Gen Zer Asks How We Got ‘Mall Hair’ In 1980 And We All Know The Answer

I saw this video over the weekend and immediately began to give this young lady the knowledge she is looking for, but a few thousand Gen Xer's beat me to it! If you grew up in the 1980's, you probably had seriously big hair. We all did! And achieving this look wasn't easy. There were perms, ridiculously hot curling irons, teasing, more teasing, and the key ingredient: Aqua Net. There's no question that as kids of the 80's, we did some serious damage to the ozone layer.

Reading and watching some of the advice my fellow Gen Xer's are giving this young lady, who was born in 1999, I must say they're on point. According to Your Tango, makeup artist and TikTok influencer Rachel O'Cool is asking how we got our hair so big in the 80's in a video, and many folks are giving her the solution. O'Cool's TikTok channel focuses on beauty and style, and one of her favorite eras to emulate is the 1980's. I mean, it was a kick-ass era! Unfortunately, trying to get the old school hair requires some skill and courage.

In the 80's, perms gave us body and some curl. The curling irons we used were insanely hot, and they didn't have temperature settings. There was only one setting: HOT. We also gave zero cares about damaging our hair. Truth told, most of us are lucky we still have hair! I know I would spray my hair with Aqua Net, then take the hot curling iron to my hair. I can still remember the sizzle I'd get! And you wanted that sound!

My hair was never crazy long, usually the ends were just at my shoulder. And yet I'd get up three hours before leaving for school so I could do my hair and makeup. Most of us did! Perfecting the 80's big hair takes some time, especially if you have a lot of hair. Luckily for O'Cool, lots of folks shared videos demonstrating the process. My favorite is a video from Brandis Bradley, @makeupartistatlaw on TikTok.  In her video, she's giving O'Cool a perfect demonstration of how we used to get the mall hair.

All of us had different tricks we'd use to perfect the 80's look: drying your hair upside down, picking the curl out and then teasing it, fluffing after curling, etc. EVERY hair style had the same final touch though: Aqua Net. There is no other hair spray on the planet that works quite like it. It's like super-glue for your hair. Hurricane winds couldn't move your hair in the 80's after using Aqua Net. The only thing we feared was getting our hair wet from rain! LOL!

Although Aqua Net truly did ruin the ozone layer, I'm not sure you can still buy it. That said, I HAVE seen it at some pharmacies, but it's hard to find. Luckily, there are still some hair sprays that will do the trick. You gotta add heat to the hair spray though if you wanna get that 'my hair barely fits in the car' look.

Check out O'Cool's plea for help and Bradley's fab answer. Now I'm going into the bathroom just to see if I can still tease my hair to the ceiling! Thanks to both these wonderful ladies for taking me back in time for a few minutes.