Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific!

The 70s make up was more age appropriate as we were allowed to slowly walk into our adulthood.  Comparing our facial features to the models airbrushed in magazines was a ritual every girl would go through buying their first Seventeen magazine.  In the seventies, the pressure and cost was less.  For starters we never were pressured to color or streak our hair.  Dark blonds enjoyed natural highlighting only in the summer.  You never admitted to coloring your hair, only using Sun In and spray on hair color semi-permanent.  Seventeen taught us to enhance our natural good looks. even models didn't color their hair as prevalent as they do today. We also did our own nails and toes.  Nobody ever mentioned having a pedicure. It was there just not as common as it is today.

 

 

 

 

First you had to smell good.  Sweet Honestly was the first perfume you bought to prolong your innocence.  We were innocent, before we shaved our legs and before we plucked our eyebrows, changing our faces with inexperienced hands and inappropriate magazine prototypes.  Still in the seventies it was slower to move into constant looks and tomboy stages were allowed.  The first piece of makeup to move me and my friends from tomboy to young adult was the large Bonne Bell lipsmackers.  They only make the small chapstick size ones now but back in the seventies, we could buy the large Bonne Bell lipsmackers and they came with a thick string so you could wear it around your neck.  I had Dr. Pepper flavor.  In Seventeen magazine fashions they came in soda flavors, Orange crush, 7up, Bubble Gum.  I loved mine as it was just a smidge of color to the chapstick.  We could put it on and go about our day without hours of being in the mirror unnecessarily.  Slip the lipsmacker on and then off you go with your Dr. Scholl exercise sandals..all this for about $20. The shorts you wore all summer were sacrificed blue jeans.

 

 

 

 

Love’s Baby Soft tried to merge the tomboy with the young awaiting adult promising we were still young babies.  There are all these innocent soft names to make us smell better.  But the ultimate cross over was when you bought your own shampoo instead of using the household shampoo.  You would buy the shampoo and matching conditioner.  Clairol herbal essence shampoo was neck and neck with Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific.  Two strong fun distinctly different aromas, both acceptable for the young teen girl looking to lure unsuspecting boys by the smell of their hair. Did we really want to date such a fellow? If he did notice our hair aroma he certainly didn't look like that.  I loved them both and sadly you cannot buy the original Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo anymore.  Please someone tell me if you can. 

 

 

 

 

 

If you needed to we had Psst dry shampoo.  It was more fun to use than necessary. As was the Noxzema overnight cream we did not really need yet for another 20 years but the aroma of it today brings me back to a time that I thought if I used it I would be accepted.   It didn’t compensate for my righteous views, and Ann Marie didn’t think all this effort was acceptable for her big birthday bash.  Looking back, I’m kind of glad I was able to form my personality without having to fit in at a time when we thought it was important to fit in.  Fitting in came at a cost of self.  A chip of your originality you gave to someone else instead of embracing it. The person who demanded it never really cared for you they only wanted the control over you. Soon we would find out that boyfriends from class wanted a piece of you also.  Strange... you both wanted the popularity point boyfriend  and your vulnerable newly adult formed personality, you would be at a constant tug of war to have either one or the other, trading popularity points for your original ideas, and if one friend didn't fit in, you had to make choices.

What I liked about Seventeen magazine was that it really was for teenagers, young pre-teens, simple teen only pink boots or funky striped sock that only teenagers could wear. We would spend hours trying to find out what we needed, how we were going to have to change our looks.  The painters paints, the seventies version of cargo pants, and oversize denim overalls would soon spend more hours in the closet then on us. Dances would demand yet another version of our unsure selves.  What was the formality of the dance and we would borrow each other’s dresses and personalities.

 

 

Remember stick cream blush.  We always put on too much Bozo was a typical review as we gobbed it on with it's already too red, too rosy pink color to perfect faces that didn't need anything.  But then again, we didn't know what we were doing and we did not know what shade to buy...better stick with the pink. Travel stick blush complements Bonnie Bell Lipsmacker.

 

 

 

 

Still we were building our stash of products designed to change our looks, pulling away from our 10 speed bikes and into the mirror.  I’m glad we had our tomboy phase and still I lean on it today saying it is not necessary to be constant in front of the mirror perfect in looks rather than creating experiences, building and keeping good friendships. Looking at today’s teenagers I don’t know how they do it.  They will need more then Sweet Honesty and Love’s Baby Soft to cushion all the issues they must face.  They are suggested to wear adult fashion so early and I wonder if they wonder if this outfit looks good at school when I go through the doorway scanner.  All we had to worry about was who was going to the prom with whom.  We didn’t have the added pressure of shootings in high school, super high priced fashion with must have name brands, pressure to change young looks into adults before the confidence could handle everything that came with it.  Why couldn't we just be ourselves?  We were trying vigorously to figure that out.