Hair trends come and go with each passing decade, leaving some once-popular styles in the rearview mirror. Remember walking into a salon with a magazine clipping of your favorite celebrity’s latest look? These hairstyles once dominated fashion magazines and sidewalks alike, but you’ll spot them far less frequently today.
1. The Beehive Updo
Towering over the 1960s fashion scene, this voluminous style required excessive teasing and hairspray. Women would spend hours crafting these dramatic height-defying creations that could last for days without washing.
2. The Rachel Cut
Inspired by Jennifer Aniston’s character on Friends, this layered, shoulder-length cut dominated the 90s. Girls everywhere rushed to salons clutching magazine photos, desperate to recreate those bouncy, face-framing layers.
3. The Jheri Curl
Glistening with product, these glossy curls defined 80s Black hairstyling. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie rocked this moisture-dependent look that required constant upkeep and often left unfortunate stains on furniture and clothing.
4. Feathered Wings
Farrah Fawcett’s signature style sparked a nationwide obsession with feathered locks. Perfectly blow-dried sections swooped away from the face, creating wing-like layers that bounced with every movement and defined 1970s glamour.
5. La triglia
Business in front, party in back! This controversial cut crossed gender lines throughout the 80s. Country stars and hockey players particularly embraced this dual-personality style that somehow managed both professional and rebellious vibes.
6. Capelli arricciati
Zigzagging through the 80s and 90s, crimped hair required special hot tools and hours of patience. Teenagers would spend sleepovers crimping each other’s locks, creating frizzy accordion-like textures that expanded hair to impressive volumes.
7. Taglio della ciotola
Legend says moms actually placed bowls on kids’ heads to trim around. This circular precision cut gained unexpected popularity among adults in the 90s too, with celebrities like Jim Carrey sporting the mushroom-shaped style.
8. Excessive Hair Bumps
Snooki made them famous! These poufy front bumps created dramatic height at the crown. Achieved through strategic teasing and hidden foam inserts, they dominated reality TV and high school dances throughout the late 2000s.
9. Side-Swept Emo Bangs
Dramatic, eye-covering bangs served as both fashion statement and emotional shield. Teens would spend mornings flat-ironing these signature swoops to perfection, often paired with choppy layers and occasional streaks of vibrant color.
10. Punte smerigliate
Boy band heartthrobs made this look mandatory for trendy guys. Short, spiky hair received bleached or highlighted ends, creating a frosted effect that screamed late 90s cool and required regular touch-ups to maintain.
11. Il Perm
Chemical curls dominated the 80s salon scene. The distinctive smell of perm solution filled beauty shops as women transformed straight locks into tight, springy curls that sometimes resulted in unexpected frizzy disasters.
12. The Fauxhawk
Edgy without full commitment, this mohawk-inspired style peaked in the early 2000s. David Beckham famously sported this look, inspiring men to experiment with gel and spikes while maintaining professional side lengths.
13. Mall Bangs
Defying gravity with hairspray, these towering front bangs reached impressive heights. Popular throughout the late 80s, achieving perfect mall bangs required a blow dryer, round brush, and an environmentally concerning amount of aerosol products.
14. Rat Tail
Business casual with a rebellious twist! This thin strand of longer hair dangled from an otherwise conventional cut. Sometimes braided or beaded, this bizarre appendage somehow gained mainstream popularity throughout the 80s and early 90s.
15. The Pompadour Revival
Elvis fans weren’t the only ones sporting this voluminous style during its 2010s comeback. Men’s grooming embraced this high-maintenance look requiring substantial product application, precision combing, and sometimes undercut sides for modern edge.
16. Zigzag Parts
Ruler-straight parts were deemed too boring in the 90s and early 2000s. Teens and celebrities alike embraced these lightning-shaped scalp designs that required precise parting tools and steady hands to create geometric patterns.
17. Scrunchie Ponytails
Fabric-covered elastic bands created voluminous, colorful hair statements throughout the 80s and 90s. Girls collected these accessories in every color and pattern, often wearing multiple scrunchies stacked on high side ponytails.
18. Punti salienti
Subtle wasn’t in the vocabulary of early 2000s hair colorists. Thick stripes of contrasting blonde slashed through darker base colors, creating zebra-like patterns that required significant grow-out maintenance and frequent salon touch-ups.