Does anyone else have a LOT of trouble enjoying shows/movies set in the 80s because they can’t get the hair right?
Posted by saki4444@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 250 comments
I can’t watch anything set in the 80s with my happily oblivious millennial spouse because I won’t shut up about the hair.
Stylists seem to think that curls + a side part = 80s and I’m sorry but that just doesn’t cut it. 80s layers and/or feathering is needed and *bangs are an absolute non-negotiable must.*
I used to think it was never right because modern audiences just found true 80s hair to be too ugly. But nowadays a lot of 80s fashion, including some aspects of the hair, is coming back into style for better or for worse. So what’s their excuse now?
And the makers of period pieces love to tout how painstakingly researched and authentic everything is to their era. This stuff is in *living memory* people! Also hairpieces nowadays are really realistic, so it’s not like you need to convince the actors to commit to 80s hair.
Spare-Television4798@reddit
I never had bangs
reesesbigcup@reddit
Had the same problem with 50s shows in the 1970s-1980s. On MASH no one even tried to have 1950s hair, and BJ with that ridiculous handlebar moustache. Happy Days started ok but got stupid with Chachi and his 1980s hair.
Whut-The-Mel@reddit
Ohhhhh…Margaret’s hair on MASH. 🤣🤣🤣 Even as a kid watching, I knew it was so, so wrong.
Lollygator20@reddit
And Joanie's hair and makeup were dead-on 1980s. Hated it.
Adventurous-Fee-8158@reddit
Eff Chachi then, and now. Charles in Charge can piss off too.
Oxjrnine@reddit
Actually, I find the opposite. Most shows overdue the 80s look and forget just how normal the 80s looked.
Yes, a lot of high school girls had the big hair. And quite a few of the 30 year-old women had that short feathered hair. But a lot of movies are getting inspiration from prom photos or hairstyle books. If you go back and watch normal adult dramas from that time. You’ll notice that the main characters have fairly normal hair with a little bit of the 80s influence not the cartoon version or the super fashion forward version.
That’s why I really like the styling in the TV show The Americans. Because I felt it looked so much more like the real 80s I remember and not a cartoon version.
Go back and watch things like Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Moonlighting, Family Ties, Kramer vs Kramer, The Big Chill, Ordinary People, etc and the 80’s looks way more subtle.
puppiesbooksandmocha@reddit
Dude this was insightful
KittiesRule1968@reddit
I have the Big Chill soundtrack in a permanent spot in my CD carousel
AstridOnReddit@reddit
Scarecrow & Mrs King had some hideously awful 80s hair, makeup, and fashions (Francine, I’m looking at you). I love the show but honestly some episodes are hard to watch because of the hideousness. (And I watched when it originally aired.)
Round_Ad8947@reddit
Nah. My hair was not awesome either
leemcmb@reddit
Don't forget the perms.
StarPony-2077@reddit
So funny. My husband is always complaining about the clothes. They are usually just 'off'.
majorttom@reddit
The problem is the hair is always so smooth. There is no frizz. We did not have smooth silky hair in the 80's-unless it you had naturally straight hair.
Clembert-Hamlamp@reddit
TIL some people remember the 80s as more than a vague blur
Enlightened_Gardener@reddit
Those of us who were slightly younger. My blurry decade was the 90’s. Gosh I had fun ! At least I’m pretty sure I had fun, cos I can’t remember most of it 😂
Fluid-Engine3578@reddit
Also, very few people were actually wearing all that neon.
Enlightened_Gardener@reddit
I was in a cultural backwater (actually still am) and I can remember our local Target store had a rack of neon pink, green, and yellow t-shirts, tanks and tops. I got a neon yellow one, and a neon pink one - that would have been around ‘85 or ‘86.
But a massive beach culture here - which I think made a difference.
savorie@reddit
I wore the shit out of neon as a young girl. But yeah, I never saw it on adults... maybe just on swimsuits or athletic wear on the beach, but that was it. I grew up in near Miami Beach at the time.
PeterPunksNip@reddit
Yeah, I remember it more being "black, Chinese black" , like the Neon Judgement's song said. The name of the band says it all: if you weren't a preppie rich kid, wearing pastel and neon got you... judged 😝
CoatSure5943@reddit
I had short hair on the sides, longer curls on the top, but not big quite big hair. No mullet, but I did have a rat tail. When I grew my hair out, it was an asymmetrical curly bob. I also did some funky colors which got me voted “most punk” of my high school class. At least I didn’t have that stupid mall pouf.
DoesThisMate@reddit
Aqua Net doesn't exist anymore does it?
Subject_Spell_9799@reddit
It does, I bought some about 5 years ago
cjc4096@reddit
10 years for me. It's great for getting 3d prints to stick to the bed.
KittiesRule1968@reddit
It's why I, a bald man, buys it!
anselgrey@reddit
The formula is different
MeowMeowCollyer@reddit
It’s like film hair stylists don’t know anything about mousse, gel, and blow dryers. And, for all this « curtain bangs » nonsense, I’ve not once seen an influencer talk about how to feather hair.
