Last week I told my hair stylist that I wanted to update my look. My hair had grown past my shoulders, my bangs were long enough to be tucked behind my ears, and the highlights were turning brassy. My go-to style of choice is a ponytail, but since I’ll soon be turning forty-two I decided it’s time to look like a grown up.
I trust Cassie implicitly, and so I let her work her magic. Shoulder length hair, soft layers, bangs that swoop to the side, and a darker color with caramel and golden highlights. She spun the chair around so I could look in the mirror, and I was delighted with the outcome. Then, this sweet little twenty-something hair stylist said, in all sincerity, “Now, I am going to teach you how to use a curling iron!”
I about fell out of my chair laughing! “Honey, I was the queen of the curling iron long before you were ever born!”
One did not come of age during the 1980s without her right hand firmly gripped around a curling iron, and a bottle of Stiff Stuff hairspray in the left. I told Cassie how I used to curl my bangs with three curls forward, and one back. I would spray each curl with the Stiff Stuff while it was wrapped in the iron. I can still hear the sizzle and smell the incinerated hydrofluorocarbons. When all the curls were firmly in place, I would use a pick to fan them out and pull them up to amazing heights.
“What did you do with the back?” Cassie innocently asked.
“It was permed, Cassie. We just scrunched it dry and picked it out!”
She visibly shuddered. Cassie has never actually lived during a time when perms were in style, so it’s hard for her to imagine why anyone would want to do that to their hair. But she doesn’t know what I know. I’ve lived long enough to realize that everything old really does become new again. This is why I recently painted my kitchen walls a new shade of green that is very close to olive. This is why my daughters’ flared jeans (which were originally popular in the 70s) are now in the back of their closets. They’ve been replaced with the skinny jeans that my girls swore they would never wear when they first saw them in my old high school photos.
As additional proof of “everything old is new again” they also cabbaged hubby’s old, oversized cardigan and paired it with leggings and a chunky belt.
And finally, after years of stick-straight, 1970s hair, curls are making a comeback! I’ve been noticing the evolution from straight to curly on the Disney Channel. All of my kids’ favorite female stars are sporting feathery bangs and long curls. It’s a slight modification of Farrah Fawcett’s iconic hair, which was totally out of style by the time I got to high school. I said I’d never wear feathered bangs and half curls, but by the time Cassie got done “teaching” me how to use a curling iron, I was a modified Farrah Fawcett. Unfortunately, only from the scalp up.
I told her it wouldn’t be long before she’d have to master the permanent wave, and teach young girls how to make three curls forward and one back. She disagrees with me, saying there is no way tall bangs and permed hair will ever again be in style. I am giving it eighteen months, tops, and every teenage girl in the county will own a pick, and bend at the waist to blow dry their hair. I should take out stock in Stiff Stuff right now, before it skyrockets.
I am excited about this new trend! It took Cassie nearly three years to convince me to buy a flat iron. I’ve only owned it for six months, but I am ready to relegate it to the back of the bathroom closet. Instead, I have a shiny, new curling wand that I picked up on my way home from the salon. I promised her that I would not spray my hair while it is still wrapped in the iron, but secretly, I will probably be tempted.
Even more exciting, I realized that if curling irons are making a comeback, crimping tools can’t be far behind! I can hardly wait until Cassie tries to teach me how to use one.
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