Big, bad, beautiful hair!

In the 1980s, it was not just movie stars and TV personalities sporting audacious big hair – it was rock and heavy metal musicians too! From Poison to Cinderella to Bon Jovi to Mötley Crüe to The Cure to even Metallica at one point in their career.

This post takes a light-hearted look at some of the boys who weren’t afraid to look like girls. In short, I have nothing but admiration for them. I, too, sported various versions of big hair during my stints with bands throughout the 80s and 90s. Being in a band helped glamorise the glam I was aiming for. It was cool to go shopping for clothes you knew you were going to wear on stage at the weekend. Did I wear makeup? Eyeliner a couple of times – depended what band I was in at the time. Black nail varnish? Hell, yeah, often!

Damage to the environment caused by hair, 80s style

In the 1980s, scientists were making it known about the damage being caused to the ozone layer, attributed in part by harmful chlorofluoro­carbons (CFCs) found in aerosol cans like deodorant, hairspray, spray paint, and even Silly String.

I think the band I was in at the time got through enough cans of Silvikrin and Harmony hairspray we likely contributed to at least half of that hole.

It wasn’t always big hair for me though…

Here we can chart the approximate ‘style’ and ‘bigness’ of my hair throughout the 80s and 90s by comparing it to musicians from Rock Cards!

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As for now… I still have hair, luckily, even though there are a fair few patches of grey. Most times it’s cut short at the sides with a spikey mop on top – a bit punky. Bathroom hair days now are only ever short compared to the best part of an hour in older days. Some gel. Wax. Easy. And if it’s a bad hair day… there’s always a hat 🙂

That’s all for now, mates! Join us again soon for more Rock Cards fun, and thank you for doing your hair with us 🙂

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About Rock Cards

In 1991, the Brokum Trading Card company marketed a collectable set of heavy metal and rock band trading cards and unleashed it to the headbanging public. Cards came in random packs of 13 and featured many famous bands of the 1980s along with some class acts from the 70s. The front of each card showed a full colour photograph of the band or band member, while the back showed an additional photo along with information and stats.

Big thanks to my Canadian mate and fellow WP blogger, Resa, over at Graffiti Lux Art & More who sent me these awesome trading cards. Resa, you rock! \m/

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