Ps: I can’t watch Stranger Things. It’s not as authentic as people have convinced themselves it is.
savorie@reddit
Barb's styling and glasses in the first season was spot on, though. They chickened out after that.
ST0IC_@reddit
I did like stranger things, however I did go into it expecting it to be more authentically 80s than it actually is.
doobette@reddit
The first two seasons were close, but the last three...yikes.
CommanderSincler@reddit
Don't get me started on The Goldbergs. I think the only reason Wendi McClendon-Covey's hair looks mildly accurate is because she lived it and still knows all of her old tricks
KittiesRule1968@reddit
Yes! I'm class of 86, and a picky bastard, and it drives me nuts.
sly-3@reddit
Best I've seen recently is Freaky Tales, which lists 7 credited hairstylists.
Least_Data6924@reddit
I’ve tried to get that feathered wings center part cut and no stylist knows how to do it anymore
Icy-Mixture-995@reddit
80s hair was a little different in regions of the country, by age and social classes. I highly recommend the movie "Working Girl, " as a primer in social class hair and clothes dofferences in that time.
Almost nobody had Liberty Spikes outside the urban and industrial Northeast, for example. It was a club thing, and a Long Island thing, especially.
The mall perm could be found in high schools everywhere. Push the age up to college and first jobs in the white collar sector, and the mall hair disappeared as "Dynasty" and Beauty Queen Hair arrived. Big hair but more smoothe.
Oxjrnine@reddit
Yes, sometimes modern movies when they try to depict the 80s use a little bit too much Dynasty with the extreme over the top styling, when the reality was that most wealthy people were dressing and things like Calvin Klein, Halston, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karen. etc.
McGruffin@reddit
I just got done Watching Freaks and Geeks again. They got the hair and clothes spot on.
Lollygator20@reddit
Late 70s = big feathers (Farrah, Suzanne Somers, etc.)
Early 80s = small feathers, tight curls (see Heather Locklear and Emma Samms in Dynasty)
Mid-late 80s = tousled spiral curls, side parts, volume (think Desperately Seeking Susan, Heart's "These Dreams" video)
DcubedWY@reddit
I had bangs, middle part and feathered sides, but no layers. I also never used hair spray, teased my hair or blew it dry upside down. I was lazy, so no ‘big hair’ and I’m ever so glad, lol. I’ve never cringed at old pictures. I don’t really like movies done with the big hair as a flashback even it’s somewhat authentic.
MusicalMerlin1973@reddit
TBH I wasn’t paying attention to hair styles in the 80s. I was too busy fighting my hair trying to keep it from being fuzzy. And failing. My primary and secondary educational career saw me being the butt of so much teasing and bullying. The amount of conditioner I left in my hair trying to get it to lay down would have kept Rhode Island supplied for a year. Thankfully my wife’s (and now my!) hair stylist suggested just a little bit of oil, scruff it up and done. No comb. Just enough length for curls. That and keep it cut every 5 weeks.
Juanfartez@reddit
My mom used to complain about movies and shows about the 1950s having everyone in poodle skirts and greaser hairdoos. I turned into my mom during season 3 of Stranger Things Halloween party episode. Nobody ran around cosplay costume every popular movie. We were all lucky yo have garbage bag plastic costumes with the hard plastic mask or Charlie Brown ghost sheets.
AmazedAtTheWorld@reddit
A thermoformed plastic mask that cracked at the mouth hole or the staple for the rubber band accompanied by a white vinyl poncho with large colorful logotype of your chosen animated series.
RedLily08@reddit
No because it's just a movie not real life
OtakuTacos@reddit
Subject_Spell_9799@reddit
The hair never looks bad enough. Real 80s hair was rough! On the same note I used to HATE movies made in the 80s set prior to 1960 as they actors always had 80s hair! They would be dressed in 1960s clothes but still have 80s hair. Dirty Dancing is a perfect example- most of the women’s hairy styles looked like modified 80 s hair.
Sir_midi@reddit
Happy days is a perfect example as well. Remember Chachi’s feathered hair with a part in the middle?
Fast_Satisfaction484@reddit
I’m general I hate that a lot of shows try to hard. The stereotypes, including the hair, but mostly they just suck which is why I struggle to enjoy them.
DCLascelle@reddit
No.
MuddyPig168@reddit
No…but I always detested hairdos like the mullets and Jeri curls.
madtownjeff@reddit
My guess is you have a recollection of a specific place and time that does not cover all of 80's style. I've worked with hair and make up artists and they are usually pretty thorough in their research.
EmployerUpstairs8044@reddit
I hate to say it, but not one younger person has been able to wrap their head around the hairstyle I was going for,I can't even get the same cut I had in the early 2000s unless I go to someone older than me. It's not even that complex 😬
madtownjeff@reddit
Are you doing the equivalent of asking an 80s stylist for a beehive?
EmployerUpstairs8044@reddit
No 🤣
madtownjeff@reddit
Just a hairstyle that was popular 20-25 years ago?
madtownjeff@reddit
I didn't make it clear but I am talking about TV/Movie/Theatre make up and hair artists.
HuckleberryRecent680@reddit
I agree. Your comment sums up my thoughts on the post.
