80s Meme, or Show Us Your 80s Hair!!

Sharon and I were talking about the 80s the other day, and talked about having a day when we post pictures of our embarrassing 80s hairstyles. We decided to do it this Friday, and she came up with this great meme about it too! Here it is:

Peg your Z.Cavarricis, clutch that industrial size can of Aqua Net, and raise that lighter to the tune of a power ballad. Gnarley! We are going 80s today, people! Show us your 80s hair!

Here are the rules:
1.Expand on the questions as much as you can. It makes it more fun for the rest of us.
2.Show us your hair, whether it be preppy or skyscraper bangs. Post some photos and make it fun. We promise not to laugh, we have them too!
3. If you get the meme from a blog, leave a comment on that person's blog so they can see your responses.
4. Post links to any videos from www.youtube.com to your blog that help you and your readers to relive the 80s.
5. Party like it's 1999.

We are so stoked to see your responses.
Post your 80s hair here!

Optional soundtrack:

OK, here are my 80s hair pictures:

Sophomore year of high school class picture (circa 1987)

I think I get extra points for that picture because not only was I rockin' the 80s hair, I also was wearing a Z. Cavaricci sweatshirt bought from, I believe, that popular 80s retail chain "Merry Go Round" and stonewashed Guess jeans, skin tight and zipped at the ankles. I believe they were size 26 (0?) if I'm not mistaken, too.

Senior year class pictures (1989) - what was with these cheesy poses??!!??

I didn't knit then, so I didn't make the sweater, but I think my obsession with sweaters started in high school. I saved up my money from my after-school and weekend jobs and bought Liz Claiborne sweaters and purses and had a rainbow of Guess jeans. My friend Monica also actually borrowed the sweater I'm wearing in my class picture and wore it for hers as well!

Here's an embarrassing prom picture. WTF was I thinking? I went a *little* crazy with the tanning before prom here and I refused to wear an actual prom dress. I get double points on this one too because my boyfriend at the time also had 80s hair. The caption on it says "Open Arms (alluding to the sappy Journey tune) Prom 1990".

Here's another dance picture - I agreed to go to this dance with Monica's cousin Wally, who had a big crush on me and also had a mullet going on, I notice now. What was I wearing, a green trash bag??

The hilarious thing is it took me a while to give up the 80s hair and I had a version of it (the SPIRAL PERM, and big BANGS) all the way through undergrad college graduation in 1994

through later that year in 1994 when I was rehearsing for my first (farcical) wedding, pictured here with my dad, who looks oh-so-thrilled to be going through these motions. Who was I trying to be in this picture? Clearly some sort of second-rate spokesmodel or something! Crazy!

I have one more picture to share - not of me - but it's kind of a picture of an 80s era star. Sort of. Well, someone dressed up as that star for Halloween. I'm sure you can look closely and figure out who was showing off the sexy legs (and stuffed bra)!! Yep- Jim! This is circa late 80s, when he dressed up for Halloween at work (the bank where we both met), posing in front of the old cubicles they had then. What a scream!

Well, after all of that, the questions may seem anticlimactic, but here they are! I am going to skip the ones I'm not sure about, but I'll try my best!

Here are the questions:

1. Preppy or Rocker
Kind of a bit of both - I was a preppy who dated the rockers

2. Z Cavarricis or Guess Jeans and Espirit or Benetton?
Z Cavariccis and Guess Jeans - not much Esprit and Benetton

2. Favorite Pop song of the 80s
Hmmm. I have to say "I Melt with You".

3. Most Annoying Pop song of the 80s
Anything by Huey Lewis, I think. "I Want a New Drug" is standing out right now.

4. Hair Metal or Heavy Metal- Who was your favorite performer and favorite song?
I actually liked Whitesnake. Skanky, I know!

5. What posters were on your bedroom wall or college dorm room?
My mom didn't allow me to hang posters, but they probably would have been of Duran Duran, because I remember reading those Tiger Beat magazines and drooling over Nick Rhodes and Simon Le Bon.

6. What concerts do you remember most from the 80s?
I wasn't allowed to attend any!!! I used to go to these juice bar/teen dance get-togethers though - basically bars with a teen night on Sunday nights, usually. No one over 19 was allowed in, and my friends and I used to LOVE to lay out tanning all day in the summer time, spray our hair with Aqua Net and put on our shortest miniskirts, and have one of our moms drive us all to the latest teen hangout and pick us up later. No booze or anything was allowed, but I had one friend that would sneak it in, in her purse. We were baaaad girls. I used to collect phone numbers and rarely did I date one guy exclusively in high school. I was never the girl in high school that had the long term relationship.

