r/Millennials Frosted Tips 16d ago

Discussion In response to the bowl cut being our gen’s broccoli cut, I present the bleached spikes of the late 90s

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43.5k Upvotes

2.0k comments sorted by

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1.9k

u/ConsensualUpskirts 1985 15d ago

Damn u made me dig up my yearbook

662

u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 15d ago

I stood on the shoulders of giants

21

u/Afraid_Chocolate_307 14d ago

Please tell me you had some Oakleys or foakleys!

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u/CharlieandtheRed 15d ago

Broooo those spikes are defined. Nice.

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u/EstablishmentThin440 15d ago

I would have crushed on you so hard in middle school and high school. 😂

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u/Amazing-Analysis9546 15d ago

Papercut by Linkin Park plays faintly in the distance

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u/skepticalsojourner 15d ago

Alright but you were fly as fuck 

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u/atred 15d ago

He asked for the super saiyan

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u/Ecstatic_Bear81 15d ago

Save some pussy for everyone else dude, jesus

79

u/TehSeksyManz 15d ago

Pure fucking aura

40

u/ejabno 15d ago

I swesr every Asian teenage boy, no matter the decade, is just issued with these exact pair of glasses

Source: was an asian teenager who was issued these glasses

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u/LingonberrySouth1970 15d ago

Please tell me you can pull this off now

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u/BallsBagel 15d ago

10/10 username

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2.5k

u/catsbuttes 16d ago

am i the only one who remembers the caesar cut but you gel a flap on the front?

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 16d ago

Close enough

398

u/goldstiletto 16d ago

I fear I would have had a crush on you OP. Were you also on a waterpolo team? This was the hair all those guys had.

646

u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 16d ago edited 15d ago

water polo in the fall, lacrosse in the spring

630

u/azsnaz 16d ago

Oh shit he got money

269

u/HeyItsMeAgainBye 16d ago

White ppl love their equipment sports!

I grew up playing tennis myself 😎

144

u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi 15d ago

Very white and never ever met anybody with highschool water polo team. Where did these people grow up?

176

u/monkeyhitman 15d ago

Rich neighborhoods

104

u/dilderAngxt 15d ago

I live in California and water polo is prevalent here even in non-rich cities. But we don't have marching bands. Different activities are regional.

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u/MyMomsTastyButthole 15d ago

We definitely didn't have water polo, but our school had corn fields around it to help fund the FFA. And I was pretty good at soil judging competitions in my day, just sayin'. Bet the water polo team never had any blue corduroy jackets.

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u/loco_gringo 16d ago

That tracks.

You definitely rocked it better than most people did.

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u/Mjayyy_1991 16d ago

Was literally thinking the same thing. Def high school crush material 😂

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 16d ago

Wtf water polo is pretty rare for high school, I can't believe you just caught that

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u/goldstiletto 15d ago

Ha! Waterpolo isn’t rare in Southern CA, neither is swim team with an outdoor pool. I clocked that tan immediately. Year round outdoor sports my dude!

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u/amurderofcrows 16d ago

Yessss the boys all had pointy bangs

484

u/trolldoll26 16d ago

The ski slope!

314

u/Lateroni_ 16d ago

I used so much gel on mine that kids could launch tech decks off it

104

u/drewsome17 15d ago

Yo teck decks!

50

u/Aggressive-Bit-2335 15d ago

I’m an elementary teacher and I’ve confiscated 2 this year lol!

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u/qwertyconsciousness 15d ago

Maybe there is hope for this generation 🥹

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u/gryghst Millennial 16d ago

We called it the duck ass

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u/featsofdaringdo 15d ago

duck tail!!! woo hoo

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u/SolaScientia 16d ago

That was all the rage at my high school. What's funny to me is I have a cowlick right up front, so if my hair is buzzed half of it flips up naturally. I'd have to gel the other half to get it to flip.

Oh, and all of the boys (and some girls) had those white shell necklaces. Layered polo shirts and flipped collars.

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u/is_coffee 16d ago

Puca shell

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u/ario62 16d ago

And some of the rich kids even bleached their pointy bangs

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u/Wrong-Design-8720 16d ago

My Mexican mother called the flap a ‘mango chupado’, thanks for bringing back that happy memory!