From my perspective, a teen in the 70s, most girls tried to look "make-up free". But there absolutely were some who still wore blue eye shadow and teased their hair like in the late sixties.
There is no absolute, and respect should be given to the professionals in the field.
OhSusannah@reddit
It's true that I haven't seen rooster bangs on film (There's Something About Mary came accidentally close but that was not Aquanet). Nonetheless, I still enjoy the historically inaccurate movies and shows. I liked Stranger Things a lot even if all it got right was the bicycle riding, bulling and lack of supervision. I like Freaks and Geeks too, which got everything right and even had one episode where Sam feathers his hair.
tuesday__taylor@reddit
The first couple of seasons, Nancy’s school clothes were scarily accurate. I literally owned some of the clothes she wore, which were not stereotypical cartoony neon 80’s clothes.
remembertoread@reddit
There are few left who are trained in the old magic
AboveGroundPoolQueen@reddit
GLOW did a great job with the hair. But I agree most other shows do not!
I’ve always wondered if that’s because the show runners of today think the hair was so ugly and bad that modern viewers won’t watch.
Key_Street1637@reddit
I am STILL upset that we never got a proper ending to GLOW.
AboveGroundPoolQueen@reddit
Same! It’s a really good show. I wish it would come back!
LindaBelcher75@reddit
ME TOO!!!!!
roenaid@reddit
Pose was no where near how crusty hair and makeup from 80s looked. They all looked airbrush and current. Really took from it for me more than I expected.
Over_Cod8525@reddit
No.
NYC-WhWmn-ov50@reddit
Honestly, given the cringe I get when looking at my high school year book, I dont think they SHOULD try to 'get it right' to the actual styles cuz lets be honest, some of the crap we wore and did? Is utterly embarrassing. I mean, sometimes that hair just screams Mary, ya know? Not in a good way. and the shoulder pads than make a 90lb 6foot waif appear to be a line-backer?
We need to be honest with ourselves. We did not carry ANY of that off very well.
blackpony04@reddit
The late 80s were especially bad for hair and style in general. Both the high hair and oversized clothing really hid way too much.
I still prefer the 90s in practically every way just because of how different it was from the 80s.
mydoghank@reddit
I can’t watch 80s shows now. They are so hard to watch and the acting is so bad. What made me realize it is my teenager now has pointed out how cringy most of them are! I mean…just watch an episode of 90210. It’s so bad!😂
Zuri2o16@reddit
Nothing annoys me more than showing the 80s as women with crimped hair. I never met a single person who did that, and I even owned a crimping iron!
violentbowels@reddit
Crimping was fairly popular where I was. Most of the girls at school crimped at least some times.
AlaskaSerenity@reddit
Yeah, my mom got a crimper for my hair in the late 80s. Didn’t Debbie Gibson or someone do it and it became a fad?
diablette@reddit
Time to bring it back
AlaskaSerenity@reddit
The weird chemical smell of the hot crimper pads lives rent free in my head. 😅
doobette@reddit
My flat iron comes close to that smell, but you're right that the crimper one is distinct. 🤣
diablette@reddit
Pairs with the aroma of burning hair
Scarlett_Texas_Girl@reddit
I was born in 76, crimped hair was huge in Utah in the 80s, especially with various pony tail combos (half up, side, part crimped, part straight, big scrunchies, bows). My hair is naturally curly/wavy and held the crimp so well! I could never get feathered hair to work but I rocked the crimped look. Then early 90s alternative took over and I blow dried my long blonde hair straight with a center part and was mad my dad wouldn't let me dye it.
doobette@reddit
I loved my crimper and wore mine the same ways you described. Boston metro area.
Auntie_Venom@reddit
I did, in the late 80s. I’m 49 and grew up in Missouri. I didn’t do it all the time but it happened more often than it should have in jr. high.
EmployerUpstairs8044@reddit
I also did that. Burned BOTH SIDES of my arm with the crimper like a waffle iron which left a scar that still shows up if I get any sun.
CampClear@reddit
I'm almost 51 and I remember crimped hair was in style when I was in middle school. My mom wouldn't let me get a crimping iron :(
Pixelated_jpg@reddit
That’s specific to wherever you lived. Crimping was a massive trend. I remember thinking one girl was really edgy because she was the only person I’d never seen at school with crimped hair. Some people did it daily and some people did it rarely, but virtually everyone did it.
JosieZee@reddit
Crimping was for special occasions!! I would crimp my whole head and my hair was HUGE!! Still love big hair!!
DragonSmith2005@reddit
I had a crimp iron and my sister and I used it.
CardinaLiz4@reddit
Oh I crimped all the time back then. For real.
mspuffins@reddit
lol. my friend and i did it once, and went to the mall. ended up with a bunch of weirdos following us. never wore that style again!
egret_society@reddit
I did it. I actually did it again a few months ago for some thing or another. First time in about 30 years. It was a thing for goths until the 2000s
jenna125@reddit
No, but I have trouble watching movies that were actually made in the 80s. They are cringeworthy and disturbing in what was considered acceptable by the people in charge.
Listen-to-Mom@reddit
My gripe is the neon clothes. We didn’t wear neon … at all.
