Teenaged Hair Memories

[shadowclaw]

The other night at work, I was talking with a coworker who is also a substitute teacher at a few local high schools. We were discussing gross finds in restaurant bathrooms over the years, and we moved to talking about high school bathrooms as well. We both had a lot of interesting tales to tell, but that's another story.

We eventually ended up talking about a teacher I had in high school, and I suddenly remembered some high school hair memories.

Memory # 1:

I was in radio club in 10th-12th grades. As my fiance likes to call it, it was a giant nerd fest where we did anthing that related to radio, tv, computers, and other electronics. It was awesome :D

Anway, the above-mentioned teacher of mine was the club advisor and he had a great love for long hair. He often complimented my hair and on this one occasion, he decided to come up behind me and start playing with my hair. While doing so, he said that he wished he had a brush, because he loved to brush long hair and missed doing so.

Pretty much everyone in the room gave him a really strange look, and one kid said, "You know, that's really creepy."

When my coworker heard my story, he had a very similar reaction. Most of you will probably think so, too. I, however, was not at all creeped out. If a stranger had done the same thing, I would have flipped out, but that teacher and I had a sort of father-daughter bond, I suppose. It was perfectly innocent and sincere display of admiration for my hair.

Memory # 2:

The same teacher from radio club long wanted a photo of me with my hair spread out in all its glory. I think I was in 11th grade when he finally got his wish. My hair was probably around the same length it is now. So at one meeting while we were taking a bunch of photos to submit to the yearbook, I laid on the floor and some other club members spread my hair all around my head and then the teacher took the picture. I have a copy... perhaps I'll scan it in a bit and post it. It was lots of fun having a bunch of teenaged guys fussing over my hair.

Memory # 3:

While on a bus trip in 10th grade to the Philadelphia Museum of Art with some fellow art students, a girl who I was just becoming friends with picked up a section of my hair and told me that it was "Mermaid Hair." For the rest of the school year, her friends and she were constantly trying to come up with a mermaid name for me. The one that they eventually settled on was Madison (after the mermaid in the movie Splash), but they could never come up with a suitable last name... although it was Wave for a while :p

[JCFantasy23]

Groans, I am trying to think of good hair memories like you have, I'm sure there are some, they're just not coming to me.

I remember getting this outstanding compliment when I was in 9th grade from a friend, and I took it to heart because I could tell she genuinely meant it and kept looking at me. She said I was very pretty and my hair was beautiful. I had been brushing it and it was looking decent that day. Just made me feel good, I rarely got compliments back then.

I do remember getting a short hair cut in fifth grade and it permed and everyones shocked expression when I walked into class. Not exactly a teen memory there I guess...

[Elistariel]

I wish I did, but back in high school I lived with my grandparents and what grandmother said pretty much went. That and with my ADD it wasn't too hard to talk me into horrible hair.

I guess I do have one. It's called graduating high school at 17 and moving to my own place at 18, I got to grow my hair out finally. :D
Granted I soon fubared it with sun-in and had to cut it again, but oh well.

[wavywords]

I just remember frizz. Lots and lots of frizz. And that it was the 80s. The 80s+frizz=interesting hair. :D

[spidermom]

I've done my very best to forget that I had teenage years. It was nice looking in on your memories, though.

[bgarrison]

I've done my very best to forget that I had teenage years. It was nice looking in on your memories, though.

LOL! Me too, mostly, but they keep sneaking back up on me.

I remember getting a perm because I wanted curly hair, and after perming the stylist finished it into a helmet head shape. Thought I would die--- not a cool look for junior high.

After washing it and realizing it the smooth would turn into frizz, I was happier, but the growing out was hell. Imagine straight straight roots, followed by burned frizz. :( Bandannas were my best friends.

[Presto]

My hair has always been curly. My mother has pretty straight hair, 1c/2a that she brushed as straight as she could get it, so she never knew what to do to my hair. Curly hair just doesn't respond well to being treated like straight hair.