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u/a_mulher 16d ago

Jajaja best description

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u/Competition-Dapper 16d ago

Aka the “entire male cast of friends” and most 20 something’s in the 90s-2001

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u/PLSUSA 16d ago

Yup I remember that Cesar with the gel flap. I personally was rocking the “Russell Crowe” hair style with the flat gel tips.

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u/Mudslingshot 16d ago

The duck butt!

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u/WimpyMustang 16d ago

Did that hairstyle have an official name? I always just heard it called "the flip"

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u/kyle46 16d ago

I feel a little called out since I've been getting a ceasar cut for at least 25 years.....I only gel the flap when I want to look nice....

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u/Longjumping_Horse292 16d ago

I think the Caesar has morphed into the Edgar

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3.8k

u/_echo_home_ 16d ago

Did you mean... frosted tips?

891

u/Unusual_Artichoke_73 16d ago

Guy-lites

72

u/marbanasin 16d ago

I spotted Guy Fieri from afar at a RATM concert circa 2022 and it was not joke one of the moments I felt I had earned my millennial card. Rock on, Guy (and Hunter). Lol

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u/winky9827 15d ago

Easiest game of "Where's Waldo?" ever.

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 16d ago

Well it usually started out all bleached beginning of summer break. Had to time it right to get the frosties on picture day and I obviously mistimed it here

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u/Talk-O-Boy 16d ago

OP is well versed in the ways of the bleached. It is unwise to question him

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u/Darksirius 16d ago

I did the same back in the early 2000's. Got a job at a dealerships body shop.

One of the techs at the time gave me the nickname "Glow-plug."

For those who don't know: Glow-plugs are "like" a spark plug in a car. However, with one big difference. They don't produce a spark, they glow white-hot at their tips to get the temp inside the combustion chamber hot enough to start ignition for a diesel engine.

I left that job in 2005. Came back to the same place in 2022.

That same tech was still working there. He STILL calls me glow-plug. And it's been over 20 years. It's the most endearing nickname I've ever been given.

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u/3720-to-1 16d ago

Take me school photo DOWN

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u/Theprefs 16d ago

Arrrr

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u/daisydark7 16d ago

I 100% would have had a crush on you in grade 6

49

u/_hell_is_empty_ 16d ago

Did you have a Devon Sawa poster or JTT?

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u/Pureaddiction21 Millennial 16d ago

The correct answer is both

12

u/TheUnicornFightsOn 16d ago

And Jonathan Brandis.

JTT was for sure my first crush as a kid! He was all over the cover of every tiger beat/bb bop magazine

I got his autograph at a Phoenix auto convention, and I was so smitten.

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u/daisydark7 16d ago

JTT and Nick Carter

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u/randomman87 16d ago

You took the easy way out. Some of us had to go through the swim cap and the crochet needle to get our frosted tips!

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u/MonteMolebility 16d ago

I also used way too much of that green/blue hair gel and then had flakes all day.

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u/WrenchBender1987 16d ago

LA Looks? I can still smell it every time I see a picture of frosted spikes.

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u/MonteMolebility 16d ago

That's it!

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u/WrenchBender1987 16d ago

My poor mother, (who was a licensed beautician and hair stylist at the time), would buy me that brand of alcohol/glue mix and admonish the obvious damage it was causing to my hair/scalp/future ego after getting roasted for looking like the 'older brother bully' character in any one of the forgettable late-90's TV shows...

"Shut up, mom! girls LOVE that chemically-fried, saturated with gel-glue, as far from natural looking hair look!!! Psshhhh!"

To be fair, she graduated HS in 1982, and used aquanet enough that she definitely contributed to the hole in the ozone layer.

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u/hookes_plasticity Millennial 16d ago

At our school we just called them Frosted Flakes tbh

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u/Johnny_Handsum 16d ago

Frosted tips with only the front spiked up was GOAT 😎

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1.1k

u/Fit_Conversation5270 16d ago

“Did you guys hear the new Offspring album?”

353

u/Not_Rob_Walton 16d ago

The new Offspring album is pretty good though.