PeterPunksNip@reddit
We had some people who wore, say, one of these oversized neon jumpers (with leggings and legwarmers 😝), but they were rare. Most of us had dashes of neon here and there (remember neon yellow nail polish?), like a scarf or shoelaces.
OhSusannah@reddit
I wore neon. My Mom was so delighted when I stopped gravitating to black that she bought me shirts in traffic cone orange and lime green and Pepto Bismal pink. I wore them gleefully. I still wore black in the form of fingerless gloves like Madonna. But plenty of neon.
ALmommy1234@reddit
Yeah, we did. In fact, the only time my sister got sent to her room to change was because she was dressed from head to toe in neon.
Ok_Ad8249@reddit
The way they dress in these movies is ludicrous. It's clear producers looked at department store ads and assumed we dressed that way all the time
Did people wear neon? Yes, somebody (usually a girl) would own a couple neon shirts she would wear occasionally. Seeing someone in all neon was highly unusual and usually a special occasion like a school dance.
Parachute pants were worn by a few guys one or two days a week, and that whole fad lasted a year. I could usually count the number of parachute pants I'd see at school on one hand on any given day. The vast majority of people never owned a pair of parachute pants.
This goes for every other clothing style seen in TV and movies. Nobody dressed like that every day, most people owned a few 80s items but never dressed like that daily.
Pixelated_jpg@reddit
It was definitely not uncommon to see someone at my school in head to toe neon, often 2 alternating colors (eg. Yellow slouch socks, pink leggings, yellow long tshirt, pink cropped off-the shoulder sweatshirt, yellow scrunchie. Gummie bracelets and swatch watches could be either color)
tunaman808@reddit
You didn't. I didn't. Lotsa my classmates did.
trelene@reddit
I definitely wore articles of clothing that were neon in the 80s but the head to toe neon athleisure wear look... yeah, I don't think I ever saw that irl.
lokis2019@reddit
Yeah, they're confusing the early 90's with the eighties.
LuceLeakey@reddit
Lots of us wore neon where I went to high school in the late '80s.
Grand_Taste_8737@reddit
Never even thought about hair while watching a movie.
ConsequenceFeeling96@reddit
And nary a rat tail in sight!
butterflygardyn@reddit
The Americans is the only show that I thought got it right.
This happens every generation. I remember my parents hating Happy Days because of this same kind of thing why I was a little kid.
OhSusannah@reddit
Happy Days did make my Mom roll her eyes. Whenever I watched it she would sigh at all the wrongness. I didn't get why until That 70's Show was also wrong.
Anxious_Map_8022@reddit
No
MienaLovesCats@reddit
No; it doesn't bother me. Their were many different hairstyles in the 80s.
AlmostRosie@reddit
I simply can't enjoy Mandy and George's first wedding because of this.
CraftLass@reddit
It's not set in the 80s. Young Sheldon opens in fall of 1989, so even the show before it in the timeline barely has any 1980s at all. I haven't watched it much to say if they did okay 90s styling, but Mandy and George's starts in fall of 1994.
corinthluv@reddit
Your point probably still stands, but in case there was confusion, they're supposed to be around 96 in the second season. Maybe it's where I grew up, but during any given episode, I can guess the time frame based on some of the clothes that I either had growing up or my mom or older sister owned.
Travelchick8@reddit
Yes! No one on that show is dressed properly.
Historical_Bath_9854@reddit
Especially for Texas! My aunt was a hairdresser in the 80s in Texas, I was there😂🤣😂
Left_Guess@reddit
Did they really say in Texas the higher the hair, the closer to god? I remember that from 80’s high school lol.
restingbitchface2021@reddit
I moved to Texas in the early nineties. My hair touched the headliner in my car.
Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit
Because aerosol hairspray no longer exists. That's the main reason we will never have 100% accuracy.
Barnaby_Q_Fisticuffs@reddit
I used to get excellent lift/shape with pump hairspray and a blow dryer on low!
Sad-Reflection-3499@reddit
I assume you also used a curling iron?
rharper38@reddit
No one really wants to commit to small town 80s hair. My husband had a mullet that went halfway down his back. I had a curly mullet. You cant just fake that. And that is a problem
psiprez@reddit
It is ALWAYS the hair that gives it away!!
Maybe the main characters have wigs, but the support characters and extras don't. But no one wants to get feathered layers and razor cuts just for a show or movie.
OnlyDori@reddit
I dunno, that Wolf Cut looks a lot like a Mullet to me. 😃
EmployerUpstairs8044@reddit
Yep!
mikebills@reddit
I'm sure someone does
madame_de_la_luna@reddit
One thing I see a lot in newer shows which are supposed to take place in the 80s is women or girls with straight hair in a side ponytail. Side ponytails were not that common in the 80s, and straight hair was not in style.
AboveGroundPoolQueen@reddit
I wore a side ponytail with big tall bangs. I was a younger teen most of the time, but even in high school when I was a cheerleader, I would do that on occasion. For reference I graduated high school in 1989.
I do agree with you that it’s a little overused and it’s on obvious signal. They’re trying to make the character be in the 80s, but I do think it was worn. At least where I lived in Southern California.