In middle school several kids nicknamed me 'Afrowoman'.

In high school it was just bad, and I was always trying to fluff it up on top since it stuck out so far on the sides. Once in the hallway at school I was fluffing it and two girls walked by and groaned at me literally, and one said, "Honey, don't fluff it anymore!"

I guess after I graduated it started looking better since I hadn't cut since about my freshman year, and the length was taking the massive fluff out of it.
My boyfriend, when I was 19, picked a hat out of a dumpster and wore it. Later slapped it on my head too. Guess what, we both got lice.
The lice shampoo we used fried my hair, and I cut it all off one night in frustration. The next time I saw him it was dark, we were in my car. I flipped my hair around several times before he noticed.
He said the nicest thing anyone had ever said about my hair.

"Oh Rachel, your hair was long!" O.O

He was sad.


I may have to put up some photos of me with my really bad haircuts through the years. :lol:

[JamieLeigh]

I really didn't care for the stories you shared about your teacher touching your hair and wanting a photo of it. That's extremely creepy and sounds f*tishy. That was really inappropriate behavior for a teacher, IMHO. :eek:

....but the story about your friends and "Mermaid hair" is really cool. 8)

[Angela_Rose]

Most of my longhaired teenage memories involved getting one or both of my pigtail braids caught in the bell screws of my sousaphone. I was a band geek, and yes, I was a tuba player.

[GoddesJourney]

I didn't see my real hair color for about four years. I died it, then highlighted it. That got boring so I started bleaching sections and dying them all the crayola colors (not at the same time) except pink which I've always hated and purple that I just wasn't too into. I had all orange for awhile. Orange and black stripes, red with black spots, black with a blue chunk in the front and green on the side... it was a blast. Eventually my hair just stopped growing and it barely grew for about a year. I cut it off to APL and let it grow to about BSL, cut it off, let it grow etc. etc. The last chop was about 4 inches and I was so pleased to have all my own natural hair color back that I just never wanted to dye it again. I love how smooth my natural hair is. The funny thing is that everyone wanted to know what color(s) I used to get my natural hair color. Because my hair naturally has brown red, copper, black and blonde, many people didn't believe me that it was natural. That mix was also coincidently in style at the time so I was apparently fashionable for the first time in my life. Awesome and free.

[shadowclaw]

Granted I soon fubared it with sun-in and had to cut it again, but oh well.

Fubar is the most amusing word I have ever encountered... gotta love Kurt Russell in Tango & Cash. He's one person I didn't think I'd be learning new vocabulary from.


I've done my very best to forget that I had teenage years. It was nice looking in on your memories, though.

LoL, but sorry your teenaged years were unpleasant! I try to forget about all of my past boyfriends, especially the first one. He was... weird. And not in a good way. If only I had enough self-esteem to only date people worthwhile, but oh well. My fiance makes up for it.


Most of my longhaired teenage memories involved getting one or both of my pigtail braids caught in the bell screws of my sousaphone. I was a band geek, and yes, I was a tuba player.

Oh! My best friend played tuba in middle school! She actually brought it to and from school, too. Can you imagine a sixth grader hauling such a big thing?


I remember getting a perm because I wanted curly hair, and after perming the stylist finished it into a helmet head shape.

I wanted a perm so badly when I was in first grade. My best friend's mom at the time was a hair stylist and was going to do it for free, but then my told me that she would have to cut my hair shorter first. I still can't figure out why my mom insisted I needed a haircut before a perm, but it's for the better. I heard the word haircut and flipped out.

[Lamb]

I've done my very best to forget that I had teenage years.
This.
My haircare knowledge and choices were pretty much limited to a fine-tooth comb, a nylon brush, and whatever shampoo we had at home. :shudder:

[Eden Iris]

My mother and her stylist convinced me that a body wave was a good idea. The way I understood it, I would magically have wavy hair without having to put it in hot rollers every morning (I was 13 -- I was dumb!). Horrible poodle frizz. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing as it weaned me completely from any heat styling ever after. I started ignoring it and letting it do whatever it wanted.