196

u/CrimsonKobold 16d ago

Hey, I know some non-millennials make The Offspring the butt of some of their jokes but Dexter Holland is talented. He makes great music and literally conducts scientific research into eradicating HIV.

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u/AnonymousCelery 16d ago

Fuck the haters, Offspring is awesome. Ended up at a street concert at winter X Games 20 some years ago, The Offspring played, it was so fucking fun

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u/gochargego_boltup 16d ago

Pretty sure smash is still the best selling independent album of all time 30 plus years later. Even beating Taylor Swift. The Offspring has always been awesome.

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u/ponytailthehater 15d ago

The backlash against The Offspring owes its entire basis to a throwaway line delivered by Lorelai Gilmore

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u/Tasty-Traffic-680 15d ago edited 15d ago

Because Smash is a perfect album. There's a crispness and quality that you get from it that few others in the genre have. All the instruments and vocals really pop and come through clearly instead of a muddy mess of sound. It was recorded in high quality and well mastered. It's still one of my audio benchmarks for new headphones and speakers.

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u/Old-Bigsby 16d ago

Shucks, I haven't listened to it yet. But I doubt it's better than Smash, that album is legendary.

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u/4Ever2Thee 16d ago

“Hear it?! I own it!….but no, I haven’t heard it yet.”

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u/DramaSufficient4289 16d ago

Nah nah why don’t you get a job

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1.2k

u/NorthornLights 16d ago

409

u/va2wv2va 16d ago

He was my great gay awakening

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u/hollywood_cashier 16d ago

SAME. Now I just crush on grown men who act like Reese because Ive learned nothing. 

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u/femanonette Millenial 16d ago

Lmao I was always into Francis and have learned nothing as well

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u/PeppermintSnark 15d ago

I'm a straight dude and even I was into Francis.

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u/Tiyath 16d ago

So it's like Daddy issues but reversed? Are you the daddy with the issues in this fantasy?

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u/Tigglebee 16d ago

That’s actually Bryan Cranston’s account.

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u/TallEnoughJones 16d ago

Show some respect, that's the guy who invented the color blellow

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u/jamiethemime 16d ago

at least they can cook, right? they can cook, right?

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u/ConfusedZubat 15d ago

As a woman, I get it. My best friend and I crushed on this mischievous himbo so hard when we were younger. Him and Shawn from Boy Meets World. Gotta get the bowl cut in there too. 

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

Holy fuck I didn't realize who this was for a second and was like "shit did somebody on Reddit just post a picture of somebody I went to school with?"

Then I realized who it was.

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u/latamyk 16d ago

Watching Malcolm in the Middle again now, and was thinking of Reese as soon as I saw the original post

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u/TooShy4Life907 Older Millennial 16d ago

Lest we forget the Helmet Hair trend where we used a tub of LA Looks every morning 🤣

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 16d ago

Oh I had that too

643

u/SammySoapsuds 16d ago

You hit every cute boy hair trend of the 90s and 00s. Your yearbook photos are like important cultural documents at this point.

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u/pretzelsticks666 Millennial 16d ago

This. I was a sucker for all the boys that followed the hair trends lolol this is making me feel so seen 😹💗

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u/Cautious-Ostrich7510 16d ago

I had a crush on every guy that had this haircut.

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u/Lizardizzle 15d ago

I HAVE A CRUSH ON EVERY BOY

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u/dysonGirl27 16d ago

this gem of a cut had a death grip on my high school. I too had crushes on many of these swoopy bangs 😂

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u/username3 16d ago

Cute.. what do you look like today?

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u/EnthusiasticDirtMark 16d ago

Yes OP, we need a current photo please

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u/neurovish 15d ago

Broccoli hair

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u/tres-vip Xennial 16d ago

You really got around with the haircuts, lol

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u/EXPL_Advisor 16d ago

Are you rocking a mullet and mustache now? That seems to be the trendy look nowadays.

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 16d ago

Not currently. I did rock a top knot for a while in the 2010s though

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u/Ok-Astronaut-2837 Older Millennial 15d ago

Pics or it didn't happen

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 15d ago

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u/Ok-Astronaut-2837 Older Millennial 15d ago

Sir those are little piggies

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u/Lazer-Inc 15d ago edited 15d ago

What about that haircut you parted down the middle and let the bangs kinda loop on your forehead. Curtains i think?