EmployerUpstairs8044@reddit
I rocked a side pony 😁
CommanderSincler@reddit
There has to be some type of poof, crimp, curl or feather
Three3Jane@reddit
[singsongs]
Don't forget the perrrrrrm!
corinthluv@reddit
Oh, I definitely rocked the side ponytail... But with crimped hair. I thought I was the coolest girl around.
bsunwelcome@reddit
The Wedding Singer - Drew's straight flipped Bob is totally 90s, and her necklace (choker with big cabochon pendant) was not at all 80s either.
Ok_Coach466@reddit
I’m GenX, born in 75, and never once had bangs in the 80s.
platypusandpibble@reddit
You are so right! My friends and I (early to mid 80s had Farrah Fawcett hair, including the large feathering. We all used to walk around with brushes in our back pockets to ensure the hair stayed feathered.
battlesong1972@reddit
Honestly I’ve never thought about it
jackie-daytonuh@reddit
I’m a 74 baby, and I went to a private all girls school on the East Coast where straight long natural hair was the rage. No one had big hair or feathers, or used hair spray. My kids look at pics of me and get confused. Not everyone had the same look. We had a strict dress code and couldn’t even wear jeans. This country is diverse and has so many different subcultures. Your experience is not universal.
SCCAFVee@reddit
Under The Dome (the series) featured a girl who died in the 80s, then suddenly reappeared. She looked and spoke exactly like all the modern characters and was never surprised or asked any questions about all the modern technology that surrounded her. Not once.
Auntie_Venom@reddit
When we notice this on shows our go-to movie quote is:
“Billy, you are adapting to the oddity of time travel with the greatest of ease!”
Starfish_Symphony@reddit
80's for me was a flat top -and a shitload of Murray's Hair Pomade. Sometimes with some blue, sometimes red, even silver -but always sporting the flat top.
MakeupMama68@reddit
I was born in ‘68 and whenever I’m working on things that take place in the 80’s, I loan the hair department my yearbooks. That’s the only accurate representation of the era. Too many of them go to the internet or old fashion magazines for inspiration and they are all totally off.
It’s also regional as well. I lived in LA and my cousins lived in Buffalo. They were a few years behind us with hairstyles. These are the little details that really matter. Also the big hair didn’t really happen until the 2nd half of the decade and not everyone had it. Early 80’s was a lot of short hair and more new wave cuts.
ALmommy1234@reddit
Early 80’s where I lived was winged hair, short or long, with permed bi-level hair in the back. Mid to late 80’s was the big hair with the “perfect patch”. But, no on ever gets these hairstyles right. They all seem to want to make us caricatures of what we really were.
LuceLeakey@reddit
Yes this! The hair really varied a lot. I had a very short Annie Lennox pixie cut for a while, then I had a long permmed shag a few years later. And there were SO many mullets at my school.
MakeupMama68@reddit
In around 82 or 83 I chopped all my hair off and had the quasi she mullet with the sun in orange bangs 😆😆. Then I shaved the back off and had the long asymmetrical bang covering my left eye, 😆😆
kb_colas@reddit
Classic 🤙🏽
MakeupMama68@reddit
I miss the 80’s so much. I had the best time being a teen.
ImNot@reddit
Stranger Things is one of the few that got it right.
TC_Stock@reddit
I felt that stranger things did get quite a bit right about 80s culture and fashion anyways. I see too many modern films set in the 80s that look more like an 80s music video than what it was actually like.
Travelchick8@reddit
Only for the guts. Eleven gets a pass but Max did not have 80s hair.
Familiar_Rip_8871@reddit
Max definitely would have had a spiral perm.
dewihafta@reddit
No, no they didnt.
I flipped out when I saw the first school bus. Didnt that bother anyone else?
Status of disbelief=not suspensed
Krazeecatlady69@reddit
The one that really got it right, at least with the women's hair is The Fighter.
Those Boston women had crazy mall bangs!
Gluverty@reddit
It was brilliant. In a lesser directors hands those woman would be comical caricatures, but they kept the earnest personalities along with the fashion.
Ok_Kick6546@reddit
Have you been to Massachusetts lately? They still have them!
tunaman808@reddit
If you let that bother you, you'll never be able to let it go.
For example, everyone in Little House on the Prairie having 1970s hair instead of 1870s hair. Or all the 1970s hair in The Waltons, set in the 1930s and 1940s.
Cool-Field2450@reddit
What about Nelly? That was definitely NOT 1970s.
redcrow2010@reddit
MASH...not a military haircut in the whole series
wwaxwork@reddit
Can't imagine any of the main characters getting one except Colonel Potter.
atcshane@reddit
Well, if I was from the 1870s, id be pissed.
