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Low-rise jeans, owl necklaces, eating cinnamon by the spoonful, or laying face down in all sorts of random places… These are just some of the popular trends of the past (thankfully). Though in general, trends seem to be ever present – if one foolish fad becomes a thing of the past, you can be sure there’s another one—likely even more foolish—coming.
Bearing this in mind, it’s no surprise that people have taken part in all sorts of crazes over the years. Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community have discussed such crazes, opening up after one user asked them about the dumbest fads they ever participated in. If you’re curious to see what their stories entailed, you can browse them on the list below, and see if you took part in any of the same things yourself. If not, you can head straight to the comments to share what popular fads you participated in.
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#1
Early 90s. I owned more plaid shirts than a lesbian lumberjack
RELATED:
#2
I had a mullet in the late 80s as a 4th grader.
I was neither a businessman nor a partier.
#3
My mother made me get a Dorothy Hamil haircut when I was in 4th grade. It was a d**n bowl cut and I’m a girl and I cried and she got mad because the hair dresser felt bad. Then she dropped me back off at school and the substitute thought I was a boy 😆😆 it was traumatic 🤣
#4
Being a silly, screaming 12 YO Beatlemania chick. I still scream a lot...Get Off My Lawn!, but we old bats are allowed to.
iseefractals 7 months ago
My mom was one of those "silly" screamers, and both my dad and his older brother had "beatle boots" My parents (and my dad's brother) were all at the Shea stadium concert in 1965, though it took my parents another 12 years to meet as they worked for the same company, though my dad was in Detroit while my mom was still in jersey.
#5
I crimped my hair.
StrangeOne 7 months ago
I had the squared crimping iron. My mom spent a couple hours crimping my hair. I used to think there were people with naturally crimped hair. Turns out it was just a really, really popular thing to do. Looking back, it really didn't look good.
#7
When acid washed denim was hot I would wear all my acid washed together...pants...shirt & denim jacket with a popped up collar along with those baggy topped cowboy boots. My sister has several pics of me in all my faded glory which sends her descending into uncontrollable giggles.
zububonsai 7 months ago
As long as someone is decent and feeling great and happy wearing it, I see not problem 😎👍🏻.
#8
I had long hair as a teenager, and sometime in my early 20's (the late 80's, early 90's), I cut it short but left a rat tail in my hair.
When my wife cut it off (she's a hairdresser) she kept it. I think it's still in a box somewhere...
Mrs Irish Mom 7 months ago
My cousin had one for years and when he got older and cut it off he asked us why no one told him it was stupid looking, eh I did every time you asked weather to curl it or leave it straight 🙈
#9
Zebra highlights
#10
Very baggy pants jingos I think
#12
Tramp stamp
Savannah greenleaf 7 months ago
I did that. I don't regret it all. If anyone says anything about it I just tell to stop trying to check out my b*m!
#13
Hammer pants. Inside out sweaters, sagging my pants way low, overalls with one strap done, super long belts, wallets with super long chains, ...
#14
In the early 90s there was a trend going around my area called "eraser burns"
As you can guess, it was rubbing an eraser on your skin, almost always on the back of your hand, until it broke skin. Idk kids do stupid things lmao. I'm thankful everyday that social media wasn't around when I was growing up
StrangeOne 7 months ago
Unfortunately, this is a method some self-harmers do. It can leave some pretty bad sores and scaring.
#15
I worked at a toy store when beanie babies were a thing. I used my employee discount and early access to buy dozens truly believing I would get rich. Still waiting…
StrangeOne 7 months ago
The toys we thought would be worth the investment are worthless now. The toys we didn't give much thought over are now the valuable ones, but no care was given to preserve them. RIP Flash n Sizzle Jem. I still have the tape.
#16
As a teenager and young adult I used to be an edgy far right bigot.
It's funny looking back on that period of my life now that I'm a trans woman.
#17
In the 70s my mum made our entire family dress in velour track suits. Unwilling participant here.
#19
I wore s**y plaid miniskirts over a pair of jeans (this is when flares were in style, to complete the picture). Black babydoll T-shirt, messy bun pigtails, and thick eyeliner, and OMG that goopy glitter gel - glittery hair, glittery eyes, cheeks, just ... Why so much glitter, 2004?
StrangeOne 7 months ago
Minus the skirt over the jeans, this was basically my look all of 1997-2001. It's actually a fun look if you can pull it off.
#20
Pogs. I was *sure* they would be worth something one day
StrangeOne 7 months ago
This came and went so quickly. I remember it being a really loud game with the metal slammer for a wood floor apartment. I was glad we lived above the storage rooms.
#21
In middle school I was caught up in two: "I'm not like other girls" and thinking I was "cool" because older teens/young 20 year old (and sometimes older than 25 but I thought *that* was creepy) men would hit on me. Girl...no...
#22
Collecting and wearing silly bands
#23
The zig zag part 🤦🏻♀️
NM1159:
Yes! I could never do it right but that didn't stop me from trying!
#24
Long chain wallet 8th-10th grade, 1994-1996ish
Uncle Panda 7 months ago (edited)
"'Sir! I'm going to need to take your chain wallet before you enter the club!" "Because it could be used as a weapon?" "No, because you're in your 40s." ~ Greg Behrend
#28
I had my hair permed into an Afro in the 70s. I’m a white female. I looked ridiculous. Of course, at the time, I thought I was cool with my rake in my hip pocket.
#29
Ok let’s go back to the 80s parachute pants. Enough said
Upstaged75 7 months ago
I wore stirrup pants with leg warmers in the 80's. And matching sweater vests. Oy!
#30
I carried around a yo yo, wore pooka shells, and bleached my hair in middle school
#31
Oh gods my high school emo years. Turns out I was a confused goth.