[Islandgrrl]

When I was a sophomore in high school my mom's hairstylist asked me if I would be a hair model for him in a hair show he was attending. My mom though it would be a great idea and convinced me I should do it. Dutiful daughter that I am, I did.

:bigeyes:

He took my thick straight hip length reddish blonde hair (blunt cut at the ends and did I mention thick?) and did everything but color it. Washed, dried, crimped, braided, fried, lacquered and cut. C.U.T. As in layers and bangs (ick). At one point he had my entire head of hair crimped, with parts of it gathered in to little ponytails and wired (yes, wired) to stand up straight for about 8" before the hair "cascaded" into fluffy waterfalls of crimpy madness. That was the first "style" - the outrageous and creative stuff before the cutting part.

For the last part, he cut my hair to a length between my shoulders and my chin (buh-bye beautiful virgin hair!), shorter in back, asymmetrical - longer on one side than the other with the front tips just touching my collarbones. And straight-across too-short bangs. Blow dried until it was smooth as glass (which is quite an accomplishment considering my natural texture), sprayed it until I was Helmet-head Hildegarde.

Of course, I couldn't manage the "style" on my own after it was all said and done (I'm the President of the HairSpaz International club, don't you know?) so my mom took me to have it evened out and I ended up with a pixie.

Oh, the nightmares.

[friskybiznus]

I remember my best friend's sister giving us "hairdo's". She ended up teasing my hair into this mile-high bouffont thing. It was hideous and it took me forever to comb it out!! Can we say, "BREAKAGE"? Ugh!!

[MsBubbles]

Islandgrrl, that truly is a nightmare of a story! I'm so sorry you went through that.

Shadowclaw...mmyeahhhh. I think that teacher of yours was behaving inappropriately. Even if it was all innocent, he should never assume a student or a student's parent would take it that way!

I'm with Spidermom on the trying to forget teenage years thing. One such repressed memory for me was hearing from a mutual friend what another mutual friend said about me: "she's pretty but she needs to do something with her hair! I mean it just hangs there"... :rolleyes:. Oh really? Huh. I never noticed. Gaaaah.

[embee]

I had a boyfriend who loved to comb and brush my hair. He's the only person I ever allowed to do that (as a teen / grown up) other than my DD. I'm not a touchy-feely kind of person.

The teacher story is unusual but if the recipient of the attention doesn't have a funny-tummy-feeling but sees it as a friendly and flattering thing, who am I to judge. Admiring attention from a respected elder can be a Very Good Thing.

[Bellalalala]

My teenage hair was an angsty mess.

I was a goth girl, my hair was blue-black, and the bottom half was shaved off in an ill-advised attempt to minimize the volume.
It was gross.

[mbaker223]

I honestly don't want to offend you, but your stories about that teacher are really an exhibition of a line being crossed. What purpose could a full grown man have for wanting a picture of your hair and moreover wanting to BRUSH IT?

In my opinion, if the relationship really was innocent, then he wouldn't have focused on a specific and physical aspect of you and would have just liked everything about you as a real father would. I honestly think the man had a hair ******.

Okay moving on. In high school I was a rebel, very into the hip hop scene. I dyed my hair so many different colors, kept it short, and if it was even a little bit long I kept it in cornrows which were too tight and caused my hair to fall out.

No good hair memories in that time frame. Thank goodness I found all of you! My hair saviors!!

[Angela_Rose]

Oh! My best friend played tuba in middle school! She actually brought it to and from school, too. Can you imagine a sixth grader hauling such a big thing?

Certainly I can- I was a baritone horn player until the end of 6th grade and then I switched to the tuba. I've been playing for twelve or thirteen years.:cheese:

[dukkelisa]

When I was a teen, I had hair down to my knees. This was late 60's, early 70's. I remember washing it in strawberry shampoo that came in a gallon jug and you had to dilute it. I didn't take any special care of it, and at most, I braided it on windy days. My mother hated my long hair and strangers felt compelled to touch it, which all eventually edged me towards cutting it all off when I was 17.

