WHAT were you thinking?!?!

The other day I was driving home and I passed a young girl (a teenager) She had one of the more bizarre hairstyles I've seen in a while. My picture won't do it justice but it looked something like this.

It was a mullet. But her bangs were long and covered half her face. And half of the back was spiked....it stuck up and lined her head. When I saw her my first thought was "Hmm, she looks like the Statue of Liberty." Then, I pictured Queen Victoria with the spiky crown she wore.  It looked like Kate Gosselin's old hairdo hopped up on crack.

Now I'm all for originality and kudos to her for pulling off a truly original do but I have to wonder - many years from now when this girl has grown, matured and likely conformed like most of the rest of us - will she look back at pictures of herself and say "What the hell was I thinking??"

I grew up in the days of film cameras. 110 mm. Yeah, even before 35 mm. I'm old. So all  of the pictures of me during my youth are good old fashioned photographs and kept on negatives. (though the technological age has allowed me to scan some of them so they can be added to FB for some laughs) for the most part, these pictures are now buried away and but fond memories to me and those who knew me....and my hair.

I started dying my hair when I was about 15. I did it blond. Like really blond. Like platinum blond.  But see, back in the day, hair dye wasn't the best and so occasionally you ended up with brassy looking hair. Or worse yet, green. Yeah, been there, done that.

Then there's the perm. I permed my hair twice a year (again, at home). I was always going for ringlets but somehow always ended up with afro. Add to this my  total hatred of my high forehead and therefore long bangs...I had a shaggy door look about me for much of my teen years. I see pictures of Robert Plant from in the 70's and think - Hey, that's my hair when I was 16!

Then we moved on to the 'feathered' hairstyle. You know, the one that all the girls who are still stuck in the 80's wear with the sides feathered a la Farrah Fawcett. Add to this the bouffant style on the top of the head....and no freakin' wonder there's a hole in the ozone layer with the amount of hair spray that went into our hair Each and Every morning.

I look back at the pictures now and think to myself...did I really think I looked good? I know I did at the time. But wow....just.....wow. It's scares me.

And I wonder...when I see pictures of myself now in years to come...will I think the same way. I mean, I'm no beauty queen but I think I clean up pretty nice. I suspect though - when I'm 75 and looking at pictures of the 37 year old me I'll be wondering - "damn girl, WHAT were you thinking??"