SCCAFVee@reddit
John Boy’s “Model A”MC Gremlin…
NateNMaxsRobot@reddit
OMG Mary’s hair when she cut it short. That was insidious.
wwaxwork@reddit
Also the lack of frizz.
dewihafta@reddit
Yes! Nobody knew how to really take care of curly hair then. Flyaways were the bane of my existence until i hopped on the hairspray train.
madsongstress@reddit
Drives me nuts too. What you had to do was have at least shoulder length hair, get a perm, then cut about 3-5 inch bangs on most of the top of your head. Get hold of a curling iron and curl the whole mess and fluff it out to the max using Sebastian Shaper hair spray, then those bangs....curl them BACKWARDS until it's basically a puff on top and tease and spray as high as possible. This was the style 1982-88 until everybody started to let go of the height and go for loose length like when grunge got going after the hair bands fizzled out. There weren't too many colors, it was all about VOLUME. I was there. If your hair even moved you failed.
What_the_mocha@reddit
Exactly it. I love looking at old school photos from yearbooks that people post online to be funny. And I think that took a lot of time and work to get that look. Respect!
Dogzillas_Mom@reddit
Aqua net, but yeah. This. You have to start with a layered, permed mullet.
OldBanjoFrog@reddit
I could not stand Stranger Things because of this. It seems like everything was taken out of a catalog
ImNot@reddit
I thought Stanger Things was the most realistic 80s I'd ever seen. I grew up in a small town and I remember everything looking like that! In 87/88, high school it got more white socks, guess jeans and Poison hair, but early 80s was Dorothy Hammil/Suzanne Summer hair
Perplexio76@reddit
The hair on Stranger Things felt more 70s to me than 80s.
luna_noir@reddit
To be fair, living in the early 80s was very like living in the 70s too.
DadBodZawa@reddit
Especially in a small town. Everything in a small town was always 5 years behind.
Perplexio76@reddit
Agreed, my hometown had a population of around 7.5k when I was growing up there in the 80s. It's since dropped to about 5.5k in the 30+ years since I went off to college in '95.
bagolaburgernesss@reddit
Same thing. For most suburbanites, the early 80 and late 70s cannot be differentiated. Back then trends took a long time to stick.
Fugue_State76@reddit
Early 80s in a small town
Fugue_State76@reddit
Same. The hair was so unnatural looking. Like they tried too hard and got it wrong.
Practical-Vanilla-41@reddit
ST makes me think of people using movies of the eighties as if that's really the way everything was. Sorry, they were fantasy, not reality.
ProfMooody@reddit
My wife is a millenial too, and one night I was high and we were talking about the 80s and K was trying to explain 80s hair culture, I used the phrase “blond was very important back then.”
They cackled, and it subsequently became a meme in our house, but it was true!!
wmnoe@reddit
I get more upset by anachronistic props/cars/everything else. I never look at hair
MinusGovernment@reddit
Just watch 80s movies and shows instead
Perplexio76@reddit
Go directly to the source-- stick with shows and movies set in the 80s that were actually made in the 80s.
There are plenty of 80s movies to choose from:
E.T.
Risky Business
Class
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Better Off Dead
Sixteen Candles
Ghostbusters
The Breakfast Club
Just One of the Guys
All the Right Moves
Back to the Future
St. Elmo's Fire
Space Camp
The Goonies
One Crazy Summer
Less Than Zero
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Lucas
Weird Science
Some Kind of Wonderful
About Last Night
Can't Buy Me Love
How I Got Into College
Ghostbusters 2
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Twitch-Weasel-51@reddit
Better Off Dead was THE BEST. But how could you leave out Pretty In Pink?
Perplexio76@reddit
There are so many great films from that era, I was bound to forget at least one.
atcshane@reddit
Well, if I was from the 1870s, id be pissed.
Sel2g5@reddit
It's because the actual 80s were brown and orange and not neon fluorescent yellows and blues.
South_Bumblebee7892@reddit
The 80s were mostly still the 70s til like '85.
bagolaburgernesss@reddit
Speak for yourself. I had florescent outfits circa 1984.
kb_colas@reddit
Yep
LuceLeakey@reddit
My parents living room was brown and orange, but lots of my clothes were neon and white.
LawrenceSpiveyR@reddit
They are going more for the "look" without them looking like idiots like we did in the 80s.
thisgirlnamedbree@reddit
I watch true crime shows, and for the most part, any reenactment isn't that great (except A Crime to Remember, they took great detail). Everyone looks too modern. Flat hair, no acid wash jeans, no pornstaches, and as a biracial person, they don't even try with black and brown people. But most of these shows are limited budget so they work with what they have. And the focus should be on the victim and how the killer is caught and punished.
JosZo@reddit
I always find the lack of smoking annoying. I really hated it then, and now it's like It's never been there.
tunaman808@reddit
Yeah, when ABC remade the BBC's Life on Mars (set in 1973) magically no one smoked.. in NYC.. in the early 1970s. And in ABC's original pilot, the female detective was liked and accepted by all, whereas in the BBC original the lady police officers were only good for fetching coffee and mopping up puke from the drunk tank.
Impedimentita@reddit
There was definitely a lot of smoking in the BBC version, I was jonesing through the whole series.
this_kitty68@reddit
I could do without smoking I movies and TV period. We all know people smoked, but it’s so distracting to me. All I can think about is how gross it smells and how disgusting their breath must be. There’s no reason to give everyone cancer to be authentic. A little hairspray is a different thing.