As a child, my grandmother wanted me to look like Shirley Temple and when she got out the curling iron and end papers, I knew I was in for some hair frying. This curling iron was all metal that was heated on the gas stove! I hated those curls.

[Scarlett_O]

I chopped my bsl-length hair completely off into a pixie cut... by myself. And I'm not good at cutting hair.

I bleached my dark brown/practically black hair multiple times. But it never came out blonde. Just orange. I still kept trying though.

The last time I bleached it, after a couple of days I dyed it bright blue. I actually really liked it, but then the blue started to wash out and it turned green and I couldn't find a job with hair like that :(

[bgarrison]

My mother and her stylist convinced me that a body wave was a good idea. The way I understood it, I would magically have wavy hair without having to put it in hot rollers every morning (I was 13 -- I was dumb!). Horrible poodle frizz. In retrospect, it was probably a good thing as it weaned me completely from any heat styling ever after. I started ignoring it and letting it do whatever it wanted.

YES! This is what I expected/ wanted, but I also got horrible poodle frizz. What a great way to describe it and what a horrible memory, lol!!

[kwaniesiam]

Teenaged hair memories? Finding LHC and learning how to properly care for the hair I always wanted :D

Most of the pre-lhc hair memories were awful. Lots of chemical color, choppyness, broken hairs, and a frizzy fried mess :wail:

[Loviatar]

I dyed our bathroom purple once when I discovered dye :lol: Mom was not pleased.

I remember rocking hip length black hair when I was in my late teens, but I didnt take care of it and eventually I pixied it due to damage. (I used really crappy cheap-o black dye.)

Oh, and the first time I ever hennaed! Ha. I didnt know you should cover it. I let the mud dry on my head. I was in the shower for over an hour trying to get the dang stuff off.

[Niftytiffs]

Mmmm, teenage hair memories :D I remember dying it black once when it was shoulder length. I was at home on my own in the bathroom and the phone rang downstairs.....bingo, a black bathroom door, black banisters and black phone! oops!

I was also someone who succumbed to the dreaded perm. Looking back at it, it was a really good perm and my hair came out the other end in reasonable condition but I hated it!! I ended up getting my parents to buy me a hat to cover it with! I think that was when I started growing it the first time!

Tiffers

[Amara]

Hm... I had 'The Rachel'! LOL

[Speckla]

I was a teen in the late 80s and early 90s so it was ok to have big messy hair. My hair luck turned around one day when I discovered a curling iron and hairspray. Big bangs. :D

[Amraann]

I was not very nice to my hair during my teen years!
I was always using chemicals on it.
My mother was a cosmetologist so I had free run of a beauty salon!

[clairenewcastle]

I had very little hair in my teenage years (pixie cut) and even less sense when it came to looking after it. Not a time in my life I care to remember as regards my hair.

[WritingPrincess]

Teenaged hair memories? Finding LHC and learning how to properly care for the hair I always wanted :D

Me too. Except that I haven't actually changed a ton in my routine and I started thinking about dye for the first time AFTER joining TLHC. :lol:

[katydid317]

Grade 8, so when I was 13-14, I had waist length hair and I loved it. But nearing the end of that year I started feeling sort of punkish and I wanted a BIG change. First I started by cutting it into a chin length bob. Then right before grad I got a pixie cut and dyed it burgundy. The fall I was in grade 9 I shaved my head. I started by cutting it as short as I could then tried shaving it with a razor but that didn't work. Then I went to bed. In the morning when my mom saw it she sent me to the barber to have it properly buzzed. I think the longest it's been since then is where I am now. I was forever deciding to grow it long then losing patience and cutting it. I think I finally have the patience to get it back the way I used to have it.