This site uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising.
By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies described in our Cookies Policy.
You may change your settings at any time but this may impact on the functionality of the site.
To learn more see our Cookies Policy.
THERE ARE SO many horrific grooming mistakes that teenagers can fall victim to.
Between the various ways to remove, colour and style hair and the desire to change as much of your face as possible, is it any wonder we lost our way sometimes?
It’s no one’s fault; we have to learn these things gradually. But still when you look back over old photos you want to cry out to your teenage self: “STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING. RIGHT NOW.”
Over plucking eyebrows
A decade ago, Cara Delevinge would have been ostracised for her big caterpillar brows.
Every teenage girl couldn’t wait to get rid of her eyebrows, with the desired shape being pencil-thin and reminiscent of sperm.
AFF / EMPICS Entertainment
AFF / EMPICS Entertainment / EMPICS Entertainment
Minus even more points to anyone who attempted to shave them with a razor. That’s just a whole other world of bad.
Cutting your own hair
Feathered fringes were in. But you didn’t have the money for a haircut. Hey, there IS a pair of scissors in the house…
Same goes for DIY perms. Nothing good ever came of this.
If you were REALLY cool, you might get one or two lines shaved into your eyebrows as well. Slick.
Misadventures with hair bleach
For a time in the 90s, big blocks of yellow-blonde ‘highlights’ striped haphazardly through the hair was the in thing. Nicole Appleton could barely pull them off, what made you think you could?
Peter Kramer / StarMax/allaction.co.uk /EMPICS Entertainment
Peter Kramer / StarMax/allaction.co.uk /EMPICS Entertainment / StarMax/allaction.co.uk /EMPICS Entertainment
Guys were guilty of this one too – bleaching the tips of the hair only for that ‘frosted’ look. No, no and no.
Many girls just starting to wear foundation used a big block of pan stick or some other greasy concoction to cover up as much of their natural skin tone as was possible.
The first appearance of facial hair can be an exciting time for most males. While some feel pride getting to shave for the first time, others want to see how far they can take it.
If you weren’t going to get full or half cornrows or a braid while you were on holidays, there was no point in even going.
You had the head pulled off you for an hour or so, but the result was SO worth it. Except for now, when you look back at all your childhood holiday snaps and weep.
We will not speak of that tuft of hair that resulted from cutting off a braid once it started to get ratty.
Overusing hair gel
It’s 2002. Gareth Gates has just won the hearts of every girl in the country. What was the key to his look? What would make the girls fall for you as they had for Gareth?
Doug Peters / EMPICS Entertainment
Doug Peters / EMPICS Entertainment / EMPICS Entertainment
The hair. Oh that hair.
Ironing your hair
There was a time when poker straight hair was extremely desirable, and every girl in the world was clamouring for a GHD so they could burn their locks into shape.
Didn’t have a hair straightener? No problem! You just asked a trusted sibling to iron it for you.
Teens who identified with the goth/emo subculture, male and female, were highly susceptible to this one.
It was important to make your eyes as black and dark as your soul felt, and rings and rings of inch-thick black kohl was the only way to do it. Ghastly.
LuMarPhoto / AFF/EMPICS Entertainment
LuMarPhoto / AFF/EMPICS Entertainment / AFF/EMPICS Entertainment
How many of these were you guilty of? Go on, you can tell us.
Friday 10 January, 2025
Friday 10 January, 2025
Download our app
11 of the worst grooming mistakes we were guilty of as teenagers
THERE ARE SO many horrific grooming mistakes that teenagers can fall victim to.
Between the various ways to remove, colour and style hair and the desire to change as much of your face as possible, is it any wonder we lost our way sometimes?
It’s no one’s fault; we have to learn these things gradually. But still when you look back over old photos you want to cry out to your teenage self: “STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING. RIGHT NOW.”
Over plucking eyebrows
A decade ago, Cara Delevinge would have been ostracised for her big caterpillar brows.
Every teenage girl couldn’t wait to get rid of her eyebrows, with the desired shape being pencil-thin and reminiscent of sperm.
Minus even more points to anyone who attempted to shave them with a razor. That’s just a whole other world of bad.
Cutting your own hair
Feathered fringes were in. But you didn’t have the money for a haircut. Hey, there IS a pair of scissors in the house…
Same goes for DIY perms. Nothing good ever came of this.
Artistically shaved hair
As a final touch to your short back’n'sides cut, you may have asked the hairdresser to shave two horizontal lines on your scalp.
If you were REALLY cool, you might get one or two lines shaved into your eyebrows as well. Slick.
Misadventures with hair bleach
For a time in the 90s, big blocks of yellow-blonde ‘highlights’ striped haphazardly through the hair was the in thing. Nicole Appleton could barely pull them off, what made you think you could?
Guys were guilty of this one too – bleaching the tips of the hair only for that ‘frosted’ look. No, no and no.
Foundation lips
Many girls just starting to wear foundation used a big block of pan stick or some other greasy concoction to cover up as much of their natural skin tone as was possible.
Inexplicably some didn’t stop when they got to their lips, but filled them in to give a ghostly, near-freezing look. COOL.
Overpowering smells
You were trying to cultivate a signature scent which would be associated with you forever.
As you would later discover, loading on the Charlie/Exclamation/Lynx/Joop! was not the way to go about it.
Bum fluff
The first appearance of facial hair can be an exciting time for most males. While some feel pride getting to shave for the first time, others want to see how far they can take it.
But it takes some time to grow manly beard. A feathery bum fluff ‘tache was the sole result of weeks of growing. Hello, ladies.
Cornrows/braids
If you weren’t going to get full or half cornrows or a braid while you were on holidays, there was no point in even going.
You had the head pulled off you for an hour or so, but the result was SO worth it. Except for now, when you look back at all your childhood holiday snaps and weep.
We will not speak of that tuft of hair that resulted from cutting off a braid once it started to get ratty.
Overusing hair gel
It’s 2002. Gareth Gates has just won the hearts of every girl in the country. What was the key to his look? What would make the girls fall for you as they had for Gareth?
The hair. Oh that hair.
Ironing your hair
There was a time when poker straight hair was extremely desirable, and every girl in the world was clamouring for a GHD so they could burn their locks into shape.
Didn’t have a hair straightener? No problem! You just asked a trusted sibling to iron it for you.
Raccoon eyes
Teens who identified with the goth/emo subculture, male and female, were highly susceptible to this one.
It was important to make your eyes as black and dark as your soul felt, and rings and rings of inch-thick black kohl was the only way to do it. Ghastly.
How many of these were you guilty of? Go on, you can tell us.
11 reasons to be glad you’re not a teenager any more>
6 pieces of useful life advice we all learned from teen movies>
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Beauty Bleach eyebrows Facial Hair hair gel hair removal makeup Perfume personal grooming skin and hair you look...nice?