GROUP CHAT: What Random Teen Magazine Tip Have You Retained All These Years Later?

(And why is it "rinse your hair in cold water so you'll close the cuticle"?)

Welp fam, not gonna lie — I had a different kind of question planned for today’s inaugural GROUP CHAT.

I wanted to go deep. Existential. Contemplative.

And then I posted this on Threads and it took off:

them: “the personal is universal. the more specific you are as a writer, the more relatable your writing is.” me: “did any of us know what a hair cuticle was?”

The answers I got to this were nostalgic and HILARIOUS.

So for today’s GROUP CHAT, I’m asking:

What random teen magazine beauty (or style) tip have you retained for decades now into adulthood?

For me, it’s the “cold water/hair cuticle” thing. Did I know what a hair cuticle was or how it opened and closed? No and Absolutely Not. But to this day, it’s my longer-running hair care routine. And I always get comments that my hair is shiny, so…I dunno, maybe it’s from all those abrupt cuticle-closures?

I know it’s not just me. What is it you read in YM or Seventeen or Sassy or CosmoGIRL! (my fav) that you still abide by today — or maybe, now that you have hindsight, are super skeptical of?

Worth noting that the above magazines listed were very explictly marketed to girls, but if you were ever a teen in the age of print magazines (no matter your gender), there’s a good chance there is some random tip stuck in your brain from like 15-50 years ago.

THE GROUND RULES FOR THE GROUP CHAT: Leave your answer in the comments section, and feel free to chime in on someone else’s responses too! Number one rule is to be kind to one another. Any malicious comments or assholery will be deleted. Let’s make sure this corner of the internet remains one we WANT to come back and hang out in :)