My Big Hair: A Historical Perspective

I was born with naturally curly hair. I used to hate it when I was growing up. I finally appreciated it by the time I reached high school.

I was looking through some old photos while I was cleaning out my guest bedroom closet. I could almost give you the exact date simply by seeing my hair style in the photograph. My hair style has changed over the years but one thing I couldn’t help but notice was that I have really big hair. I mean, really,really big hair.

I thought it would be fun for you to see a little historical look at my life of big hair. Let’s call it, “Sassy-A Historical Look of Big Hair” or maybe “Four Decades of OMG!” …..whatever the title, it is sure to be an award winning piece of all that was bad hair in the 80’s and 90’s.

It will also help you get to know me a little better, that is if you really want to after viewing some of my hair choices I made over the years.

I have to start with my kindergarten picture. Since I am the 8th child of 9 children, there are no baby pictures of me. There has been a rumor that one did exist that was accidentally taken by a second cousin at a family reunion back in 1967. I haven’t been able to put my hands on it. I could probably take a screen shot of some old home movies that my sister put on DVD. There is an actual split second shot of me as a baby but that would require extra trips to the camera store and there is actually no budget for such extravagant expenditures.

For all practical purposes on Livin’ Sassy, my life begins at the age of 5 with my kindergarten picture.

We now jump to my 2nd grade picture.

Our Mom used to cut our bangs.

Can you tell?

 

 

 

 

 

 

4th grade finds me with rather straight hair.

How in the world did this happen?

Did the water change in Kilgore, Texas in the year 1976ish?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5th grade.

We are back to wavy hair.

This was my favorite dress,ever.

It was probably because it wasn’t a hand me down from one of my older sisters.

My very own dress.

It was a thing of beauty.

 

 

 

 

This is a hair cut that happens because you don’t brush your curly hair enough.

It was too tangled to save.

What a traumatic way to start your junior high years.

Is there even an adjective that describes the color of that sweater vest?

Back to the hair.

How does it protrude like that from my head?

It is truly a mind boggling feat of science.

 

 

 

Now, I have reached 9th grade.

Wings and bushy hair.

I finally started wearing make-up.

It was probably in hopes that it would detract from my bad hairdo.

Can you believe that I have four older sisters that let me walk out of the house with this hair?

 

 

 

 

 

My senior year in high school. I was captain of the flag corps.

I used to wear hot rollers every single morning of band practice to obtain this look.

Why?

I still have that uniform and those boots.

Why?

I can still twirl things way up in the air and catch them.

Why?

 

 

 

My college years involved bangs and a tan.

I was home for someone’s wedding in the summer of 1987.

The problem is that neither me, Jimmy or Cheryl who are in this picture with me remember whose it might have been…anybody?

With age comes memory loss.

 

 

My first post college job was at a credit union.

I was a loan officer. We dressed up in costumes a lot.

Meet Captain Laura.

The captain of a head so big that the hat wouldn’t actually stay on my head.

I also started letting my hair air dry.

Less volume. No more hot rollers.

Still big.

 

I don’t know what is more shocking, the hair or the couch.

I actually thought the couch was beautiful.

My very first apartment all by myself.

I was living my dream in Big D with really Big Hair!

My niece Sarah is on my lap. She is the one that just got married at the Dallas Aboretum.

Sigh.

Another niece and now a nephew and another ugly couch.

It’s not my couch. Thank goodness.

As if the hair isn’t bad enough, I started wearing a curl hanging down in my face.

 

 

 

Look, no more curl! Different nephew but same shade of lipstick.

I am beginning to think that I only owned one tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wonder how much my hair actually weighs in this picture?

I found the hot rollers again!

Someone should have lost them for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s call this my Delta Burke phase. The bow on my shirt is so Designing Women.

Didn’t y’all just love that show? I did. I loved this shirt too. It was so itchy but I wore it anyway.

That’s my brother John. His mustache looks pretty itchy too.

 

 

 

My biggest hair on record.

Was I going for a world record?

Yet, another nephew.

Can you tell I didn’t get married until I was 29?

 

 

 

I then had my hair cut in a bob. I hated it. I wore it in a ponytail until it grew out.

A different nephew.

He is now about to graduate from college.

Double sigh.

 

 

 

Hair finally grown out enough to go out on the town.

That is my little sister Lynn and my cousin Emily.

I wonder how many cans of hair spray were used in the taking of this picture.

 

 

 

 

 

Is it normal for a bridesmaid’s hair to be taller than the bride’s wedding veil?

No, I didn’t think so.

 

 

 

 

 

More wedding hair.

My Mom before my brother John’s wedding.

Isn’t she the sweetest thing? She’s my hero.

She raised nine kids like it was no big deal.

I saved my money up and bought this

dress at Neiman Marcus. You could do things like that when you are single!

 

We are now moving into my Elaine from Seinfeld days.

I wore it with a puff on top.

This is my friend Kahlan again. My hair is still taller than hers.

Was I expecting a prize for this?

 

 

 

 

More Elaine but not pulled back in a ponytail.

Boy, I could change things up!

 

 

 

 

 

We are now entering my “sales hair” phase.

Have big hair, will travel.

I went on sales trips for training purposes.

This is in Chicago. No, the wind wasn’t blowing.

This is one of the manager’s sons, not a nephew!

 

 

Big Easy. Big Hair.

I am with one of my favorite people of all time. Jan. My co-worker. My friend. My mentor. The original Sassy gal.

My goodness she is a lot skinnier now!

She is retired and soaking up the sun in Florida.

Texas misses you. Come visit.

 

Hawaiian Hair.

I won a sales trip to the Big Island.

I took along the Big Stud and my Big Hair to the Big Island.

 

 

 

Hat Hair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phone Booth Hair

 

 

 

 

 

More wedding day hair.

This is my friend Cheryl’s wedding.

That’s a lot of hair.

Are y’all as tired of hair as I am?

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s fast forward a little.

Meet Dinh. He gave me a wonderful hair cut and blow dry a couple of weeks ago.

He told me he had seen my kind of hair before and wasn’t afraid in the least.

Thick,Curly and a little unmanageable……… Sassy Hair!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for sharing in my walk down memory lane. Those days seem so very long ago but then again feel like yesterday.

Coming of age in the 80’s meant big hair,pop rocks,roller rinks,Sixteen Candles,polo shirts,shoulder pads,Aqua Net and on and on……

What does it mean to you?

 

Stay Sassy Y’all.