennium would have benefited from a hair dryer.

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Striking-Access-236@reddit

I blame the lack of hair on my scalp...

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Cutthechitchata-hole@reddit

Aka the Taming of the sideburns

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epidemicsaints@reddit

Do you like looking like your parents as a teenager?

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SnooMarzipans5706@reddit

My dad still basically has this haircut, just shorter.

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DoctorJiveTurkey@reddit

gif

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Mail_Order_Lutefisk@reddit

My dad and I have pretty much always had the same haircut with the exception of 1987 when I temporarily had a Bosworth style cut.

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Adventurous-Sky9359@reddit

No one has time to blow dry ?

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chainmailler2001@reddit

Gotta have hair to keep a style...

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WatermelonMachete43@reddit

It was a lot of work, lol

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summerlea1@reddit

Because we had spike haircuts and rat tails.

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Sodamyte@reddit

Mostly so you young punks could still have an O zone layer. Do you even know how much hairspray the feather look needed to maintain?

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bibibethy@reddit

Exactly. Nobody can afford that much hairspray in this economy.

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Intelligent_Cap9706@reddit

My thoughts exactly. An ounce of humidity in the air and forget it for most of us

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VeniceDrumGuy@reddit

So bring it back, what’s stopping you?

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BossRoss84@reddit

Dad, go to bed! You’re tying up the phone line with your questions and I want to play doom with my friends!

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ConsistentRepeat3048@reddit

We didn't, the hair died out not the cut.

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kenadams_the@reddit

Because of the sweaty forehead. I hated it.

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

Ehn. With covid I just let any haircut die out.

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LittleSubject9904@reddit

Cause we find it really dorky. Sorry.

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dadjokes502@reddit

Toxic masculinity got in the way

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phinphis@reddit

Who wants to use blow dryers?

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

It was miserable for those us that are neurodivergent, too.

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the_kid1234@reddit

Instead of this style why don’t you bring back spiked and frosted tips?

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chipsandchill00@reddit

Praying for a frosted tip comeback. We’ve made it though mullets and bowl cuts. It’s time 😆

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

I lack the follicular coverage to do it anymore, but if I had it, I’m for it. It was so easy to do and your scalp didn’t overheat.

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catsdelicacy@reddit

I am seeing a lot of jeans with 1 inch rises again.

Ha ha young women. Ha ha.

Which means of course:

The tramp stamp will return!!!!

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chipsandchill00@reddit

Lmao god help us

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slappy_mcslapenstein@reddit

The 90s chunky highlights are already back. Frosted tips will be next.

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RepresentativeRun71@reddit

I need a haircut since I’m rocking a 70’s fluff look right now. Considering that at 45 I still have a full head of hair spiked tops might be the play. Eventually when I get a bunch of gray hair I’ll go with neon green, blue, or yellow dyed highlights.

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A_Girl_Has_No_Name58@reddit

Oooh… lest we not forget the crown rolls and butterfly clips while we’re at it.

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Leading-Summer-4724@reddit

Dude I have all my butterfly clips saved, and I am so ready!

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andiinAms@reddit

Ohhh chunky highlights with zigzag parts?

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Constant_Concert_936@reddit

Straight skipping the chili bowl era? Probably wise tbf.

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Adrasteia-One@reddit

gif

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BathZealousideal1456@reddit

Oh God, please, no not that one

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nothingshort@reddit

100%

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canisdirusarctos@reddit

Because this is what our parents looked like in all their old pictures from the 1970s.

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khatpewp@reddit

Who is this guy?

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Important_Wheel_2101@reddit

Because it’s gay as hell

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ElectricRune@reddit

I always tried to do this, but my bangs would never behave; I'd get it all feathered just right, and the first hint of humidity would make it curl the opposite way. Had to give it up around 9th grade.

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gaarkat@reddit

I dunno but thank the gods it did, I always thought it looked awful.

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TwoDudesAtPPC@reddit

Crap I need a haircut. This is me right now.

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Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit

My older step brother had that exact haircut back in the 80s.

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Ok-Potato-4774@reddit

What's crazy to me is seeing Gen Z revive the mullet and mustache look from the late '80s, along with the stonewashed jeans.

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eels-eels-eels@reddit

God damn it, I just realized I’m wearing an incredibly similar shirt.

Luckily I’m far too lazy to put that much effort into my hair, at least.

