" As a child of the ' seventy , sunscreen was unheard of . We used child oil color , cocoa butter , and flagellation fossil oil ( some of those were SPF 4 ) . We ’d lie in the sunshine for hour . It ’s a miracle we did n’t burst into flames . "
We recentlyaskedolder adults of theBuzzFeed Communityto tell us the “weirdest” beauty trends and routines from the past that would confuse younger generations today. Here are the shocking results:
1.“In the early 1970s, my mom had the beehive hairdo, and at night, she would wrap the beehive with toilet paper to hold it in place overnight! Worked like a charm!”
— trendyhawk442
2.“We used to iron our long hair to get it as straight as possible. This required an accomplice to iron while the other stood stooped over the ironing board. I can’t believe we actually did this.”
— 73 , Iowa
3.“As a child of the 70s, sunscreen was unheard of. We used baby oil, cocoa butter, and tanning oil (some of those were SPF 4). We’d lay in the sun for hours. It’s a miracle we didn’t burst into flames.”
— 56 , Pennsylvania
" We used to slather ourselves with baby oil and lie out in the Sunday just hoping and praying to get that ' tropical favorable glowing , ' but instead , we always ended up with blisters , second - degree burns , and discase shoulders . Back in the 60 and 70s , there was no such thing as SPF . "
— 62 , Texas
4.“My mom would use a lighter to melt her eyeliner pencil for a more intense color (before liquid liner, I would assume). My grandmother would pinch her cheeks for blush.”
— emcatt
5.“Punk rockers used egg whites and Elmer’s glue to get their mohawks extra spiky!”
— crafty_gm
6.“My grandmother was blonde, and I was her only blonde grandchild. She showed me to put ketchup in my hair if it had gone a bit green (hard water/chlorine area) and then rinse it with cold chamomile tea. Works an absolute treat.”
— annak4f45e0f65
7.“In the 1990s, when I was in my 20s, it was fashionable to have overplucked thin eyebrows. I never did it because I have large eyes and didn’t think it would suit me. I’m glad I didn’t. I have friends who overplucked and now don’t have any eyebrows left.”
— vee1977
8.“Sun In to add blonde streaks to your hair and baby oil for suntanning. Use a blow dryer on hair-sprayed bangs to get them to stand up, curl them with a curling iron (backward, of course), and then back-comb them to tease them out. Neon clothing, eyeshadow, and lipstick all together in the same outfit.”
— surprisedfish60
9.“My aunts used to put pop cans in their hair as homemade curlers. They said it worked really well!”
— amariem_88
" My momma used the full-grown , frozen orange tree succus containers 😂 . "
— leighroy
10.“Lemon juice to ‘bleach’ freckles. Also, lemon juice to lighten hair…neither worked.”
— bittertoaster20
11.“My college roommate spent so much time curling, teasing, and SPRAYING her bangs into the perfect shape that she only washed her bangs once a month. Her bangs were perfect ’80s mall-chick bangs — very high! She would literally put a plastic sandwich bag on her bangs before showering so her bangs wouldn’t get wet. By the end of the month, the amount of hairspray build up looked like the worst case of dandruff you could possibly imagine. When she finally did wash them, she had to take a fine tooth comb and comb out all the hairspray bits.”
" Then , she would occur them out — they reached her chin — put hair gel in them , put in the pinkish plastic rollers , spray the heck out of them , and go to sleep . Every morning , when she induce up , she ’d roll them with a curling iron and spray them with hairspray while on the Fe until they were crunchy . She’d end up with about six absolutely rotund , crunchy rolls . Then , she ’d take a pickax and pick them out . When she was eventually done , she ’d respray them . Sometimes , if she were going out , she ’d reduplicate the mental process before leaving . I had a volute perm and some curly strike , but nothing compared to this — and I washed them every day ! "
— 50 , Tennessee
12.“Trying to use Kool-Aid to dye your hair. Also, do the kids still pierce their ears with safety pins?”
— wickedwalrus90
13.“We would shave our legs with Vaseline instead of soap, shaving cream, etc. It left your legs shiny like glass, but it ruined your disposable razor.”
— 50 , Virginia
14.“I had a neighbor in the late ’80s and early ’90s who was so obsessed with having a tan that she would cover her body in Crisco shortening. She would scoop some out with her hands, rub it in like it was lotion, and lay in the sun for hours every day during the summer.”
" She would get so dark , and I do n’t recollect her ever getting a burn . "
— angrydaisy756
15.“We’d use sun reflectors made of album covers and tin foil.”
— 63 , Chicago
16.“My mom made me sleep with a head full of curlers every night when I was a kid. When I was in middle school, my sisters told me it was time for my eyebrows to be plucked — one of the most painful experiences of my life! In high school, I didn’t dare leave the house without first applying three different colors of eye shadow.”
" Perms were also a swelled thing . And big hair . "
— surprisedalligator80
And finally…
17.“With the youth obsession today, it would surprise many to know that in the 1980s, many people were obsessed with trying to look older than they were. The chevron mustaches and exposed chest hair on young men (Tom Selleck was only 35 whenMagnum, P.I.started), the padded shoulders and old-lady perms in women (Dolly Parton was only 34 when the movie9 to 5came out), and children dressing in tweed blazers or yachting clothes (looking at you, Brooke Shields).”
" Everyone require to come out 20 eld former than they were . Now , everyone wants to await perpetually 15 . "
— 43 , Georgia
Note : Some responses have been cut for length and/or clarity .
