Scrunchies: An IWSG Post

6:30 AM Elizabeth Seckman 71 Comments

Have you heard? They're back!!
scrunchies!!

Okay, okay, for all you dudes and peeps who don't know what the heck I'm talking about, a scrunchie is a hair band. But not just any hair band. It's a big, wide, cloth hair band that can come in an assortment of colors and patterns. Wear them in your hair. On your wrist. Wear two or three. The choices are yours. They're handy, they're dandy, and I loved them.

I loved them so much, I'd make my own so I could match one to every outfit, holiday, and occasion. And they weren't just fun- they were practical too. I have really thick hair and regular hair bands often break or I have to use two or three to hold all my hair. I could make a scrunchie with elastic from the sewing aisle and my hair would stay trapped high and perky all day long.

Okay, that's all swell and good, you say. But what do scrunchies have to do with the writerly insecurities and the writing life?

Well, here's the thing: sometime during the 90's, Glamour Magazine, with their obnoxious use of the black bar, prompted me to toss out all of my scrunchies. *Again, for the dudes and the practical-thinking-unfashion-obsessed peeps, Glamour has a page in their beauty magazine where they make fun of fashion faux pas placing black bars over people's faces to protect their identity while they rip away at their outfits. 

In a nutshell, Glamour said I was way uncool if I was still wearing scrunchies.

It hurt. I LOVED them. I really did. But I didn't want to be a fashion disaster, so I succumbed to the prodding of the rude fashion columnists poking fun at me from their steel castles along the Hudson River.


Now, scrunchies are back in fashion again. (We won't get into the logic of fashion- why is something hilariously ugly one year then fashionable another? If something is awful, shouldn't it always be awful?) So, what lessons does the scrunchie tale teach the insecure writer?

1. Don't even try to follow trends. They make no sense and they are arbitrary. You could spend your whole life writing and tossing what is rapidly going in and out of fashion.
2. Identify your style and embrace it. If you love it, make it work.
3. Ignore the taunts from the "fashionable" crowd. They wouldn't be throwing stones if they didn't worry about who was crawling up from the bottom.
4. Scrunchies look great with sweat pants or leggings.

Join the IWSG
The Question of the month...

Bonus points added to your cool nerd factor if you get this. 
Other than the obvious holiday traditions, have you ever included any personal or family traditions/customs in your stories? 
Off the top of my head, I'm going to say no, but I bet I have and I just can't think of anything. Our traditions and customs become so much a part of who we are, I think a lot of times they show up in our books without us even realizing it. 

Thanks to the IWSG team, our fearless leader and to this month's awesome co-hosts: Jacqui Murray, Lisa Buie-Collard, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence for making this day of support possible. 

Don't forget to follow the IWSG on Instagram and we're also a Facebook group.


You can also join the IWSG Book Club on Good Reads for polls, freebies, book chats, and fun. 
This month there are two books to choose from: Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold or Chill Factor by Sandra Brown. The discussion day for these books will be March 25th.





Don't forget the WEP Challenge! 

IWSG MARCH 4TH: Family Tradition in Story




71 comments:

  1. That's why I've never understood fashion trend. (I do understand scrunchies though - my wife wears them.)
    Yeah, it's hard to think of family traditions when they are just part of who we are. We don't really notice them then.

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    1. The older I get, the less I understand= especially the uncomfortable stuff. I love comfort.

      Delete
  2. Scrunchies!! OMG!! I used to wear these too. Haven't for a long time but did hear they were making a come-back :)

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  3. I wish I had really thick hair! I still tried to make scrunchies work in the 80s, but there wasn't much to scrunch...

    Excellent lessons here!

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    1. And I'd love thinner hair. Mine is thick and unmanageable. Add a drop of moisture and I look like Roseanne Roseanna Danna.

      Delete
  4. You always make me chuckle, Elizabeth. My daughter uses scrunchies in much the same way. They are now an important detail in wardrobe for a ver elite group of kids in elementary school, as I am told. I guess now that you mention fashion and traditions, I add combat boots to my characters. I wore dock martin's like they were a life raft for me in college. They were so heavy and I was always walking everywhere with my tackle box of art supplies :) I guess my characters feel more secure with them on the way I did. Happy IWSG Day :)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I was subbing for kindergarten and a girl lost one on the playground. She was crushed. Poor thing.

