Your Hair Be Bangin', Yo!

*grooooaaan*

Oh, yes, I did just write that. Here's the deal: I had bangs in the 80's. Shocker. Who didn't, right? I was about six years old and they were heavily chopped straight across. All I remember about them was having a sweaty forehead in the summertime and collecting mosquito bites under that thick curtain of hair.

My outlook on this strange hair style started to change as I noticed more and more ladies on TV rocking the look:

Glee's character, 'Rachel Berry'

Zooey Dechanel as 'Jess' on New Girl

Hannah Simone as "Cece", also from New Girl

Katy Perry, as Zooey Dechan ... oh, wait. Nope. Just Katy Perry.

There are a lot more, but you get the idea. Then, my closest pal got bangs and she looked AMAZING. While I didn't want to rain on her bangin' parade (sorry, Kristen), I toyed with the idea that these things - in their modern incarnation - might actually suit me, too.

Armed with the jarring mental image of my giant forehead and this picture,:

I went and did it. And I like it. I'm also going to save money on facial bronzer now that I don't need to apply it to the forehead area. Yep, that's where my thoughts take me in the mornings. I'm a deep thinker.

So, where the heck did this style come from? We know that ancient Egyptians wore them, as did both men and women in the Roman Empire. Apparently, there are men and women wearing bangs in drawings dating back to the Middle Ages in Europe and Greece. They were worn both long and shaggy, and sometimes, quite short and almost not really there at all.

Hi, pretty girl! Egyptians knew how to rock the thick and heavy.

Nice bangs, bro. (Julius Caesar, ca. 14 AD)

While bangs fell out of favour in the Elizabethan era (hellllo, gleaming foreheads), they would make a high-fashion comeback in the Victorian era. After the turn of the 20th century, bangs or "fringe" have pretty much maintained their favourable position in hair fashion.

One could argue that the 1980's were an exception, mind you.

Me, ca. 2012. Watch out, world.