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MsJenX@reddit

What style happened after this? Was it the big chola bang?

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SatisfactionActive86@reddit

i love how this is called “feathered” instead of some malicious name like “bird nest head”, like we do to GenZ

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Unit-235@reddit

Look at it.

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GalacticBonerweasel@reddit

That’s because it looks ridiculous.

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texan01@reddit

Because it was a terribly dated style by the mid 80s.

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Constant_Concert_936@reddit

Still looks outrageously dated to my eyes. Is this how our parents felt when they saw our Gen rocking grease’d up 50’s hair cuts in the early 20-teens?!

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HuckleberryHappy6524@reddit

It also looks sloppy. This is coming from a guy who fully embraced grunge style.

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Corn_Beefies@reddit

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plantverdant@reddit

Why is your generation letting the side part die out? Same reason.

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guyincognito121@reddit

Just saw it on my wife's cousin last Thursday. Sounds like you guys need to spend more time in northern Wisconsin.

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MCA2142@reddit

Your wife’s cousin was rocking a Bieber cut. This post is about the David Cassidy cut.

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Wicked-elixir@reddit

Bc it was as ugly as the mullet.

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DrakonFyre@reddit

Because we needed to make way for the Jonathan Taylor Thomas haircut

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drawredraw@reddit

gif

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adam5280@reddit

This!!! It’s Disney’s fault.

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analogthought@reddit

It was replaced with the bowl cut and the rattail

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greaterwhiterwookiee@reddit

I can’t wait for the rat tail to come back

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magster823@reddit

I've seen a few lately.

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jupitergal23@reddit

I mean, look at that shitty haircut. It was the worst. No one wants to look like their parents.

We didn't LET it die out. We actively killed it because it was hideous.

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bloomdecay@reddit

For the same reason y'all are wearing middle parts that look good on basically no one. Because it's not whatever the previous generation was doing.

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AmputeeHandModel@reddit

Why did your generation let the feathered haircut exist?

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dtsjr@reddit

Because I’m bald as all get out. Give me some thick hair and I’ll Brady Bunch that shit up.

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RadTimeWizard@reddit

We didn't. We let it hang in front of our eyes like proper teenagers.

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taller2manos@reddit

Chlorofluorocarbons

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Physical-Name4836@reddit

Because nobody had parted their hair down the middle yet and we fucking rocked that shit.

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xRVAx@reddit

You have to understand 70s hair as transitional hair.

50s - buzz cut

60s -- just like the Beatles, everyone let their hair grow out longer and longer throughout the decade

70s - it keeps growing longer and longer a la tom Petty

80s - hair bands keep pushing the envelope of long hair sprayed ugly hair. The only way to push further is to get a start trimming parts of it. Mullet? Mohawk? Flock of Seagulls?

90s - Xennials decide hair bands suck and mullets suck. Just get a nice Dave grohl or Hanson mmm-bopp long straight hairdo and call it a day. Millennials cut if the hair even shorter and frost the tips and call it a Justin Timberlake. Eminem finally returns to the 1950s with a bleach blonde practically bald cut.

TLDR - It's a sine wave, starting with the 50s and ending with Eminem.

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greaterwhiterwookiee@reddit

Excellent synopsis.

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Salty-Tea6815@reddit

Umm… idk how old you think xennials are but nobody I knew in high school was rocking this haircut!!! Maybe one of the teachers, but def not any of the students!!

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carrierael77@reddit

gif

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greaterwhiterwookiee@reddit

It looks old AF personally. Hidden ears with that feathered hair is a KEY sign of 70s/early 80s.

I’ve never had a haircut where my ears were hidden and I once had nipples length hair (I’m a guy, calm down. I just said nipple).

Maybe I’m wrong with this? But it was mullet, spiked hair, bowl cut, Caesar cut, and then whatever the dapper hipster cut is I’ve had for almost 10 years now.

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pregnantandsober@reddit

Be the change you want to see in the world.

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basicalme@reddit

There’s a reason we went grunge and then minimalist in the 90s.

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Normal_Increase3691@reddit

Should I admit that this looks exactly like my hair right now?

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shoghon@reddit

Hair gel and Punk rock.

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FaceRockerMD@reddit

Every generation has an embarrassing haircut. See Gen Z and the broccoli cut

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SignificantApricot69@reddit

My hair was never that thin. Not even in my 40s. Feathering it would have been weird and huge. I got thinning scissors run through the middle of my head until my mid 30s

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bananapanqueques@reddit

We aren’t birds.