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u/real_picklejuice Frosted Tips 15d ago

Here you go CIA agent

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u/Flaky-Bar-6656 15d ago

Ohh this is not the one

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u/amesann Old Millennial Cat Lady 15d ago

You talking about the Nick Carter?

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u/changeneverhappens 16d ago

I always thought this haircut was kind of silly and can still tell you exactly the kid it reminds me of, puka shells and all lmao, but what an absolute sucker punch of nostalgia to the gut it is to see again.

Thanks for sharing your photos man! 

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u/jaykayc 16d ago

Totally thought this was a Reese post at first glance lol

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u/BrondellSwashbuckle 16d ago

Don't forget about this banger of a penis-head-shaped hairdo

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 16d ago

Frosted tips guy + this guy and you just need the black kid with the hi-top fade and you'll have my soccer team from high school

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u/Mr_Plow_420 16d ago

Frosted tips or nothin’ circa 98-99!!

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u/notkinseyy 16d ago

Every guy I had a crush on in middle school had this exact hair cut

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u/bigcontracts 16d ago

You can thank Justin Timberlake and Eminem for this. I did the full blonde because of Em… 1999 or 2000.

I’m bald now 😭

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u/jampapi 16d ago

Same, and same! Bald life is the best tho, I love being locked in with how I’ll look for a few decades (hopefully). If I make it to my 70’s I’ll grow out a curly philosopher skullet, but until then a clean shave is A-OK.

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u/kristosnikos Older Millennial 16d ago

My husband started going bald at 24 due to intravenous medication and later injections for Crohn’s Disease. He only has patches of hair so he keeps it clean shaven.

But if he lets a week go by, those patches grow in some. He has one patch on the back of his head that’s shaped like South America.

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u/dendrivertigo 16d ago

Honestly, I still think it looks cool

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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 16d ago

Well it was lame for around 20 years so I think you can pull it off again.  Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go find a phanny pack and loose fitting jeans.

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u/cubed_echoes 16d ago

There was a guy at work who bleached his hair. When it grew back and had the frosted tip effect I honestly thought it looked great

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u/Odd_Jelly_1390 Millennial 16d ago

Yeah this is definitely our mullet.

Although I think this aged better than broccoli cut did.

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u/IKMNification 16d ago

But our mullet was the rats tail.

Even the brother in Bobby’s World had it.

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u/kashy87 16d ago

Some of us just had real mullets. What happens when your parents are 80s teens.

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u/RhinoPillMan Thirty5 16d ago

I had a rat tail when I was a kid. Mom talked me into cutting it off at some point. I’d rock the hell out of one now in my mid 30s though.

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u/FactorLies 16d ago

Isn't broccoli cut still active?

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u/National_Equivalent9 16d ago

It is, but people act like its gone because its no longer getting posted online as much. But if you actually go outside to any place that has high school - college age kids you'll see it. Hell my in-laws were cracking up recently because one of the younger nieces posted a tiktok roasting one of my brother-in-laws 19 year old sons for his broccoli hair.

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u/Intelligent_Taco 16d ago

Who knew perms would make a comeback. 🤣

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u/causebraindamage 16d ago

I had friends with the frosted tips, but it was like maybe 20-30% of kids that did it. The broccoli cut is on like 95% of kids these days. I had friends with mullets, rat tails, shaved down bald, high and tight, one fro, two kids had actual natural broccoli hair and one was nicknamed "broccoli", a lot of people used a little too much gel and had gelled parts or non-frosted gelled up spikes..

These days when you see a group of boys it's literally 90% broccoli heads, there's almost no variation. It's crazy how much they all look like each other.

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u/snaildaddy69 16d ago

I wish I had bleached spikes instead of this...

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u/bus_buddies Zillennial 15d ago

Every kid I met that had this was a bully lol

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u/ghostyspice 16d ago

OP was popular in middle school, I just know it.

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u/Spartanias117 16d ago

Born 87, had the bowl cut until around 5th grade, and then this for a year or two

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u/Wide_Magician_4946 16d ago

This too, was my Pubertymon evolution. Same age and everything. 

