What odd fads did you have at school?

[oneskip]

As a teenager a popular girl got a short haircut but had a lock of longer hair at the nape of her neck. Everyone started to copy it and it was a crazy fad for a while.

I've googled to add a picture but couldn't find anything close to it.

We also had a fad for wearing one blue sock. God knows why.

Anyone remember any fads?

Not the whole school, but in Y2 somehow it became a trend to write smaller and smaller, eventually as TEENY-TINILY (sic) as physically possible. Our teacher went absolutely spare.

I was desperate for clackers when I was at primary school!

We had the tiny writing.
Squeezing each others rib cages from behind until we felt light headed.

That was a rat's tail (probably had another name).

Sometimes they'd plait it and sometimes wear it in a tiny bow. (c.1988 in my school).

My friend's crusty partner still had a rat's tail til about 10 years ago which shows dedication to the fad.

Ties tied with the shortest little fat bit sticking out
Jane Norman pe bags (I was never cool enough)
Thin eyebrows and a high ponytail with the two strands pulled out at the front
Shiny lip gloss (sticky!)
Emo/scene fringe hair cuts (for the alternative kids)
Studded belts (again for the alternative kids)

Rats tails we called them ! Everyone plaited them,just about every girl in middle school had one 🤣

I've still got 2 scars from chicken scratches. What were we thinking???

What were chicken scratches please?

You dared each other (because we were very, very stupid) to scratch a place on your wrist for as long as possible sort of by holding your thumb and forefinger together and rubbing with the nails back and forth.

I was very good at it so I got a couple of very sore places on my wrist which are still faintly white.

It sounds like a form of self harm tbh now, but certainly for me it was just weirdly going along with a stupid craze (while obviously doing myself harm).

Deliberately making ourselves faint when we were about 8.

Ouch, I'm glad we didn't have that one.

Yes to being squeezed around the ribs until you passed out. What a silly game!

Also, having to have a cool plastic bag for your PE kit. The coolest people would have one from Oasis (not the dress shop) in Birmingham. It was quite a trek to get there.

There was a skip-it fad at primary school. All the girls brought their skip-its to school to use in the playground.

Wearing granny chains (belcher style link)
Using the inside of felt tip pens or quink ink to make coloured streaks in our hair (used to drip down your neck if it rained)
Kilts becoming a fashion statement
collecting the leather flower shape that comes with kickers shoes and adding them to your next pair. the more tags you had the better
Using the metal BRUT aftershave tag from the bottle as a necklace
Shrinking crisp packets and making badges out of them

I had forgotten that they were called shag bands! Yes to all of the other things too, maybe same school or same time!

Turning our skirts over at the waist on the way to school so they were really short..work with tights and Dolcis shoes with a heel or Kickers. If not the skirts, then baggy black school trousers with oversized denim shirts tucked in. We had long hair lots of Rimmel heather shimmer lipstick to make the look more feminine but cool 😂
Loved my oversized black bomber jacket and awful plastic string Jd sports bag as your school bag 🤷🏻‍♀️
We’d have those see through drink cartons with a straw but wouldn’t use the straw, instead would turn the carton upside down, bite a hole in and drink it through that.
Mid 90’s North west-some of the best years of my life

*Worn not work

Ties tied the wrong way, so the thin bit was at the front (but really short), then tucking the long, wide bit at the back into your shirt so you just had a tiny bit of tie hanging out.

Interested to know if this was just my school as I've never seen this mentioned anywhere else 😂

We had a school shoe fad for the girls where everyone wore these black shoes that looked like plimsolls but with a chunky heel.

I remember looking for the cheapest thing I could find in Jane Norman to buy just to get a carrier bag for PE!
The boys had carrier bags from JD Sport and the girls had Jane Norman.

Definitely mainstream at my school in the nineties.

I had long hair, good 3 inches below my shoulder with an undercut. It felt so good in the summer. I am tempted to do it again to be honest. Comfortable!

I had a "tail" as did most of my friends, however they set a new school rule banning them. God alone knows why. Headmistress used to threaten to cut them off in the corridor.

Wearing just the thin end of your school tie showing was one fad we had through most of secondary school. Some kids used to colour in the stripes with highlighter pen.

We used to buy those airforce/army fabric satchels from the military surplus shop to carry our books and folders in, and decorated them with black felt tip pens.

Yeah I used to do this lol

Pretending not to like whatever flavour of crisps the popular girls didn't like.
Unbending a paper clip and putting it in your mouth so it looked like you had braces on your teeth.

Buying a cubic zirconia ring from Argos and telling everyone you were engaged to some random boy you fancied.
Having a massive strop when the pe teacher made you take your ring off before playing netball.
Pretending to faint on the football pitch in the hope that Kevin from year 11 would notice you.
Multiple scrunchies worn at the same time.
Socks worn over tights
Wide legged black trousers
Begging your mum for a pair of skin tight black flares for school after she had just bought you a pair of wide legged trousers that will now never be worn.
Skirts worn over jeans
Ski pants
Begging your mum to take the foot strap thing of your ski pants because ski pants were out and leggings were in
Watching star trek the next generation so you could impress boys with your star trek knowledge the next day (that one might have just been me and it didn't even work!)