While most of us who lived though the Eighties might be happier to forget how we dressed in those days, there's a younger generation trying to copy the look.

Sales of home perm kits and crimpers to help create the distinctive Eighties big hair have rocketed, as has turnover of the vivid make-up popular in the era.

Superdrug has revealed that sales this year of home perm kits are up 50 per centon the same period in 2007 - and that over the last week alone they sold more than they did in all of February 2006.

The chemically-set curl was popularised by the likes of footballer Kevin Keegan and countless Eighties popstars.

Hair crimpers also seem to be coming back into fashion and are expected to grow even more popular this summer, the chain said.

As for the electric blue mascara so popular during the Eighties, Superdrug last month sold around five times more than it did over the same month last year.

Those who can remember the way they used to look may still be trying to get over it.

"Scarily, the people buying into the 1980s now probably were born in the 1980s," Mr Newbould said.

The revival of Eighties make-up follows the appearance of new fashions influenced by the decade on the catwalks in designer shows, Superdrug said.

Away from the world of haute couture, Ashes to Ashes, starring Miss Hawes and Philip Glenister as the politically incorrect DCI Gene Hunt,is the clearest source of Eighties inspiration, from the detective's red Audi Quattro car to the clothes and make-up of the cast.

A collection of the decade's pop pin-ups, including Paul Young, Martin Fry of ABC, Rick Astley and two members of Bananarama, are about to hit the stage again in a nationwide Here and Now Tour.

Posted by: Chris07 at March 03, 2008 10:28 AM (I2JBw)

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