      We do add ourselves in small details. Books are like are offspring- we're going to leave shades of ourselves on them.

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  5. So love this post...and scrunchies! My hair is way too short to wear them now, but I loved them back in the day. And that list is priceless, especially the second one - it's my favorite.

    My cool nerd factor is wavering - Molly Ringwald, yes, but from which movie? Hmm, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club? Doesn't matter because now I want to re-watch them all!

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    1. You're cool nerd factor is still high. You're in the ball park. It's from Breakfast Club.

      The older I get, the less I worry about cool- which is cool, right?

      Delete
  6. I love your analogy! And, yeah, trends are so in and out. There'll always be an audience for what you write. It just may not be huge.

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  7. I wore scrunchies way past their cool date, but since I wasn't getting new ones, my old ones lost their elasticity and I switched to the thin elastic ones and now I'm hooked. Sorry fashionistas, but I won't be jumping back on the scrunchy wagon, but hope you enjoy the heck out it!

    Congrats on the new book release!

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    1. I won't be either. I have a huge basket full of the thin hair bands like you say and I'm not tossing and starting over again.

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  8. So funny you posted this today! Some of the girls in our after school program wear scrunchies and I haven't seen them in years! I agree, don't follow fashions... My daughter summed it up for me once in France when she said, (at age 14) "Mama, have you noticed how French women wear what looks good on their bodies, not whatever is in fashion?" Awesome.

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    1. And you and your daughter always look so beautiful! She's a wise woman already.

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  9. My hair is too short for scrunchies, but oh yeah, I loved them, once. Fashion trends, I'm always years behind, or ahead depending on the article. I've never been one to follow the trend. Too expensive. At least not since high school, even then it was a beer budget with champagne tastes. :)

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    1. I think that's the story of my life- beer budget, or in my case, cheap wine.

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  10. Hi,
    I hardly ever wore scrunchies on my wrists but I did wear them in my hair to lift it up on my head.
    another question: I am trying to find your book on Amazon Germany. Do you have on Amazon's German account because I live in Germany and I am not able to purchase it on the dot com account.
    Shalom aleichem,
    Pat G @ EverythingMustChange

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  11. Scrunchies are great! I wonder if they made a comeback because of To All the Boys I've Ever Loved Before - a book turned Netflix movie in which a scrunchie is a plot point!
    But yes, trends are crazy. Let's write what we love.

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    1. I'll have to check that movie out. I've never heard of it.

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  12. I loved scrunchies, too!

    Everything always comes back in to style.

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  13. I wore my share of scrunchies. But after I cut all my hair off, I didn't have use for them anymore. Lucky for me, I've never cared about fashion trends and still have a few scrunchies lying around for my daughter.

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  14. You make a good point. I need to take another look at my stories and see if I've "accidentally" included a tradition or two.

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    1. I think so much of ourselves sneaks into the stories that people who know us well begin to think it's all true, which can be embarrassing.

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  15. LOL, I am wearing a scrunchie right now. I never did follow trends so missed that news on the faux pas. I am going to get a banana clip too. I can't find mine, and my hair as gotten long enough I can use one again.

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    1. I loved banana clips too. I moved from them to to sloppy bun. I will never abandon the sloppy bun.

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  16. Ah yes, the infamous Glamour Fashion Do's and Don'ts page. If scrunchies are back, how long until the barrettes with the huge bows reappear? ;-) I had those to match outfits, too!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I wore a barrette with a bow to prom- how's that for trendy?

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  17. I haven't thought of scrunchies in a 100 years. Fun post that brought back memories. I never could keep up with fashion. I guess that's why I love living on our sailboat, La Vita. This lifestyle is more suited for a tomboy. Thanks for co-hosting this month. These monthly blog-hops introduces us new ideas and and awakens memories.
    Lynn La Vita blog: Writers Supporting Writers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A sail boat? That would be awesome- though I'd probably not have the nerve. I've always wanted to live in a Hobbit hole. They seem so quaint and separated from life's hassles, well until the ring becomes an issue.

      Delete
  18. I used to have a ton of scrunchies. I still have a few. My hair's too thin to worry about them now!

