Has any film so perfectly captured the unreachable yet relatable coolness of the older girls in school quite like Dazed and Confused did? Of their tube socks and ‘senior’ sweatshirts, yelling “air raid” and covering the freshman girls in flour and ketchup. Discussing the male pornographic fantasy at the guts of Gilligan’s Island while touching up their make-up and smoking in the toilet. Cruising around after dark with their friends, on the lookout for beer, boys and parties. The senior girls of Lee High School encapsulate that effortless grown-up glamour that feels to date away when you find yourself a young teen just starting on your individual highschool journey.

For a movie that was created to be an “anti-nostalgia” movie, as director Richard Linklater put it, Dazed and Confused sure does make those hormone-drenched, hazy dog days of summer look charming, while still capturing so most of the universal growing pains of being a youngster. The 1993 cult classic, which this month celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, follows the scholars of a suburban Texas highschool on their last day of faculty. As with all great movies about teenagehood, nothing happens and all the pieces does. They drive around, get wasted, hang around aimlessly, hook up – an countless, meandering pursuit of on the lookout for the party, for something to do, for something cool.

Set in 1976, the style and sweetness looks are true to the era. The film is crammed with the long, streaming, flaxen, waxen hair that was a holdover from the free-love days of the 60s. Slater, the pothead dealer and alien conspiracy theorist, rocks the longest hair – “Slater, you fucking hippie, give me drugs, man” – but to various degrees, all of the boys have hair on the shaggy side, from Pink and Don’s surfer bobs to Wooderson’s Brylcreemed blonde hair and moustache. The women too wear their hair long, loose and flowing. Milla Jovovich’s character Michelle adds two small braids framing her face to finish the hippie girl look of fringed vest over a bandeau top with bell bottoms and lots of rings.

While the looks are accurate to the period, there may be also a timelessness to the sweetness that makes it still feel relevant today. Cynthia’s baby blue eyeshadow, which perfectly sets off her ginger afro, is just as on trend today because it was within the 70s. Flushed, fresh-faced cheeks have been throughout TikTok FYPs recently because of tomato girl make-up and Rare Beauty but could possibly be the cheeks of the girl-next-door from any era, as could the long, shiny hair the senior girls flip around as they make the freshman fry like bacon. There’s an effortlessness to those looks that can at all times be read as cool and chic and breezy – that older girl je ne sais quoi that can never lose its enduring appeal.

Below we unpack the last word 70s beauty forms of those dazed and confused kids.

THE STONERS

There are many long-haired freaky people at the highschool, most notably Slater, Michelle and Kevin who spend everything of the movie smoking weed, serious about weed and talking about weed. All wear their hair long and flowing, while Michelle adds little plaits to border her face, in addition to purple eyeshadow to march her tube top and many rings.

THE JOCKS

Cliques have come to dominate teen movies, a lot in order that scenes where different social groups are identified within the cafeteria have develop into much-parodied cliches. While there are definitely social dynamics at play in Dazed and Confused, nonetheless, the boundaries are usually not as defined as they may develop into. Kids from all of the groups mix and hang around with one another, and equally the styles are usually not strongly delineated.

The jocks, whether the senior football players or freshman baseball players, wear their hair almost as long and shaggy because the stoners. Mitch’s unstyled shoulder-length hair screams middle school student attempting to emulate the older kids and in addition too lazy to chop it, while the more conscious surfer cuts of Don and Pink fit perfectly with their flared jeans and puka shell necklaces.

THE OUTCASTS

Although Cynthia, Tony, and Mike see themselves as outcasts they spend many of the movie interacting with the opposite characters, cruising around town and going to the parties similar to everyone else. Similarly, their looks are only as informed by the times because the others. The boys have long, shaggy hair – Mike’s curls are verging on a full mullet – while Cynthia’s ginger afro is pure 70s. As is the blue eyeshadow she pops on to drive around and flirt with Matthew McConaughey.  

THE SENIOR GIRLS

The sweetness looks for the senior girls of Lee High School are easy and natural. A little bit of blush, shiny healthy hair, pale eyeshadow either in blues or greys and a few peachy lipstick. That is paired with striped tube socks, denim shorts and slogan sweatshirts when hazing, or embroidered peasant blouses, plenty of silver jewellery and bell-bottoms so tight they should be zipped up with pliers for when you find yourself going out.