In the fashion section of this web site, it gives a detailed look at the average guys and girls fashion/ hair/ makeup routine.

I'm doing a report for my schools newspaper on 80s fashion (which seems to be having a resurgence!) I was hoping some of you could go through how you got ready for a day during the 80s when YOU were in high school.

Please give me an approximate year and tell me what you were wearing, and how you did your hair and makeup. Were you unique in this look or was that how everyone dressed?

Thanks in advance for your help!

: In the fashion section of this web site, it
: gives a detailed look at the average guys
: and girls fashion/ hair/ makeup routine.

: I'm doing a report for my schools newspaper on
: 80s fashion (which seems to be having a
: resurgence!) I was hoping some of you could
: go through how you got ready for a day
: during the 80s when YOU were in high school.

: Please give me an approximate year and tell me
: what you were wearing, and how you did your
: hair and makeup. Were you unique in this
: look or was that how everyone dressed?

: Thanks in advance for your help!

I don't know much about the specifics such as preparations and the brands used - except for the universal Aquanet, Dax pomade, and Alberto VO5 products. The following are a few examples of what I saw in those days:
The pompadour seems to have made a resurgence in the 80s - look at the movie "Pretty In Pink" and "Sixteen Candles;" some of the characters had pompadour-styled dos: for a couple of years rockabilly music was in as well (several musicians, even if they didn't sing rockabilly music, had pompadour-like dos).
The classic mullet is definitely an 80s staple haircut - worn by men AND women (yiiikes).
I saw mohawks too, in all sorts of colors, but after 1985 they pretty much seem to have disappeared.
There was frizzy hair, long natural-hair, big permed-hair (styled after the cowardly-lion), short hair on women, etc.
Just the hair styles of the 80s alone could be compiled into a book (probably already has).

I could pretty much copy Julie's message word for word. I have only a couple of additions.
I had a hank of hair hanging in front of my face, a hank at the back, the sides were shaved up to my temples. Instead of dying it black, I braided everything and bleached it white, braided it again and colored it blue-black, then finally did the same thing with bright red. Kind of a gothic tortoiseshell cat thing.
Second, the Docs were on my feet.
Look up pictures of Siouxsie and Robert Smith. I'm not saying the fashions were universal, but they were certainly specific. Home-made tattoos done with a safety pin and a bottle of ink, plastic insects used as accessories...ah, to be young and take myself seriously again.

The eighties. In 1985, I was 15 years old. I will start with my hair. It was cut short in the back and on the sides, but my bangs were really long and I parted them to the side so they would cover one eye. Of course, my hair was bleached blonde. My make-up was heavy, I used lots of thick black eyeliner. 1985 was the year that we moved from California to Massachusetts, so I was a little ahead of the times as far as clothes go. That year, I wore really long skirts with black gladiator shoes. My shirts were usually oversized t's or swetaers. I wore a lot of black, and LOTS of really big earrings. In 1987 or so, I switched to jeans, and leather jackets with tassles. I wore spandex and lots of flourescent pinks and greens. Blackboots were popular, short ones so that one could see the colored socks that most likely matched your shirts. If you want to put together an outfit, you can probably find some really cool things at thrift shops. Good Luck!

: In the fashion section of this web site, it
: gives a detailed look at the average guys
: and girls fashion/ hair/ makeup routine.

: I'm doing a report for my schools newspaper on
: 80s fashion (which seems to be having a
: resurgence!) I was hoping some of you could
: go through how you got ready for a day
: during the 80s when YOU were in high school.

DURAN DURAN! 1983--My friends and I wore fedoras and big blazers with the sleeves pushed up. We also wore those wretched looking ankle booties. We had to look as much like John Taylor as we could. We were true Duran Duran fans...fanatics!!
Hope this helps

: Please give me an approximate year and tell me
: what you were wearing, and how you did your
: hair and makeup. Were you unique in this
: look or was that how everyone dressed?

: Thanks in advance for your help!