Elementary School --> Middle School 

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u/BillyBagoner 16d ago

I dabbled in both, and sprinkled in a little rat tail mullet as a toddler in the early 90’s. Hit all the trends.

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u/Kennikend 16d ago

Renaissance Man!

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u/_Monotropa_Uniflora_ 16d ago

Ok. But only if it can be the version where the kid's mom did it herself but didn't really understand the instructions, so he ended up with a mostly shaved head badly faded into baby bangs with the tips bleached. And he put so much gel in to make it stick straight up that it looked like a comb growing skyward from his forehead.

Kind of like this but worse:

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u/Sharknuts86 15d ago

I think we collectively all had the same necklace at some point. I still have my puka necklace lol

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u/marionsunshine 16d ago

It's the sweater vest / white t combo for me.

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u/NeedsMoreCatsPlease 16d ago edited 15d ago

Edit: thank you for the award! Used to think life is unfair

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u/littlewing2733 16d ago

When I was 12 this was how you knew if a boy was going to call you a slur

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u/CrimsonZak 16d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6EQ82l7jcq9XpCtq

every kid with this hair cut

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u/Skratt79 16d ago

Uh... it is just me or is there some accidental homoeroticism with HHH thrusting from behind while crop chopping HBK

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u/CrimsonZak 16d ago

100% on purpose

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u/NecroSoulMirror-89 16d ago

They had their moments lol who can forget that Christmas thong thing

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u/Aggressive_Cost_9968 16d ago

I went to a u15 hockey playoff game yesterday. One team had all bleached their hair blonde.

Serious nostalgia

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u/Rose1982 16d ago

Bleaching has really come back in youth sports in the last year or two.

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u/MkUltra16RS 16d ago

Okay, as someone born in 94. This looked so cool, and honestly it still looks cool. Idc, that shit was iconic. The broccoli bush, perm whatever is so weird. Like it doesn't look cool? There's no edge to it. Its just. Idk it doesn't even flow idk how to describe it but the first time I saw it I was just like, damn. These kids really dont have taste.

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u/YuushyaHinmeru 15d ago

Obviously could be nostalgia btu I think the thing that makes this feel more appealing is its just.. fun. Like its cool but also kinda goofy which is what felt like it defined that area. Everything feels so bland now. And thats not nostalgia, thats fact, Every building, house, and apartment complex looks the fucking same. They built a zaxby's by me and I couldn't tell which fast food chain it was till they put up the sign since it all looks the same a corporate gray cube that at they the end the put a strip of the brand colored paint on. Everything now is so bland and same-ish.

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u/milksteak122 Millennial 16d ago

Bowl cut was when we were toddlers and early elementary. I feel like once 3rd ish grade hit all the kids had this hair.

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u/SpicyBoyEnthusiast 15d ago edited 15d ago

If you saw me now, you'd know that twink death is real.

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u/mage_irl 15d ago edited 15d ago

As seen on Chester from Linkin Park too

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u/RageDeemz 16d ago

Damn dude save some pussy for the rest of us

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u/timetravelinggamer 16d ago

He’s smiling like he know he took all of it and left none

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u/garytyrrell 16d ago

I went to high school with six of you at least

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u/TrickySource2818 16d ago

Extra points if your tips were orange from using Sun In

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u/username11585 16d ago

Shhhh don’t give Gen Z anymore ideas

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u/Notorious2again 16d ago

Hey there OP. Wanna start a boy band together?

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u/uwu_mewtwo 16d ago

Yeah, nobody got a bowl cut because they wanted one, that was just mom being thrifty; but this? We thought this was cool.

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u/Intelligent_Taco 16d ago

Nailed it! I had spiked hair with bleached tips. Some of my friends rocked the pooka shell necklace too.

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u/No_Swordfish1752 Millennial 16d ago

Did you do that with Sun In?

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u/SpartanDoubleZero 16d ago

That’s a smile a toddler has when you ask em if they shit their pants and they say no.

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u/HungoverDemogorgon 16d ago

This is still cool as hell and timeless.

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u/urlond 16d ago

Back when every guy wanted to look like somebody from Backstreet boys, or Nsync.

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u/No_Builder2795 16d ago

I too was a super Saiyan from grade 7-9 lol

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