It’s Snowdown week, so Back to the Eighties with you! Men and women of Durango, remember the details as you get dressed in your most excellent ’80s styles. Hair, as well as makeup, accessories and attitude can really send your look back in time to seem authentic, not costume-y. Extra attention to detail is what wins Snowdown costume contests, and is worth it after spending time, creative energy and cash on a killer outfit!
Hair was huge in the ’80s, literally, for men AND women. Best not to shirk on this particular details when you’re heading Back to the Eighties.
Anyone’s short hair can be slicked back with stiff gel, spiked out in all directions, pushed into a punky faux-hawk or sculpted into a Bowie new wave ’do or Max Headroom pompadour. Add a neon or metallic headband like Pat Benatar or Olivia Newton-John, some colorful streaks of hair paint and/or a dangling feather on a roach clip.
Coif medium-length hair into a Flock of Seagulls new wave hair sculpture, do a Joan Jett or Ramones mullet, blow-dry for bodacious man-volume a la George Michael and Darryl Hall, gothic palm-frond spikes like Robert Smith, work a side ponytail, tease and crimp! Giant early-Madonna hair bows, twisted bandannas knotted on top, banana clips, scrunchies and side-barrettes can also come into play.
Curly hair? ’Fro it out with product and a blow-dryer for big ’80s volume and a look like Bob Ross the painter of happy little trees, gel-scrunched like Weird Al or pirate-thick like Slash from Guns N’ Roses (add a top hat!), Howard Stern (add Lennon glasses and an attitude) or Cheech Marin with a wide-folded bandanna. Let your curls fluff out like the nuclear mushroom cloud we all thought was imminent. Try some old-school products that we used in the ’80s like clear Dippity-Do, Aussie Sprunch Spray and extra strength Aqua Net hair spray.
Long hair has endless possibilities for ultra-volume and drama! Use spiral curl rollers, crimp for hours or make the longest, bitchin’-est side-pony ever. Win ALL of the big hair contests.
For advanced ’80s costume-hair practitioners: cut yourself a righteous mullet and party hardy, get a perm and tell everyone it’s natural or dye it Siouxsie Sioux’s gothic black or frosted blonde a la Sammy Jo on Dynasty.
Men! this is your chance to carve that winter face-hair into a dramatic ’80s Fu Manchu, thick Magnum P.I. lip-rug or smarmy Weird Al Yankovic thin mustache.
Use this Snowdown as a fantastic opportunity to expaaaand your persona and try a look that you may at first complain about, but later secretly enjoy and think is sexy. Stretch the parameters of your hairstyle this Snowdown, don’t “Just Say No” to the Eighties!
Heather Narwid owns Sideshow Emporium, a vintage and second-hand clothing store recently relocated to downtown Durango from Dolores. She thinks you look nice today. Ask her anything at [email protected].
