"Hey babe, your hair's alright..."

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[The Illustration Friday prompt for this week is "brave."]

Today we see some results of the truth and reconciliation hairstyle challenge--feel free to jump in--which all started back in 2008, when Manfred wrote,
"once I get a scanner, I shall put my own eighties [hairstyle] pictures up here, heh heh...."

And he finally did last week, as you may have seen.
I was quite interested to recognize his extended forelock on a soldier, right, in the famous painting The Death of General Wolfe, 1770, by B. West.
I expect they used bear grease back then.
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Momo bravely takes up the challenge and posts on her blog a picture of herself as a teenager.

Her hairstyle reminds me of John Travolta's (left) as Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back Kotter (1975–1979).
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Blogless bink e-mailed a before and after set:
below, left, age seven (natural color, but her mother made her sleep with curlers in her hair)
and, below, right, in 1985.
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She says the local alt/punk band Tetes Noires, below, probably influenced her choice of hair color.
"Tetes Noires, named best new local band by Mpls/St Paul Magazine, circa 1983," from Camille J. Cage.

One more bink, which she dedicates to Manfred:
"It's all about attitude and gel."

And here's Maura, below, 1985, who writes that she wants the Pat-from-EastEnders Bad Earrings Award. And adds, "Only because I love you am I willing to humiliate myself so."

Below: Fresca at the ocean, 1984

This two-tone modified Mohawk is as weird as my hair ever got.

I'm sure I was thinking David Bowie, but ended up with a bastard child of Annie Lennox (touch, 1984) and Molly Ringwald (with Jon Cryer in Pretty in Pink, 1986).
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I feel a mix of pride, tenderness, and chagrin toward images of our younger selves.

I don't know about the others, but I was scared and sad and generally out of sorts a lot,
but I'm reminded I was gutsy a lot too, and eager to take life for a spin.
I like that. A lot. Even if I don't always like the hair that went with it.

I'm also hugely relieved that much of the fear and sadness wore away over time--or, anyway, they're not as everpresent-- while the bedrock of curiosity about life remains.

I'm also surprised when I look at our pictures, some of them anyway, at how we pulled it off, how much we looked like we were trying to look.
I don't know if we knew how perfectly of our times we looked, until the times had passed.

What will we think looking back twenty years from now?