Quick writing question

[rachelmanija]

The eighties are famous for huge hair that now looks hilariously terrible. What decade is famous for dyed hair that now looks hilariously terrible? And also, what accessory or clothing item would have gone with the hideous dye job at the time?

(I'm going for something along the lines of "Nice bob, all you need is a flapper dress." Only for a terrible grown-out dye job.)

Comments

[recessional]

. . . I remember a lot of horrible grown out dye-jobs in the grunge-type period of the 90s? Which might make for "flannel button up" or "Pearl Jam t-shirt".

[rachelmanija]

"A Pearl Jam T-shirt" is perfect, thanks!

[sholio]

Yeah, I'd say 90s, too. Also, the streaked/frosted/half-bleached look was in when I was in college (mid-90s), sort of the hair equivalent of stonewashed jeans.

[recessional]

Yeah like sometimes it required a honed eye to figure out who had just been too busy to pick up their drugstore blonde and who'd paid hundreds to get that look.

[kore]

//actual Seattle resident winces

[derien]

Just what I was about to say. I asked Eor and he said, "you remember Amy and Jaime?" Uh, nope, I don't remember anything, I'm like that. But they were co-workers of his who did a different hair color every week, generally in streaked blue, green, pink. I really feel like this look has not gone out, though, as I see it every day.

(In other news, I never dyed my hair but have never given up my flannels. But I have been devoted to flannel shirts from the time I was in high school in the 80s.)

[kore]

People had two-tone dye jobs in the 90s but it was more Manic Panic, where you slapped on something washable and let it half wash out and then put something else in. It wasn't really grown-out. You can see it in Cobain's hairstyles -- they were meant to look nonconformist and punk, not pretty.

[rachelmanija]

It works perfectly for the joke, though, which is that it's a bad grown-out dye job that the person teasing him is pretending to take as an intentional two-tone look.

[kore]

It's still going right for the most cliched example, though. There are other periods with two-tone hair colours.

[rachelmanija]

In context something super cliched is actually funnier.

[kore]

Not to those of us who lived through the period and now have to put up with shit like Where'd Ya Go, Bernadette! But the nineties are everyone's favourite whipping boy, so it doesn't matter.

[staranise]

I just had what felt like a full-body flashback.

...I kinda miss the 90s.

[nenya_kanadka]

The 2000s, I guess? That's when I really started seeing a lot of brightly-dyed hair in colours not found in nature among humans, at least.

ETA: Admittedly, I was not out and about around humans who dyed their hair in any way other than to cover the grey before the year 2000, so I'm not exactly the most reliable source. :D Nineties, as above, sounds good too!

[kore]

Oh man, what about those STRIPES of bright red or pink or blue under-highlights in the early 00s. They looked like someone had just randomly coloured a picture in with crayon.

https://hellomagazin.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/christina-aguilera-hair-evolution-popsugar.jpg

[nenya_kanadka]

Oh that takes me back. :D Oh hey Xtina.

Also, that must have taken FOREVER at the salon! I have no patience and would make a bad pop star for many reasons that include.

[stranger]

What about the peroxide blonde of the early chemical-dye era, something like 1930s to 1950s? The appropriate clothing accompaniment would be a slinky decollete gown, or lacy pegnoir, as seen in movies starring Jean Harlow, et al.

[kore]

Ombre hair looks terrible to me now, but that sounds too recent.

[mme_hardy]

The sixties? And hairbands. Or bows.

[alias_sqbr]

I always thought it looked nice but the "ginger with stark blonde highlights" look a la Ginger Spice is very 90s, and could go with a union jack top https://nathattack.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/gingerspice3.jpg

[rattfan]

I think it's happening right now, judging by the usual clientele of the public transport system in my city...

That said, I have a friend who has amazing hair colours - blue, green, pink, you name it :-) The joke is that if her husband ever gets tired of computer programming, he has a great future in the hair salon industry!