Even though I’m not an actress, I posted a photo for #oldheadshot day on Facebook. I selected a photo from a summer day in 1986, heading north on the parkway, home from the Jersey Shore (Belmar, to be specific). 
I’d started college the year before and was still in my Reeboks and E.G. Smith slouchy socks, having not yet entered the business world. It was a good time for fashion, and possibly the start of the athleisure trend with everyone in leggings and sweatshirts. But it was a better time for business.
By the time I entered the workforce, it wasn’t the era of martinis in the morning, but no one was batting an eye if you had a few margaritas at lunch or kept a small, stocked fridge in your office. And if it wasn’t a liquid lunch, there were plenty of end-the-day-early happy hours and such.
Without technology oversight, there was lots of unaccounted for spending and that meant boondoggles – trips to beautiful locations without a real work purpose. Sure, we got things done or attended a few conference sessions, but I can recall laying poolside at Miami’s Fountain Bleau, eating bellinis while drinking champagne midday at New York’s Petrossian restaurant (with Princess Diana’s former hairdresser, natch) and being chauffeured around LA see Rodeo Dr. and dine at Spago.
It was a time of excess and extravagance in the beauty industry, and no one was looking. Or perhaps, it was a tiny unscrupulous corner of my 80’s workplace.
It was a time of excitement, at least as a twenty-year-old with access to celebrities and people who knew where to spend the money. Technology was new – the company also purchased the first cell phone I used.
I loved that time period of big hair, big glasses and bright colors. Recently, our community hosted 80’s night and our friends agreed to dress decade appropriately. As I prepared for the evening listening to Madonna’s Like a Virgin, I realized the only thing I needed were a few O-rings.
My hair’s still large, I love neon pink, listen to Prince, and long for the days when life was carefree. The 80’s may be decades old, and I might have passed on a lunchtime margarita while sharing a meal at Jose Tejas with co-workers this week, but it’ll always be a part of who I am.