I was into the Sid N Nancy, Siouxsie thing around 1987, so my day started with lots of black eyeliner, red lipstick, and not brushing my dyed-black hair. Then I would layer black clothes upon other black clothes, and hang 10 different cross earrings from my ears. With skull buckle boots strapped to my feet, I would go to school (senior year). I must have weighed 20 pounds more with all the stuff. My goal was to look really odd and stand out against the backdrop of cheerleaders and nerds.

: In the fashion section of this web site, it
: gives a detailed look at the average guys
: and girls fashion/ hair/ makeup routine.

: I'm doing a report for my schools newspaper on
: 80s fashion (which seems to be having a
: resurgence!) I was hoping some of you could
: go through how you got ready for a day
: during the 80s when YOU were in high school.

: Please give me an approximate year and tell me
: what you were wearing, and how you did your
: hair and makeup. Were you unique in this
: look or was that how everyone dressed?

: Thanks in advance for your help!

It was 1988.

My friend Stacy would carefully put her make-up on in the morning after breakfast. She used "Natural Wonder" eye-shadows (Pop Singer Debbie Gibson was their spokesperson and image girl). Stacy also used "Wet & Wild" cosmetics. Over her lipsticks, she wore "Kissing Coolers" lip-gloss (Cola was my personal favorite in color and taste). The finishing touch was "Corn-Silk" loose face-powder (It was the best facial oil absorbing thing at the time).
That was just the face! Couldn't tell ya how long it took for certain, but it seemd like half an hour.
Then... The hair.
On some days she turned on that curling iron and she would gel or spray her bangs and curl. By the time she got done doing her bangs, she looked like she had a flower bloom on the top of her head and forhead. Then used "White Rain" hairspray for the finishing touches. Some days those bangs would go straight up. The sky was the limit. Then... Other days, it would be the crimping iron. Still on others, the PERM. The one where she would wear her hair as if it wet all day! "The wet look". That involved one or more of these: Hair gel, Spritz, Spruce, Sprunch and/or Scrunch hairspay. Then it was just a matter of hand and finger styling.
As far as clothes, well, Coca-Cola wear was mighty popular. So was Guess wear. Weathered Blues and Stone-Washed wear were IT too. One would cut-off jeans to the bottom of the knee length and fold just to the top of the knee. Jeans fit nicely too, not baggy. Mini-skirts ruled. Reeboks high-top sneakers completed the ensemble. Though, high heels were worn often either with jeans or skirts. Accessories would include big rings and big hooped earings. Also, long earings were in.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Check it out and let me know if I missed anything. I can always tell you more. I have a head full of memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I know I'm not an original kid of the 80s, but careful study and input from relatives and borrowing clothes from my uncle (he was a breaker back in the 80s) has kinda got me to develop the now "old school" breaker style.

Headwear:
Beanies or Skullies - those tuques that dont fold over and are smaller, perfect for the headspinning action, worn close to your eyes, sometimes even over. Those seem to be coming back, which I agree with.

Tops:
T-Shirts, even those baseball shirts that *ugh* ravers all wear nowadays work too. I've always been a partial to the adidas windbreakers (the originals, with 3 stripes down the sleeves and with the leaf symbol), and I got about 5 or 6 different windbreakers from back in the day that I use on top.

Bottoms:
Sweatpants - Sweatpants or those 80s adidas pants or even yes... Remember those Zips pants, the real tight ones with all the zippers, I've got a pair of those, and I've got all the adidas and puma pants too. The sweatpants to keep up even with nowadays, I know a few breakers did this back in the day, but some do today too, but roll the pant legs up to your knees then let them flop over, or atleast thats what my uncle tells me to do.

Shoes - Those adidas superstars are always a first, but I've been a partial to the L.A. Trainers by Adidas, they're more of a cross trainer, and have better "break" support, similar to the New Balance trainers and the Saucony shoes.

Everyone at school knows me as the old school kid, as who in gods name would drive an 86 celica with Duran Duran being blasted and dress like i do?

Hope this has been a help, and true kids of the 80s, if anythings wrong, just point it out to me, so I know.