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    1. I have my grandma's hair. She promised me that even once it starts to thin, I'll still have a ton of hair. That was her bright side for me when I complained about it being so thick and unruly.

      Delete
  19. I've been thinking that I need to buy some scrunchies for spring and summer. I definitely will now.

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    1. I had said I wouldn't, but I might. Just a few...summer is a fun time and we should do fun things.

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  20. Scrunchies went out? I totally missed that. I still have all of mine.

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    1. According to Glamour- but don't worry, I ended my subscription. Now, they can't shame me for being a comfort-loving gal from a podunk town.

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  21. My daughter has gotten into scrunchies recently. They are also all over the house now. There must be a correlation... :)

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  22. I use a scrunchie to put my ridiculously long hair up in a bun for work. Not exactly a fashion statement, though.
    I never pay attention to writing trends. I just write whatever story ideas pop into my brain.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. They work great for that. I used to have really long hair, but I've trimmed it to shoulder length.

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  23. Yeah, it is so dumb that things are ugly one year and oh so pretty the next. Pfffft. Do what you want and screw the rest.

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    1. I wonder if they ever feel two-faced-- making fun of a fashion trend so definitively and then promoting it later? I mean I will rag on bell bottoms, but you'll never catch me wearing them. I think they're ugly, no matter what the trend.

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  24. I loved scrunchies when I had long hair and my daughter never gave into the fashion trend of not using them. Cool people always had them on their wrist.
    Great lesson on trying to follow trends.

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    1. They were handy on the wrist. I still wear hair bands on my wrist most days- you never know when you or a friend will need one.

      Delete
  25. We just did a scrunchie hunt for an orange one. My daughter needs them for gymnastics. As to fashion trends, I was never fashionable or cool. Kind of like writing ;)

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    1. And that's why you're the coolest.

      I hope you found an orange one- if not, they're easy to sew.

      Delete
  26. Agreed. We have to dance--and dress to our own drummer. Scrunchies also don't rip your hair out when you take them out. ;)

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    1. Excellent point! They are the kinder, gentler hair accessory.

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  27. "You could spend your whole life writing and tossing what is rapidly going in and out of fashion." YES. THIS. So very, very true.

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    1. Can you imagine Poe deciding to write romcoms because they were popular?

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  28. Scrunchies are wonderful and I enjoyed your humour and the connection you made between writing and scrunchies.

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  29. I've never followed fashion trends, but I did love scrunchies. I gave them up when the satin ones were no longer available, the rougher cotton ones seemed to tear at my hair.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I never used the satin ones. I always went with the hair-gripping cotton.

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  30. I have a few scrunchies.
    So I remember the Breakfast Club question but I forget if she answered it directly. I might need to research that one.

    Happy weekend, hon.

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    1. Should I add a plot spoiler? She does and it's a no.

      I hope you have a great weekend too. Hugs!

      Delete
  31. I'm the opposite of you..I have thin hair so the scrunchies would just slide out.

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    1. I could use some thinning to my hair. Thin hair seems more manageable.

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  32. Never heard of Scrunchies, but I never took much notice of what was or was not fashionable. My hair used to be very long but I guess Scrunchies were not around in those days. I had it cut when I was in my early 20s and it has been short ever since.

    I don't think authors can avoid including personal experiences in their stories. It is part of their lives so they make it part of the books they write. Like you and the outer banks!!

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    1. You look great in short hair. And I would never suspect you of being a slave to anything but your own mind.

      I never thought of the Outer Banks. It's definitely a family tradition!

      Delete
  33. Great analogy with the scrunchies. I guess I don't give a flip what any magazine has to say about what's fashionable and what's not, because I never stopped wearing scrunchies! AND... the purse I use 99% of the time is a... ready for it?... hippie! I don't CARE if I am the only living person who still uses that less-than-lovely type of purse to carry around my stuff. It works!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Your purse is probably very hip right now. I bought my current bag when I was pregnant for son #2, so it's 24 years old. It's a nice sturdy leather that will last another decade or so. (Now, watch the strap break!)

      It's so freeing to be unharnessed from the trends of the fashionistas. It's one of the perks of getting older.

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  34. What a purrfect analogy. Loved this post:)

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