Last week, when I was casually scrolling through the interwebs and minding my own damn business, I came across an image of a young, late-90s Ricky Martin. You know the one – that samba-dancing hunk of man with frosted tips, an unbuttoned shirt and a tan straight out of Geordie Shore. Sex on legs. We stan.
This chance cyber-encounter with Puerto Rican Jesus subsequently reminded me of the time my brother, who must’ve been around 6 or 7, walked into a hair salon and asked to look exactly like Ricky from his “Livin’ la Vida Loca” stage. Although my brother did leave the salon with frosted tips and a new lease on life, Ricky Martin he was not (bless his bloody heart though).
[jwplayer y5bz6doa]
This got me thinking, childhood was such a wild time – we literally had no inhibitions, hearts of gold and incredible aspirations to embody our idols.
So what other celebrity references did we give to hairdressers as kids? Which celeb did we want to imitate, but ended up looking like a bootleg version of?
I reached out to the office and social media (bless up, internet). Here are some of the best responses.
Tansy (@tgormz) as Victoria Beckham
Shannon as The Veronicas
Celeste (@filthyratbag) as P!nk
Sean (@seanington) as Jesse McCartney
Mel (@melissamason_) as Linda Evangelista
Justin (@online.persona) as Jared Leto
This one requires a bit of explaining.
“When I was in year 8”, Justin recalls, “I went to get Jared Leto‘s Thirty Seconds to Mars black/red emo hair. That’s when I was told… in front of my mum and the whole salon… I had huge gigantic lice and that they wouldn’t touch my hair because that’s very unhygienic. Which is totally fair enough but rude IMO.”
Imagine entering the salon with aspirations of looking like an emo Jared Leto and exiting with nothing but tears and huge lice… I think this symbolises childhood to a tee.
All in all, our bravery as ignorant, wide-eyed cherubs is something to be admired.
I also think it’s worth proposing a toasting to our angel parents who trusted our visions and let us chase our desired aesthetics, no matter how awry that desired aesthetic may have been.
Hairing’s caring, after all.
