It’s 1984, I’m a freshman in high school, and we’d just moved to an NYC suburb from the sticks of Oregon; I don’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’ in terms of style. Totally oblivious. But I was also absolutely percolating with hormones, well into the final stages of puberty, and my childhood baby fat was working night and day to turn my 5′6″ frame 6′5″; around that time my studies took such a back seat to my attention to girls, they were practically in the damned trunk. The first girl that caught my eye was in fact the fabled “Girl Next Door”. It helped that she was also the first person I’d seen in person with spikey hair.
Meredith was significant because not only was she excessivly smart and confident, but she also had style beyond her years. She more or less took me on as an enthusiastic puppy dog, willing to play all kinds of tricks to keep her attentions. Some of those tricks involved letting her put makeup on me (very New Wave) and do my hair up funny. This was my first formal introduction to the product that would stay with me for the next five years, far longer than the girl herself – Dippity Do Hair Gel.
Do you Dippity do? Don’t! Tell you why after the jump.
While there are hundreds of gels available today, this pot of subtley floral-scented green goop is one of the oldest products of its kind still on the market and it’s not going away anytime soon. A lot of you, I suspect, still use it. This stuff was my gateway drug to trying scores of other products and styles. Dippity Do is a young punk’s first friend for spiking and slicking; it’ll turn your hair to plastic in minutes if you use enough of it.
That all said, it’s high time to steer clear of the Dippity Do, and all other gels for that matter. There’s a lot of alchohol in all gels, and they really dry your hair out. More importantly, unless you’re doing the retro punk/new wave thing, it’s really not a very serviceable product for today’s styles; they make your hair hard, yet still subjet to humidity, unless you spray the crap out of it. That’s a lot of muss and fuss, guys. Stick with a wax with shorter cuts, or a light styling creme for the medium length styles that will be very much in fashion over the coming year.
Bumble and Bumble – Sumotech… fan-freakin-tastic. Or KMS Hair Play Hyper Paste. But yeah those neon tubs of gel did help with the 80’s spikes.
Ever try Murray’s? Orange tin with an afroed couple on the top. It’s more of a wax than anything (in cold weather you have to ‘work it’ a bit) but has a nice hold- good for spiking/ bed-heading or taming even the surliest naps (ie: will hold any hair flat -like if you can’t get to the barber for that touch up on the sides/back).
Use sparingly!
May I humbly direct you to a graphical history of my hair care: http://tinyurl.com/34sadm?
D’oh, try that without the question mark:
http://tinyurl.com/34sadm
One morning, walking to the 31st Ave train station in Astoria, I wondered how much each little (or big) dab of hair product would weight if one totaled it for the entire NYC metro area on a daily basis. I don’t remember the hairstyle that got me to thinking that, but it must have been very…styled. How many literal TONS of goo does the whole of the City put in its hair on a daily basis?
I LOVE Murray’s. You have to find it in the “ethnic hair care” section of the Eckerd though.