"Good Morning, Class, and Welcome..."

by Miss Justine Brown


Here at the Beauty Skool, we don't know if we are students or teachers. All we know is that school's in for summer and every other season of the year! When Miss Brown became a punk at 13 years old, the program was pretty unconventional. It was 1978 in Vancouver, Canada, a time and place when you could still shock people with makeup, hair and clothes. 99% of teenagers had carefully feathered hair (Farrah was their idol, and the big handles of their combs stuck out of their tight flared pants) and everyone seemed to own a curling iron. Hair colour was unheard of. Makeup consisted of tan foundation, blue eyeshadow, stripey blusher and glossy lips. "Your hair would feather really nicely," was their constant refrain.

Miss Brown's (at right, with pal Lynn) conversion to punk rock started to manifest itself when she safety-pinned her jeans down the legs to make stovepipes. That simple gesture provoked howls of disgust from passing Camaros and Firebirds ("PUNK ROCK SUCKS!"). Imagine what happened when she hacked off her hair with nail scissors, leaving one side short and the other shorter.