7. Favorite 80s movies
Not very original. My mom (again) didn't allow me to see anything R rated at home on cable, until I was officially 17, but I would watch the cleaned-up versions of Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, etc. I only got to see the real uncut versions at my friends houses when I slept overnight over there. Yet my mom would think nothing of my friends and I deciding to go "running" at 3 am when they slept over at my house (our code for meeting boys and sneaking nasty stuff like peppermint Schnapps out of my dad's ancient liquor cabinet.)

8. Favorite 80s movie quotes
I'm so bad with movie quotes. How about a movie scene? I really liked the scene at the end in The Breakfast Club where Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson get together and she gives him one of her diamond earrings. I related to that scene in my teenage angst as I was always pushing the envelope with the guys I would date. People would not usually understand my choices as I was an A-student, honor roll, etc. but chose to date the wild ones.

9. Top 3 most memorable pop culture moments of the 80s for you.
Not sure I can think of any. How about the whole Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Relax" neon T-shirts? Is that a pop culture moment? Or the Madonna dressalike thing?

10. Favorite 80s cartoon
Hmmm. Not sure on this one.

11. Favorite 80s commercials
I'm bad with the TV ones as I wasn't allowed to watch much and whenever I did I was told to go outside or clean something.

12. Boy George or Wham?
Wham, for sure. I loved George Michael.

13. Favorite one-hit wonder
Another tough one!! I'm sure everyone else will have great ones for this.

14. INXS or Depeche Mode
Depeche Mode for sure!! I liked INXS too, but Depeche Mode was the best. I still listen to their music and love it - it's "high energy, drinking lots of caffeine and sewing" music for me.

15. Poison or Warrant
Poison. I wasn't crazy about either one though.

16. Did you ever meet a rocker or 80's pop icon? Where were you?
Dennis DeYoung of Styx. I think he was already playing "fests" (a/k/a carnivals) in our area by the time I was a teenager, and he was originally from the Chicago area so he did a lot of them around here.

17. Snap bracelets or Jelly bracelets?
I didn't wear either one, but I think I saw more of the jelly bracelets on people.

18. Fess up. Who had the garden weasel bangs? Did you ever measure your wall o' Aqua Net love?
My friend Sandra used to have those bangs - my mom used to call it "Bird of Paradise" hair. My friend Monica would use this gel in her asymmetrical, short "new wave" hair that my mom swore was getting on our bathroom ceiling when she'd come over, because she would sort of whip it through her hair with a flourish (like she did/does everything) and it would fly around the bathroom. Then my mom would yell at me later about gel being on the light fixtures above the mirror.

19. Favorite 80s sitcom
The Brady Bunch (but I think they were reruns by that point)

20. Is Jon Bon Jovi still hot or what?
I was never that into him. Monica had a boyfriend who used to sing all his songs, earnestly and intensely, in a Guatemalan accent and it kind of ruined it for me.

21. "Double Dare" or "You Can't Do That on Television"
I didn't watch a lot of TV (I was a sheltered child). I've heard of the second one?

22. Who was your favorite Brat Packer?
Oh, ROB LOWE. In St. Elmo's Fire or About Last Night. No question. Well, there IS Judd Nelson. I liked him too, but he wasn't in as many movies.

23. Jellies or Reebok Pumps
I had a pair of the clear jellies. I also had a goofy pair of gym shoes that had rubber high heels on them! Is that the same as the Reebok Pumps?

24. Favorite pizza parlor arcade game
Pac-Man or Space Invaders. I loved Atari and I played it alot at home. That was one thing my brother and I were allowed to do (with time limits - and if we said we were bored, we were told we would be GIVEN something to do, which was usually stuff like cleaning the bathrooms.)

25. Deep South "Good 'ol Boys" or "L.A. underground vigilantes wanted for a crime they didn't commit"
I don't know about Deep South!! I will have to google.

Comments

[adrienne]

O
M
G

Robin, HILARIOUS! I love that picture of Jim!!!!! LOL

[Sharon]

OMG Jim! Snort snort snort. That's the BEST! LOL. Loved the meme! Oh I am so with you on the Judd Nelson thing. sooooo hot...want to touch the toushie...awooooo!

Thanks for playing along with me!

[Kristina]

Oh, SO funny. I had a good laugh. But... I wonder... how is it you pulled off the 80's hair looking AMAZING, while the rest of us looked like dorks? I suppose that my braces didn't help things. :)

[Kristin]

That is my most favorite meme I have ever seen! Go Jim!

[Heather R]

Toooooo funny. I have a Depeche Mode and Whitesnake CD in my car right now. I love driving to that stuff!

[Debby]

This post could keep me going for weeks.

Your photos are totally awesome. I wish I had time today to post mine (crazy work day & week) -- I think I have my prom ones around somewhere. I was part of the preppy crowd, honors group, with a bob. But in my heart, I was and always will be New Wave. Just discovered a new to me Tears for Fears song the other day that I am playing over and over on my walkman-iPod. I also just bought the Starbucks New Wave CD -- lots of songs on there by groups I'd only heard about; they were so underground (at the time. Now they probably play them in the background of cholesterol medication commercials).