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ryguymcsly@reddit

No one had time for that shit. We had Boones Strawberry to drink by the airport

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karatechop97@reddit

I never understood how you even got it to look that way, or stay in place.

I also still gel my hair.

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Siphoneder@reddit

Gen Z is bringing back some of the worst styles from the 80s. Are bowl cuts making a come back as well?

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GlobbityGlook@reddit

Modern hair stylists won’t do a feathered haircut even if requested, so I suspect they aren’t trained for that. My last hair stylist said tapered, layered and feathered are “all the same thing”.

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cantwejustplaynice@reddit

It's always been an objectively terrible haircut. I'm nearly 50 and not once in my life have I seen a feathered cut on either a man or woman and thought it looked even a little ok. But thank you for finally telling me what the style was called so I have a name for it at least.

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ItsDarwinMan82@reddit

Listen, we welcomed in the rat-tail. Is that not ENOUGH?

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Defiant_Cookie_4963@reddit

I definitely still get mine feathered within an inch of its life Farrah Fawcett style

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malai556@reddit

My daughter got a “wolf cut” last year. I told our hair stylist she wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett. I was dying the whole time. She got exactly what she wanted, and it did look super cute. Just made me laugh.

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Actual_Appearance246@reddit

My daughter has one too. She wanted to look like Farrah Fawcett.

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Actual_Appearance246@reddit

Remember the flat top? Ooof 😅

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Sodamyte@reddit

I'm still rocking one today.

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BloodyPaleMoonlight@reddit

gif

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Few_Improvement_6357@reddit

We weren't into old fashioned things like you guys are. We lived in an era of rapid change and excitement. But it quickly became overwhelming and now you want simpler times.

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Useless_Knowledge420@reddit

Receding hairlines cured this look

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shinyviper@reddit

The Reagan years were rougher than you may have been led to believe. A bowl and pair of safety scissors worked when you couldn’t afford to feather your hair.

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OskeyBug@reddit

I had it when I was 4.

It's impossible to maintain through a full day unless you spray it to the point it serves as a helmet.

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scottwell50@reddit

Ran out of hair

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ailish@reddit

It was ugly. The current iteration isn't as bad, but it's still a hot mess.

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Character_Bend_5824@reddit

I have a "pretty theory". Masculine/ high testosterone guys can get away with pretty affectations, but pretty guys cannot. "Wifebeaters" (tanks), for instance. It looks good on a tough dude, but looks absolutely feminine on a pretty guy. Same with hair. Tough dudes can handle Farrah hair, but pretty men are not helped by fluffy hair.

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Coakis@reddit

I think you got the wrong Gen blaming this for.

Also If knew the amount of hairspray that was used for certain styles, and how much it probably contributed to the hole in the ozone, you'd understand.

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Careless_Lion_3817@reddit

You can always bring it back

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ExternalGiraffe9631@reddit

Aerosol hair spray became the enemy. 1990s: The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, led to a phase-out of aerosol sprays containing CFCs in the United States.

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slappy_mcslapenstein@reddit

If you think it's nice and you want to do it, then do it. It's your hair. But to answer your question, it's awful.

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NW_Forester@reddit

Because we were a combination of latchkey kids that were signed up for every extracurricular to make your college application stand out. We didn't have time for things like fancy haircuts. We had to work a part time job, play 2 school sports, have 5 clubs and volunteer, while our parents would get home at 6.

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WhatTheCluck802@reddit

It was our duty to bestow the glory of the mullet upon the world.

You’re welcome.

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CallidoraBlack@reddit

Watch That 70s Show.

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yayoffbalance@reddit

too much hairspray and CFCs, i'd assume?

Kidding. I'm xennial, but my parents were young. my dad got perms in the mid/late 80s. lol.

and who, my friend, is to stop you from bringing this style back??? Be the change you want to see in the world, friend!

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Equal_Question_4594@reddit

I don’t think our generation let it die out; I think our parents did since they were the ones in charge of how our hair was cut and styled as kids. By the time we were old enough to make our own hair decisions, the general style trends had changed.

That aside, I also like this style and have been trying recently to get my hairdresser to give me a cut like this. I’d love for 70s and 80s hair to come back.

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