Teenage Boys and "Style" (or Hairgel: Classic or Dud?)

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Last Nite™ the people next door were having a rubbish house party, which I somehow ended up at. While I was sitting bored with the PUSSY (=Sara + 2 tired sober non-Rohipnoled bored mates (and me at one point)), I look up and realise that EVERY SINGLE guy there looks EXACTLY like Max and OB from Hollyoaks (=dodgy adolescent sideburns, ugly as sin, McDonald's complexion, sticky-out ears, v.short spikey spikey GELLED to submission hair, baseball caps etc) (and acting like them (sending out "Pussy Scouts", unfunny comedy setpieces/catchphrases, drooling over J.Lo, etc), but that's another thread).

So tell me GURLS, do you now, or have you ever, found the hairgel look attractive (or as intended "sexy")? Because it's all the LadXor here do when they get "dressed up" for the night: Slap on hairgel, loud Dawson's Creek shirt, dodgy aftershave, "ironic" sunglasses.

Just a guess, but I'm thinking I'm the only one who went home with a girl last night.

― Graham, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And while I'm here, how do I approach my mumbling violent lardass Irish rugby-bastard volatile housemate (of dubious sexuality) to get my James Best Of CD back? Not because I particularly want it, I just never want to hear Laid (or him singing it in our figurative kitchen) ever again, which as per usual he's playing right not at house filling volume.

"Oh , yer think yer so PRETTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-er-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-Dah-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-la-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-[deep breath]-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I'm bored now - give me food and lager - now"

― Graham, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Graham are you by chance in Essex?

― katie, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When I decided it was time to stop being a FREAK and become a real man the first thing I did was buy some HAIRGEL. It didn't work. I too wonder about the rationale behind teenage boy stylin' decisions - basically I think the whole world of style is well scary when you're that age and if you don't have a strong personal style you either look like a geek or you do what everyone else is doing and hope you can bluster enough to carry it off. The hipster likes of us will sneer at such people for not being 'individuals' but I'm guessing they can bear that.

― Tom, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ah no, you're Oop North aren't you? :) well, as far as i am concerned hairgel is stinky, sticky and makes your hair look greasy, so that's a big dud on all counts! i tend (despite Tom's claim that his emergence into manhood coincided with his first forays into hair gel) to think of anyone who wears it as a) a teenager or b) a wiiiiiide boy, probably with a pierced ear and - yes! those crappy Hollyoaks stylee shirts. there's a lot of those around here, hence my suspicion that you were in Essex.

― katie, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was admiring a rather young chap on the tube this morning (about 22 ish?) who had incredibly long eyelashes which I was swooning over, however he had SO much gel in his hair (not on his eyelashes) that it quite put me off. Well, first I thought 'I will tell him when we wake up together that he looks v. sexy all tousled and natural and then he will stop with the gel already' but then I decided it was all too much hassle and let myself be put off.

― Emma, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sure lots of girls like gelled up boys. The girls here are far too classy for that kind of thing though.

― Nick, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hollyoaks Blokes = nationwide phenomenon, not just Romford.

― DG, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wear a fair amount of hair gel for the sticky-up look.

― Sean, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I say, have you ever been to Uxbridge?

― james, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A bit of gel's all right if the hair's not too short, but I like hair that doesn't get my hands goopy and vile. Longish hair's nicer anyway, bah.

― Maria, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Generally (there may have been exceptions but I can't think of any) I don't like the hairstyle you describe, especially not if there's absolutely loads of gel. But then I doubt anyone with gelled hair has ever thought I was attractive either. In fact that's probably my problem with people with short spiky gelled hair and baseball caps et etc, I always assume they'd probably far rather beat me up/demonstrate their macho cool by shouting insults at me than anything else.

I think I'm generalising too much on the former sentiment, but the latter assumption seems pretty much accurate. Ho hum. (Yes, I do like my ridiculously simplistic stereotypes, thank you.)

― Rebecca, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I know the type of guy you mean. I think I escape the definition by my hair being longer. In fairness I think the sort of girls they're after probably do find them really attractive

― Ronan, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All part of worrying "fear of hair" trend that began in mid-80s and has not let up, to the point now where near-baldness is de rigeur and foxes must be clean-shaved. Yes, I know rock stars have more longish locks now but it's a negative definition. It's precisely because it's so exotic and alien to us that they do it and even then they don't really: hair what ought to be out-of-control is pushed into meek hanks of henna that fall sulkily along shoulders, tamed with great gobs of pomade and shiny-making stuff. It's shit like this that drove people to buzz-cuts in the first place. Who needs that hassle?

