In 1988, I was home from college for the summer visiting friends who had tickets to see Def Leppard at Alpine Valley Music Theatre. Great place to see shows – outdoor venue and near Milwaukee where I lived. We get all dolled up on Saturday night – tight jeans, cropped tops and big hair.
Really big hair. And I have a lot of it.
In 1988, I was the spiral perm queen (eesh - remember those?). It took 2 sets of rollers & perming product get my hair just perfect, not to mention at least 4 or 5 hours at the salon! My hair was halfway down my back and could have smothered you if you got within a few feet. I'm not really exaggerating here.
So, we're at the concert, rocking out to Def Leppard. Everyone has their lighters going, swaying back and forth. For future reference: massive applications of Aqua Net and swaying lighters are a very bad combination.
When the screaming started nearby, I didn't realize it because my hair kind of exploded in a big POOF on the right side of my head. I couldn't feel nor see it!
Luckily we extinguished the flames quickly – and because of my big hair – it never actually touched my scalp! Though my hairdresser's face the next day told me she wished she could've scalped me herself, for the work it caused her... let's just say I was not a pretty sight. She did her best but I ended up with sort of an odd mullet until it grew out.
Think that was the end of my big hair days. Probably not a bad thing...