All the fashion mags have been telling us the Nineties are back in and I, for one, am totally psyched man (that's 1990s speak for I'm really pleased). This resurgence of Fresh Prince-cum-Saved By The Bell style means dungarees, crop tops and bum bags are in too *air punches*.
While we seem to have embraced the pop-grunge revival whole heartedly, almost unequivocally, there's one key piece in the Nineties capsule wardrobe that has opinions totally divided.... The scrunchie.
There's no sitting on the fence when it comes to the hair scrunchie, you either love 'em or you don't. Well, at least that's what I thought until I put one in my actual hair.
Before this week, the last time I donned this *does air quotes with fingers* must-have accessory, was 1998 and the scrunchie in question was green gingham and matched my school summer dress. I seem to recall I was also the very proud owner of a red velvet one which devastatingly lost all it's elasticity from overwear.
The scrunchie was the perfect tool to keep your crimped-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life hair off your face when rocking out to Nirvana or perfecting the Britney Spears Hit Me Baby One More Time back flip. It was an accessory that crossed the clique boundaries becuase grungers wore them, teeny boppers wore them, I think my mum even wore them.
I know what you're thinking, that it was all well and good way back when Tony Blair was PM and people still watched Home And Away. But now that we've all grown up a bit and our taste in music has become more, er, refined (I still love you Britney!) surely we can't pull off a scrunchie. Or can we?
I'd been toying with buying a scrunchie for a good month or two until I bit the style bullet and purchased a black leather-look one from a popular yet rather overpriced outfitters for urban people. "Do you need a bag?" the shop assistant said. "No way Jose, I'm putting this beast in my barnet right here, right now," I replied (in my head).
Anyway, I tied my hair into the most ridiculously high pony you've ever seen and gawped at myself and my Croydon facelift in the mirror. Did it look good? I honestly have no idea. Did I look cool? I'm not really sure. But I went with it.
At this point I should note, a friend told me I looked like a, ahem, "try-hard Nineties douche bag" and that I should remove the scrunchie right away and "set fire to it". I'm not sure about you, but I thought that was a little strong.
The truth is, after a few wears (scrunchies are like shoes, you've gotta wear them in) the retro hair bobble is starting to grow on me. When I have my scrunchie in I feel as if I've whole heartedly embraced the Nineties revival - I'm doing a half arsed job. I can feel people's eyes on my hair while on the train in the morning and think to myself, "yeah, it's a scrunchie. Don't you wish you had one too?"
But, every now and then I catch sight of my reflection in a shop window and wonder who on earth that overgrown child with the elaborate hair accessory is. Oh, it's me. Sigh. In conclusion, scrunchies make you feel great... Just don't look in the mirror.