Maybe it's not a fear of hair so much as fear of "flyaways" - the reminder that your hair is multivalent and not of a single mind. Some does this, some does that - I shd know since mine own is half- curly, half-straight, all mixed together. Some days it plays nice with itself; some days it pulls itself apart with gemini schizophrenix. Gel is an attempt to unify what's by nature a multiple, and so allies itself with the most conservative and reactionary elements in our society: young yobs.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When I decided it was time to stop being a FREAK

Bad decision, of course.

Photographs exist of me somewhere in my psuedo-mullet/mousse days, sorta. Thankfully for my self-esteem, I never got it quite right.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My t-shirt slogan:

"hair is multivalent and not of a single mind... the attempt to unify what's by nature a multiple allies itself with the most conservative and reactionary elements in our society"

Your hair thoughts are beautiful and true, Tracer. I wish I could throw away my straighteners and resist hair fascism.

― Ellie, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kiehl's Silk Groom will sort the lot of you out.

― suzy, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hold on just a second. Gel is not the pacifier you all seem to think. Eh personally speaking if I don't put gel in my hair it goes all Luke Skywalker on me. Completely floppy and ridiculous looking. Same is true for lots of people who don't have shitty Max and OB haircuts. Actually I use wax but it's much of a muchness. Er I just thought that had to be said.

― Ronan, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

real punks use mutton dripping

― mark s, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Real punks actually use soap. they love the feel of it against their skin.

― Ronan, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

nine months pass...

How can 99.9% of guys in halls be working in this genre, when I never see any of them on campus?

― Graham (graham), Monday, 23 September 2002 11:16 (twenty-three years ago)

"Is that... hair gel?"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:06 (twenty-three years ago)

"hair are your aerials"

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:13 (twenty-three years ago)

i use fudge. (no, not that fudge) it's less hardcore than gel, seperates your hair, gives it body and generally contributes to my 'can't be arsed but can really' style. and it smells of fudge (no, not that...)

― michael wells (michael w.), Monday, 23 September 2002 14:17 (twenty-three years ago)

I now use this weird stuff my brother gave me which is like fudge wax, it smells of strawberries and may be the same thing Michael is talking about. haha I have the same "cant be arsed but can really" style too, mr wells otm as usual.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 23 September 2002 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

people here are still wearing the Fin!

― felicity (felicity), Monday, 23 September 2002 19:33 (twenty-three years ago)

I think a little bit of hairgel - not enough to stick to your hands or anything - is good cos it looks more interesting. Like Ronan said, some people have hair that would look better with a bit of gel.

― isadora, Monday, 23 September 2002 19:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I'd bother with hair gel if I could get my hair into ANIME BANGS. Sadly that sort of industrial-strength stuff hasn't been invented yet. Curse the unreasonable expectations animation places on my body image!

(& god, short spiky hair on guys is thee pits - too many munters in Dunedin sound exactly like the types Graham has problems with . . .)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 23 September 2002 20:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I feel sorry for these guys, not the ones in question perhaps, but god is conformity such a horrible sin.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 08:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I was actually asking that, implying that conformity surely isn't such a horrible sin.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 10:34 (twenty-three years ago)

ha ha, fin, ha ha

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 10:37 (twenty-three years ago)

wax is so passay! it's all about putty now

― bob zemko (bob), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep seeing this thread name, thinking it says "Teenage Boys and "Style" (or Hegel: Classic or Dud?)" and deciding it must be the best thread ever.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)

It is when it's so not a good look (not that I couldn't do with a haircut, but whatever)

― Graham (graham), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:19 (twenty-three years ago)

It seems like it would be awfully hard to wash out, that kind of gel head looks all hard and pointy (insert Dan Perry joke here).

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the short, spikey/unstyled look that the boys do but only if it is not obvious that any product was used.

Hair is for running hands through so hair should at least *look like* hands could be run through it.

― toraneko (toraneko), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 13:13 (twenty-three years ago)

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