JosZo@reddit
They use fake cigarettes on set
Throttlechopper@reddit
I still can’t forgive Tarantino for not cutting out a ‘90’s era Econoline van from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a movie with easily 30 times the budget of most independent films.
Radiant-Target5758@reddit
Omg yes.
smuttybuddy84@reddit
This whole thread is just a humble brag about OPs younger wife.
ciciluca@reddit
let it go, let it goooo
VerityLGreen@reddit
What drives me nuts is when they use a song from the late 80s and it’s supposed to be the early or mid 80s. These were completely different musical eras lol
tunaman808@reddit
This is precisely with The Goldbergs mixed that shit up on purpose. They didn't want people like us nitpicking every 80s pop culture thing in the show.
For example, there's an episode where Adam and Erica go to the cinema for the opening day of Return of the Jedi (1983). Meanwhile, Beverly and Barry are at home discussing Madonna's Like a Virgin LP (1984), as Barry is wearing a "Bo Knows" shirt (1987).
Don't think about the New Kids on the Block episode. It'll hurt your head!
ancientastronaut2@reddit
I was looking through my yearbook recently and hadn't remembered just how prevalent the huge teased up hair was. I knew it was a thing, but on every page 95% of the girls had it. And yes most of it was curly as well (or permed). But I was not one of them! I had fine straight hair cut in a bob and only spiked up and teased my bangs.
In Jr high, everyone had the feathered look, but that trend had passed later in high school to make way for the big hair.
This of course was just my school in my suburban southern California school, so ymmv.
I haven't really felt the need to yell at a show for having variations. My cousins in a small town back east, for example, had more tame styles and didn't wear much makeup. When they came to visit, always thought it was ridiculous how much time my friends and I spent getting ready.
kb_colas@reddit
Exactly like this in Florida. Class of 91. I never wore my hair big either. A little curling iron and scrunch, but my yearbooks are off the chain with the big hair.
this_kitty68@reddit
I’m glad I’m not the only one. lol
Caverjen@reddit
I generally have that problem with period pieces regardless of time period since historical fashion is an interest of mine. One show that got it right is Dark. It's set in Germany and flashes back to 1986, which is when I spent some time in Germany, and they really nailed it
BetsyTacy@reddit
Deutschland 83 was really accurate too. There were outfits in that show that I'd totally forgotten existed.
SparksWood71@reddit
Agreed. That was a great show!
Bladley@reddit
It’s always been that way.
Aggressive_Cup4919@reddit
Ya don’t blame the stylists. Actors don’t want to cut their hair into short layers or perm it, and producers don’t want to pay for good wigs.
Source: I work in film as a makeup artist. We can’t even get actors to commit to proper period makeup and that’s something that washes off! Super annoying.
tunaman808@reddit
See also: the ending of Pretty in Pink. After the movie wrapped, Andrew McCarthy shaved his head to portray a soldier in a play in LA. But then, test audiences hated the original ending of the movie, when Andie and Duckie got together. So they reshot the ending. Of course, McCarthy had a terrible wig, and once you see it, you can't unsee it!
tigers692@reddit
To quote Harrison Ford “Hey kid, it ain't that kind of movie. If people are looking at your hair, we're all in big trouble.” :-)
CahabaL@reddit
Yeah, Mark!
Niven42@reddit
They need to watch some 80's movies, like Real Genius or Bachelor Party. Both of those get it right.
tunaman808@reddit
Sometimes. Hollywood never seemed to get punks right, even with Suburbia as a template. In most 80s movies, they always looked like a Party City version of "punks".
DoookieMaxx@reddit
In the 90’s we looked back at the 60’s and used allot of the styles from then. The glasses they wore, a lot of the clothes and a healthy chunk of 60’s attitude.
What we didn’t take, with a few exceptions, is the hairstyles. We did the long hair thing, but it felt like the hair styles were snatched from the 70’s more than the 60’s.
I agree though, with the movies …the absolute least they could do is accurate wigs. That’s annoying that they go lazy with hair in movies sometimes.
BMisterGenX@reddit
I feel like with hair and clothes they way they make it look in movies in TV shows depecting the 80s is the way the richest most popular people looked on a weekend going out on the town. Not the way average people looked on a typical Tuesday.
user_number_666@reddit
My favorite example of this are the movies Red Dragon(2002) and Manhunter(1986). They are adapted from the same novel, and both are set in the 1980s, but only Manhunter was actually shot in the 1980s and it shows.
PollutionZero@reddit
Most are okay, some drive me nuts. Stranger Things season 1 was damned near perfect (I think I wore all those clothes).
It gets me when they do something set in the 80s and it's all "80's fashion" like you'd see on MTV but never at your local mall.
_ism_@reddit
crunchy, damaged, overprocessed hair NOW!!!! authenticity people!!
Empty_Nestor@reddit
What about all the 70s shows that were set in the 50s and were full of 70s hairdos? This is hardly new.
danathepaina@reddit
I just started watching Rivals and I’m so mad at them. I can’t get into the show because the styling is SO WRONG.
Doc-Milsap@reddit
Yes. It’s just better to watch 80’s movies.
