Remember when certain hairstyles were all the rage? Fashion evolves constantly, and what once turned heads might now raise eyebrows for all the wrong reasons. Some styles have faded into hair history, becoming visual time capsules of bygone eras. Here’s our rundown of 15 hairstyles that instantly date you to another decade!
1. The Mullet Madness
Business in front, party in the back! This iconic 80s disaster features short, conservative front and sides with an inexplicably long back section trailing down the neck.
Once rocked by country stars and hockey players alike, today’s mullet spotting typically happens at nostalgic costume parties or ironic hipster gatherings.
2. Crunchy Ramen Perm
Tight, chemically-processed curls resembling uncooked ramen noodles dominated the 80s and early 90s. Women would spend hours under dryers achieving this frizzy, often triangular shape.
Humidity was the sworn enemy of this high-maintenance look that required regular perming sessions to maintain its distinctive crunch factor.
3. The Bowl Cut Catastrophe
Mom’s favorite money-saving technique involved placing a bowl on your head and cutting around it. This perfectly circular hair helmet created an unmistakable mushroom silhouette.
Popular for children in the 70s and 90s, this style has become shorthand for “my parents didn’t care how I looked at school.”
4. Frosted Tips Flashback
Boy band heartthrobs of the late 90s made bleached spiky ends on otherwise dark hair the ultimate cool-guy statement. Guys would spend hours with highlighting caps and peroxide to achieve this porcupine effect.
Often paired with puka shell necklaces and baggy jeans, this look screams “I have all the NSYNC albums on CD.”
5. The Feathered Farrah
Named after Charlie’s Angels star Farrah Fawcett, this voluminous, wing-like style required precise layering and daily blow-drying to maintain its signature flipped-back sides.
Women in the 70s couldn’t get enough of this feathered phenomenon, which demanded industrial quantities of hairspray to keep those wings from falling flat.
6. The Jersey Poof
Made infamous by reality TV in the 2000s, this style involved teasing the front section of hair into a mountainous bump while the rest remained straight. Think of it as a hair tumor growing from your forehead.
Achieving maximum height required backcombing, hairspray, and a complete disregard for proportion or subtlety.
7. The Rachel Regret
Jennifer Aniston’s layered, corte que enmarca la cara from Friends spawned millions of copycats in the mid-90s. Salons were flooded with requests for this bouncy, highlighted look with its distinctive chunky layers.
Even Aniston herself admitted hating the maintenance this style required, calling it “the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen.”
8. The Rat Tail Terror
A regular haircut with one bizarre exception: a single, skinny strand of hair left long at the nape of the neck. This peculiar appendage sometimes grew several feet long and was occasionally braided or beaded.
Popular among rebellious kids in the 80s and early 90s, the rat tail served no purpose except to horrify parents and teachers alike.
9. The Jheri Curl Drip
Made famous by Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy in the 80s, this chemically-processed style created loose, glossy curls constantly dripping with activator products. It required multiple daily applications of special oils to maintain its wet-look shine.
Wearers often carried towels to protect furniture and clothing from the perpetual moisture.
10. The Crispy Claw Bangs
Popular in the early 90s, these stiff, standing bangs were achieved by coating hair with maximum-hold hairspray and then curling them backward into a rigid wall of hair.
Often paired with spiral-permed sides, this shellacked creation could withstand hurricane-force winds while looking perpetually surprised.
11. The Mushroom Cloud Afro Perm
White guys in the 70s and 80s attempting to achieve afro-like volume through aggressive perming created this distinctive mushroom cloud effect. Think Bob Ross or Justin Timberlake’s early NSYNC days.
This cultural appropriation disaster often resulted in damaged hair that grew outward rather than downward, creating a distinctive rounded silhouette.
12. The Aggressive Side Part
Gen Z has officially declared the parte lateral profunda as millennial territory. This dramatic swooping style involves forcibly training hair to part far from center, creating an asymmetrical cascade effect.
Once considered fashionable in the 2000s-2010s, it now immediately identifies someone as being over 30 and resistant to center-part trends.
13. The Skunk Stripe Highlights
Chunky, contrasting highlights dominated the early 2000s, with Kelly Clarkson and Christina Aguilera sporting dramatic blonde streaks against dark bases. These thick, unblended stripes created a zebra-like effect rather than natural dimension.
Often placed primarily around the face, these harsh highlights aged poorly in photos.
14. The Popcorn Poodle Perm
Different from the tight ramen curls, this 80s nightmare featured small, round puffs of permed hair resembling popcorn or poodle fur. The uniform, spongy texture created a helmet-like appearance with zero movement.
Usually paired with excessive teasing for maximum height, this style required weekly salon visits to maintain its unnatural shape.
15. The Shaggy Mullet Hybrid
The unholy union of a shag haircut and mullet created this 70s monstrosity featuring uneven layers throughout with longer pieces in the back. Think Rod Stewart in his prime or your uncle in his high school yearbook.
Often paired with sideburns and a mustache, this look screamed “I own multiple leisure suits.”