And have you seen Square Pegs on DVD? We're watching the episodes one at a time...we all knew SJP *before* SATC, when she was geeky like me. Loved Andrew McCarthy, and Wham, and Howard Jones.

Don't want to take up all the room in your comments, but thanks for making me smile today.

[Jeanine]

Does Jim know you posted that picture on your blog??? I totally enjoyed today's post. Thanks for sharing.

[Monica]

That was hysterical! LOL Your senior pictures turned out great though!! I had straight hair and decided that I just *had* to get a perm for mine. I looked like a total dork! Complete mistake, now no one from HS recognizes me. :)

Jim rockin' as ever!! That was the best! Thanks for making my Friday! LOL! :D

[Maureen]

Oh I remember hair days like those.
I have to work so hard now to try and get it to lay flat. To do my hair is a two hour process.

[stitchywitch]

I don't know, I kind of like the green prom dress - it's so shiny! I wanted big bags in the 80s, but it just wasn't happening with my hair, so I had hairspray in my eyes most of the time!

[Jenny]

Hilarious post! This was awesome. Jim is a trip. I'm totally stealing this one. (get it? TOTALLY!!) I love Jim's shawl. I think I had the same one. The Icelandic sweater was a MUST back then. Even in VA, where it was only under 40 degrees two weeks a year.

[Janeanne]

You could have poked your eyes out with those nails! Were they real?

[Janeanne]

You could have poked your eyes out with those nails! Were they real?

[Janeanne]

You could have poked your eyes out with those nails! Were they real?

[Janeanne]

You could have poked your eyes out with those nails! Were they real?

[Romi]

OMG! This brings back so many memories. The 80s were fun, but holy carp the styles were funny looking! :)

[Phyl]

Thank GAWD we were all in the 80's together. I'll post my pic and the meme.

[Rachel]

I never did the hair thing but some of your other answers had me laughing and fondly remembering that time!

[Knitters Delight]

Too hilarious! Seriously...lol for sure!

[Rene']

Wow! That brought back some memories!
My favorite concert was Prince (along with The Time)-
I also loved Depeche Mode (and still listen to them today).
I actually met Jon Bon Jovi back stage at a concert-that was a long time ago!!

[tiennie]

This post was so rad!

[knittymuggins]

That was *so* choice!!

I love love loved all your pics in this post! How cool is it that you were a bad girl? I was too much of a nerd and goody goody to have any photos like these - I only *wish* I was as cool as you ;) And how hot is Jim??????

Thanks for sharing Robin! What a fun post!

BTW: My parents did that thing too where if you said you were bored they'd *give* you something to do and it was never fun. I'm totally pulling that one back out if I ever have on of my own ;)

Have a fantastic weekend!!

[knittymuggins]

Oooooh - I forgot to mention that my best friend in high school had that same shiny green dress for junior prom one year! Too funny :)

[Zonda]

Ahh...the 80's memories! Hee, my hair was very similar to yours! Jim cracks me up!

[Kat]

Your post rocks like the 80's, Robin!!! I LOVED the 80's. Never even got rid of the hair LOL. Your comment about your "green trash bag" was hilarious--I almost choked on my coffee while reading it.

I'll have to hunt down my high school pic (that's the last time I had brown hair) and my college pic. Very 80's, very big hair. And I was damn proud of it :) . Would you believe it's only been 3 years ago that I gave up my Aquanet??? Aquanet is my all purpose spray. Not only does it seal hair in place, it freezes crawling bugs, takes down house flies, and performs the miraculous task of getting ink out of clothes (ask me how I know--when I was a sophomore in high school, my pen exploded on my sister's sweater (a present from her boyfriend). I did not ask her permission.

[Stacey_CrimsonPurl]

OMGosh Gurl!! You are killing me over here! LOL :oD

[Claire]

Holy crap those pictures are fantastic! As soon as all my boxes are unpacked, I'll break out my own collection of teased hair photos. Thanks for making my morning so great with this fun post!

[monica]

Totally awesome post! I burned all my 80's pictures.

[Michelle]

OMG! I had pretty much the same hair in 89 in my senior picts. too (just blonde!)! I can't find them to post them to blog! I'm guessing my mom has them somewhere! Somewhere I have some pictures with my bangs so high! My high school best friend and I used to try to see who could get their hair bigger!

[turtlegirl76]

Oh but you forgot to note the frosted pink lipstick in addition to the rockin' hair and Z. Cavaricci sweatshirt (nice). The lipstick puts it over the 80s top. Hee! You dressed (and had hair) just like my sister. I still tease her about that. Heh.