By way of reminiscing over my misspent “youth”, here’s a snapshot of October 2004, or thereabouts. Having gone blue and worn blue and purple synth dreads in the early part of the year, I decided to go blonde. Very light blonde. And start braiding other things in my hair. First there was colinette wool, then blonde synthetic dreads:

My wardrobe at the time was very cybergoth, consisting of PVC mini-skirts, PVC buckled patform boots, buckled PVC corsets (do you see a theme here?), and sometimes bright neon green raver accents.

There was also a fair bit of silver and metal thrown in there…like this metal bodice and spiked wristbands from Allycat metalware. (Yes, I still have them)

I also tried cyberlox for the first time – not just falls plonked on my head, but braided in to look more natural. I put a silver rinse through my hair first to try to match it. And here I am with the reigning queen of Sydney cybergoth at the time, Amelia aka DestroyX.

A close-up shows the silver on my face and arms..I just got some silver hairspray, closed my eyes, and sprayed like crazy. Shoulda got silver contact lenses. Oh well.

Amelia had fantastic falls she had begun making and selling, in foam, plastic and tubing.

 Would I wear these today? Not really. You can still see girls wearing exactly this type of clothing, boots and hair – but they’re in their 20’s, and that’s probably as it should be. How old was I back then?

40 years old.

Yep. Yikes. Even though I undoubtedly looked good for my age, age-appropriate went right out the window. Still, you gotta give things a go. And if you’re under 40, I say to you…take a chance and wear something daring! Cos at least you know there was someone there before you, wearing something sillier. And it was probably me, #growing old disgracefully.