MaximumJones@reddit
They should all look like this
bippityboppitybooboo@reddit
Is her father Chewbacca??
MaximumJones@reddit
I can see the resemblance.
StereotypicallBarbie@reddit
Hairspray is not what it once was..
Inner-Confidence99@reddit
We don’t have the Aqua Net that you smelled all day at school. With the fried hair from the curling iron.
EntertainerNo4509@reddit
Omg. The hair is just stupid. They never get it even remotely correct. I think because they try using wigs.
lilspark112@reddit
This for me, but with makeup styling. Makeup styling always looks to me like the era it was filmed in vs the era the story takes place.
chrisgee@reddit
i keep thinking current hair stylists just can't believe the hair was really like that so they always tweak it in a more contemporary way. or that the actors refuse to get their hair destroyed by a home perm kit.
Fugue_State76@reddit
I’m looking forward to when Gen Z gets annoyed with how the alpaca hairstyle for boys is characterized by future generations in movies.
And mark my words: the side part for women will come back and this current ugly middle part style (which to me looks like 70s era Cher) will totally become cringe.
I may be in a wheelchair when it all happens but I will be here for it.
Terrible_Salt7906@reddit
I’m sure the actors don’t want to fry their hair with perms and bleach, get bangs, and cut short layers into their long hair.
To create those styles you need the foundation and I can see why people aren’t going to destroy their hair and commit to that for a role.
SouthernTrauma@reddit
90% of the hair you see in movies and on TV is a wig.
Br00klynBelle@reddit
I wouldn’t say that it gives me a LOT of trouble enjoying the shows, but it does irritate me. Erica’s hair on The Goldbergs drove me crazy because it was so FLAT!!!! They got Beverly’s hair and those busy sweaters so perfectly, yet Erica’s hair and wardrobe left so much to be desired when it came to 80’s style and fashion.
chawchat@reddit
I must say I really don't care.
MoonageDayscream@reddit
They always get the back of the hair wrong. It has to have cleavage in the back.
DeFiClark@reddit
One significant exception: Sing Street.
Caught the vibe of the mid 80s where trends shifted rapidly. And the hair was legit.
Does The Commitments count (1991) ?
MoarGnD@reddit
Sing Street is such a great movie! It just came back to Tubi recently. Been telling people to go watch it.
merkthejerk@reddit
r/no
bagolaburgernesss@reddit
I had the same problem in the 70s and 80s about the 50s.
YellowBreakfast@reddit
No. I get what they're going for.
I care less about "historical accuracy" than I do about the quality of the content.
LockieBalboa@reddit
Omg this. It drives me nuts
DadBodZawa@reddit
Meh. I'm more likely to be impressed when they get it right, than to let it ruin somthing for me.
But, maybe I just don't care enough about hair... don't get me started on medical/fire shows though.
tharesabeveragehere@reddit
Apparently Morgan Fairchild is no longer consulting on 80s hair standards.
The_ZombyWoof@reddit
That's my WIFE you're talking about
tharesabeveragehere@reddit
Welp...she's been married once, and he's been dead since 1967, so...
Beetleguise, Beetleguise, Beetleguise
gbr1976@reddit
https://i.redd.it/fxovptm0y42h1.gif
Agitated_House7523@reddit
I feel ya OP! My bf had bangs that she stuck straight up in the air with Dippety Do, and then hairspray. I myself had a very spikey mullet. (no wonder I couldn’t get a date) Crispy, spikey, fluffy and hair sprayed
Twizt1Up@reddit
80s Oklahoma locked in to the Hollywood hairstyle 💯. Whether a Cyndi Lauper lookalike, or Robert Smith from The Cure. All my friends jazzed up the hair with Aqua Net. I wasn't a fan, but I was a witness.
Pristine_Main_1224@reddit
The problem is the Aqua-Net, or lack of. Without that ozone-destroying hair lacquer you simply cannot achieve the appropriate height and crispiness of the ‘80s.
Leading-Summer-4724@reddit
This was my initial reaction as well. Hard to build the authentic Big Hair without the destruction of the ozone.
Mea-fae_Owl73@reddit
It used to but now they are more of a link yo nostalgia.
root_fifth_octave@reddit
Hadn't noticed. I am kind of a sucker for shows set in the 80s, though. The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire, Physical, etc.
Thirty_Helens_Agree@reddit
I’ll give you a counter example - there’s a stand-alone episode of Atlanta called The Goof Who Sat by the Door. It’s a fake documentary about the making of A Goofy Kocie. It includes fake archival video and photos, and the attention to detail is out-freaking-standing. The fake old photos look straight out of 1991.
Sympathyquiche@reddit
Hair definitely looked crispy back then. So much mousse, hair spray and back combing.
MsCattatude@reddit
Yes it drives me nuts and very wrong eyeglasses styles too!
Beautiful_Arm8364@reddit
Yeah. The only movie to ever get the hair remotely right was Friday Night Lights.
ricowoldt@reddit
Just to add - I think part of it is because of the shiny, glossy hair everyone has. No one went to the salon back then - it was all box dye and Suave shampoo.
mmpjd@reddit
It’s “whatever” to me