Gone But Not Forgotten

Scrunchies. You may still own one for the purpose of holding back your hair when you wash your face. Or perhaps you play women’s softball or do gymnastics. (Though I’ve noticed in the world of women’s sports, the hair ribbon has been making a grand resurgence.) I will be the first to admit, that because I have such thick, curly, crazy hair, scrunchies did a great job holding my hair back and NOT pulling it out, like rubber bands do. To me scrunchies were more useful than stylish, and I believe I’m not alone on this one.

The scrunchie trend is sort of a mystifying one to me. As far as hair accoutrement, the scrunchie is far less offensive then say, the giant flower trend, which is very hard to pull off unless you are a bride or a competitive ballroom dancer. Or, remember those bow clips. I don’t believe you could have been a girl in the 80’s without one. I used to get creative and fashion my own bow clips out of fabric remnants or lace torn off an old nightgown or dress. We have to mention the banana clip. Why on earth anyone wanted their hair to look like a cross between the tail of a horse and a Mohawk is beyond me. Perhaps that’s my jealousy speaking as I had extremely short, horrible, frizzy, curly hair during the banana clip days and when I’d try it to use one (and not break it from the sheer strength of my hair) I’d end up looking as if I’d attached a scrub brush to the back of my head.

By the time the scrunchie appeared on the scene 1989 or so, my hair had grown out to a respectable length and for a good three or four years, I wore scrunchies. Again, not so much for the look (although, initially, I was one of those that did the “Pebbles” with scrunchie that was color coordinated with my socks—granted these were mostly my sporty casual days) but for function. I was hardly alone. You couldn’t pop into any girl’s Honda accord without seeing at least two scrunchies wrapped around the stick shift. Girls asked for scrunchies like they’d ask for tampons. One just assumed you had one.

I’d sort of thought that scrunchies would be around forever. Sure they started as a trend, but they became such a staple and they lasted a lot longer than most trends. See: satin camouflage cargo pants, tiered mini skirts that barely cover your ass, women wearing ties, sweaters sold with matching leg warmers and sneaker pumps (come ON!!!!!). I figured that they may go the route of the Capri pants; trend to staple. Of course, I’d fully expect the scrunchie design to change along with the rest of the fashion industry. Scrunchies started off big and loud, I could see them today being smaller and more unique by utilizing different fabrics.

It is the nature of humans to build up one another and then gleefully tear them down. I suppose it’s the same theory in fashion. Case in point; I’m sitting here reminiscing on how handy, and hair friendly scrunchies were, yet what spurred this whole topic was that I followed a girl this morning who had her hair pulled back with a black scrunchie, which had apparently lost it’s elastic (awww, that was always a bitch). What this cleaver girl had done was wrap the scrunchie around the ponytail and then tied the scrunchie slack into a teeny, tiny bow. I tell you, the ingenuity to embrace the athletic hair ribbon trend and go retro with the scrunchie action. Albeit it was ugly and I laughed inside, I can’t help but think that this girl may be onto something. The Bowchie? The Scrow?

PS: I just remembered this crafty little hair item from the early 80’s; the barrette woven with thin ribbons, which hung down to reach your shoulders and were finished off with little wooden beads. The beads made a clicking sound when you ran or danced around. It was like pretend corn rows.

PPS: Is it appropriate for adult women to don hair ribbons?