Girls’ hairstyles: from Pink to Punk

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“Oh, girls, they wanna have fun…” (Cyndi Lauper, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)

Watching the music video of this song transports one back into the punk-razed 80’s of blue eyeliners, bangles, fishnets and spiky hairstyles. Strutting around in her signature multicolored wild hair, Cyndi Lauper’s punk look swept across the early-MTV generation and sprang out ladies around the world who sported the unconventional, bad-for-the-parents image.

If you are a guy, see this: Punk Hairstyles for Guys

Clicking the fast forward button to the future, MTV shows images of Courtney Love, Kelly Osbourne and Avril Lavigne; these ladies have been the icons of youth individuality of present time. Epitomizing the modern-day punk woman, these girls sport subtly rebellious looks that still generated followers of the Gen Y youngsters.

So what’s the fuss on the subtle punk look? This rage has been currently emerging among youngsters who have been tired of the all-too-common Pussycat-Doll-Spice-Girl-Bubblegum-Pop look which generally dominated the scene in the late 90’s to the early part of the millennium. Typical of the modern-day chick who wants to stand out and defy the rules of conformity associated with the sweet image, girls nowadays are hearing the inner rebel who has been screaming to get out and be in touch with individuality.

How do you know it’s punk? Well, using the defined term of the word Punk, it means defying societal conformance; the anti-thesis of fashion. Wild, unconventional hair is key to sporting the punk girl look. This may come in form of uneven, ratty, yet funky and cool cuts; loud colors dyed into some sections of the hair or having your crowning glory fully colored in artificial neon hues that may be reminiscent of futuristic movies or music videos. It can also mean putting your hair in a totally different look without doing some serious alterations of cutting and / or dyeing but achieving the do with styling aids like hairsprays and gels to hold hairs in a direction different from its usual place. The more unique looking, the better.

If you’re still in doubt on whether to look punky due to fear of looking like a complete idiot, delinquent or worse, slutty, maybe you can start by identifying some of the types of punk clusters and know a bit about them; perhaps relating yourself in any of the types will help you feel more comfortable having the ‘do since it closely identifies with your punk persona.

Original Punks – with this genre of punk, hair is usually gelled to be spiked; also, the dyeing is of the pink or purple shades. This will remind you of early 80’s punk groups.

Horror / Death Punk – Somehow similar to the Gothic look, hair is either dyed black or blue-black then spiked into the mohawk, or teased or may be placed into the wolverine (with horns) style.

Skate Punk – Wanna be like Kelly Osborne? Have your hair cut into asymmetrical lengths, spiking a little with gel and placing highlights onto the ends of the hair will give you that spunky, rebellious cutie look.

Pop Punk -  Fans of Avril Lavigne will appreciate this one: ladies can leave their hair long, with colored extensions (neon colors to emphasize the extra hairs). Extreme blond dyeing is also characteristic of this look. Some might refer to this as a similar thing to the Emo genre.

Still can’t decide on a look? No problem, there will be a lot of time to think about it as punk is definitely here to stay. It may evolve into several genres over time, but the punk persona still lives. One thing to remember, though, punk hairstyles for girls is at its best if the personality fits best with the look.