2020 is the Year I Bought Fake Bangs
For many of us, 2020 is “that year.” Unfortunately, it’s not quite “that year” we expected. Many of us could never imagine that we’d be filling our days locked inside, learning trendy dances from teenagers on the internet and using phrases like “murder hornets” in our daily vocabulary. For me, 2020 will now forever be marked as the year I bought fake bangs on Amazon.com. To be fair, this is not my first bout with bangs; as many of you know, a naive, young Mary rocked bowl cut bangs from childhood practically through college. Paired with some questionable fashion choices, bangs marked a rather… controversial period in my style journey. Sometimes the idea that I would ever become a NYC Fashion blogger is hilarious- note the cowgirl shirt in the collage below! I mean, who DIDN’T see the makings of a fashionista???
Growing up, my haircuts were the epitome of awkward a usually mom-cut (My mother is a woman of many talents, but John Barrett she is not). Young Mary was completely on board with her awkward do, and awkward certainly covered all the bases. Bowl cut complete with bangs? CHECK. Slightly uneven at times? CHECK. Didn’t use hair products, ever? CHECK. Some little girls dream of long silky hair, dutifully brushing with over a hundred strokes; my mom had to practically tie me to the chair to detangle my locks. Obviously, this changed as I grew up. Style blogger, I was NOT… yet.
By the time I got to intermediate school and high school, I decided to thin the bangs out. I developed a sense of vanity regarding my greatest asset- glossy and gorgeous despite my aversion to brushing- and of course turned to curling irons, blow dryers, and more hair accessories than one can imagine. High school was also the time of formal dances, which meant endless updos. Through the trends and tribulations, I always had bangs.
I’m not sure why I never changed up my look. I think when I would pin them back and look in the mirror, I would see a gigantic forehead and some kind of internal fear about how it made me look ugly, and I would promptly put them back in their rightful place. I was pretty inflexible about my “look.” I think I was just terrified of change, and at that age was not one to try new things. As I said, young Mary and adult Mary were world’s apart from each other. I even went off to college sporting my cutesie do. Not until a particularly devastating breakup my sophomore year of college did I finally ditch the bangs in a bout of newfound self-expression and (let’s face it) drama. Call it a cliche, but if that wasn’t just the motivation I needed to finally update my look.
I got rid of the bangs, and suddenly, I had hair options! Middle part. Side part. Sunglasses were an option. You can’t wear sunglasses comfortably when your hair is swishing down inside of them. I started wearing hats! Hats never looked good on me growing up, but lose the bangs, and suddenly hats, fascinators, baseball caps were all looking at home on my head. The choice to get rid of the bangs made me feel like a mature and worldly woman, instead of a young girl. As I developed my voice as a style blogger, this look has come to define how I see myself and how I style myself to reflect my many moods and fancies. So many of you know I love a great hat or headband to complete my favorite looks.
Back to present-day quarantine times: like all NYC fashion bloggers, I’ve been deep diving into my creative wells to find new ways to show off my blogger style. Some of my close friends know that I have a deep love for Zooey Deschanel’s character Jess in New Girl (a bangs icon). I immediately thought to put on the iconic red dress and act out the show’s opener. The deep irony being that, after a long journey to my current hairstyle, to pull this off I needed my bangs back. And I tried EVERYTHING. I tried pinning a hank of my hair back. It just looked like… I had pinned a hank of my hair back. I tried photoshopping it. Hard pass. Finally, on a whim, I googled, “Fake Bangs” on Amazon.com. LOW AND BEHOLD…. I found a pair. And for $12.99, no less- I couldn’t pass these up. I’d like to preface this by saying… I am not someone who orders HAIR on the internet.. and then I put them on. To my delight they didn’t look ridiculous. In fact, much to my surprise, they looked kind of fantastic.
Mary’s Style Tip: Be open to exploring new- or in my case, old- things, because you’ll never find what works for you until you try. So often in the fashion community, we hear the phrase, “I could never pull that off.” If you see a style that makes you go WOW!, try it yourself! Spend an evening with your closet or in front of your mirror testing out a new look, whether that’s mixing prints or trying your hand at a graphic eyeliner. You may just be surprised at which styles land a place in your daily looks.
I know, they look ridiculous. When I opened the packaging, I had a “OMG, WHAT DID I DO” moment… but first impressions are not always indicative of the result.
I got rid of my natural bangs a long time ago, and I swore I would never go back. Fake bangs, however? I couldn’t take these off. I felt so glam and my hair looked so chic. I am absolutely mesmerized at the difference a tiny hairstyle change can make to my face. Styling these as an adult looks nothing like my gawky youth. The greatest part? It’s a fashion accessory! For a style that I had long since catalogued as an awkward childhood memory, bangs have made their way back into my heart. This experience has taught me that one look is not it forever, and it pays off big time to open yourself up to a refresh every once in awhile- even a temporary one!
As a style blogger, it’s always a struggle to come up with original content. I love that I can take these bangs on and off as I choose, without having to worry about chopping off my hair. This gives me a lot more flexibility in hair styling, and with almost zero effort! I love that I can own the look now, and still remove it on a whim- just like my accessories, these bangs have given me the opportunity to change my personal style and open myself up to new perspectives on how I feel most beautiful day to day. I never saw a world in which I purchased clip-on hair from the internet, but here we are, and it’s a DELIGHT. So glad that I chose to do this! I highly recommend this set of you are thinking of changing your look.
Xoxo, Mary
This post is not sponsored, I just really liked this product! What have you purchased or tried during quarantine? Would you ever try a hair piece to change up your look?