#32
There I was in junior high, my best friend and I loved The Cure (I like them, always been more of a Depeche Mode fan) and we thought it was so cool to wear skinny jeans with the legs rolled, some kind of patterned socks, black Mary Janes type shoes.
We teased our hair to make it look like Robert what’s his face, powdered our faces and painted our lips and eyes with black eyeliner. We thought we were so cool!
#33
Tanning beds
Savannah greenleaf 7 months ago
No young girls just don't do it! I look 10 or 15 years younger than my friends that did that! Wear sunscreen! People think my SO is my father!
#34
Sagging my pants. There's just nothing redeeming about it. Ugly and super impractical. We'd run around with one hand holding up our pants so they didn't fall off. But the dumbest part was how cool it was and how much of an outsider you were if you didn't participate.
Upstaged75 7 months ago
My brother did this. He was constantly breaking belts because they aren't designed to hold that kind of weight.
#35
6th grade 1990. Z Cavaricci pants then Skidz overalls where you left one suspender unbuckled and hanging.
#37
Thin eyebrows 🤦🏻♀️
Mrs Irish Mom 7 months ago
Over plucked mine 20 something years ago and they never grew back at all
#38
“I’m not like other girls!1!1!”
Essentially just hated other women, loved male attention, would always try to redirect the convo to focus on me instead of other girls, would be “cutesy” for attention, did stupid inappropriate stuff like let guys throw s**t down the space between my b***s as a game (I have DDs), etc. Also made me say some borderline racist/sexist/homophobic stuff because that’s what guys liked.
Now I look back and… *yikes*. I’m sorry to anyone who had to be around me and I’m no longer the bigot I was. Bit me in the a*s though because girls hated me at my high school and I stopped being obsessed with guys so they stopped talking to me too.
#40
In middle school it was cool to have longer hair if you were a guy. I'm not talking like fabio length or anything, but where your bangs almost covered your eyes. I couldn't pull it off because my hair grows really slow. Plus I had some crazy cowlicks that made it look funny.
Lost Panda 7 months ago
I went through a hair metal phase in Jr High. Grew my hair out to about Axel Rose length. When "guys with long hair" came in, I began shaving my head and went more punk/metal XD
#41
Holding your friends neck in the bathroom in highschool until they passed out. This was in the 90s, I don't even know why... it was just a thing you heard about so did it.
A few years ago I saw it on the news again about how kids are making each other pass out as pranks... i was like pshhh, we did that back when I was your age lol
Upstaged75 7 months ago
Yeah, cuz brain damage is always cool. That's what can happen if you go too far with that "game".
#43
Religion.
Peter Bear 7 months ago
What you believe in is irrelevant. What you *do* with those beliefs is what matters.
#45
Crypto.
Tried GPU mining for a little while, generated a tiny amount of Bitcoin and Ethereum, dropped out soon after. I still have my crypto wallet and keys but haven't bothered to decrypt my vast fortune of several few dollars worth of digital currency.
#48
I pretty much spoke in 2016-19 memes for that length of time. *shivers*
Upstaged75 7 months ago (edited)
In the late 90's my college friends and I spoke in movie quotes. Most often from So I Married An Ax Mvrderer. We thought we were hilarious. :)
#49
When Yo-Yos blew up in the late 90s
#50
Garbage pail kids card collecting.
Upstaged75 7 months ago
Those cards were awesome! If you don't know what they are you should look them up. Basically warped versions of Cabbage Patch Kids. Very clever.
#51
Wanting a Furby. Ended up in my closet after 10 minutes.
Edit: as a young child, not recently lol
Lost Panda 7 months ago
That was a Christmas gift that I had made on my list. Within a few months it was hidden under a bunch of other toys because it scared the living hell out of me
#52
Your stereotypical “flannel wearing outcast” right here
#53
I unironically owned an ICP album in the late 90s.
#59
Bloody knuckles and quarters
#61
I love the ones I have, but I acquiesce that funko pops are dumb asf.
#62
I've paid cash money for both pogs and slap braceletts.
#64
Lost all my money in the stock market when wallstreetbets was pumping GME…
Learned a $20k lesson
Savannah greenleaf 7 months ago
Money is just money, possessions are just things, and you lived to tell the tale.
#66
The dumbest fad I participated in was probably the one where everyone was trying to see how long they could hold their breath.
#68
Ice Bucket Challenge
Upstaged75 7 months ago (edited)
At least this trend brought attention and funding to a terrible disease. My uncle died from it. (ALS not the challenge)
#69
I was *very* into the knife song and game in highschool. The more I drank, the more accurate I got. I only have one scar.
#70
Going to college
what a waste of time
Peter Bear 7 months ago
Same here. I learned valuable skills, but I don't have a degree. I don't have debt either. Now, my wife has a higher paying job than me, and after 10 years of marriage we've finally paid off her student loans. College is a scam; all it really is is paying a ludicrous amount of money for a piece of paper that has nothing to do with what you actually *know*.
What do you think ?
Papa 7 months ago
It might have been a local thing, but when I was about 14 (so around 1975) the style was to wear jeans that were so long they'd drag the ground in back so you walked on them, and the bottom inch or two would get eaten out.
JJ 7 months ago
I'm a 90s kid and this was fashion when I was in primary school. I still remember what it felt like to wear jeans like that when it rained - soaked to the knees. Ewww!
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Papa 7 months ago
It might have been a local thing, but when I was about 14 (so around 1975) the style was to wear jeans that were so long they'd drag the ground in back so you walked on them, and the bottom inch or two would get eaten out.
JJ 7 months ago
I'm a 90s kid and this was fashion when I was in primary school. I still remember what it felt like to wear jeans like that when it rained - soaked to the knees. Ewww!
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