For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 20, 2017

This is the first in what will be many, many jokes about Michael and his hair grooming habits. I can only assume that Lynn Johnston’s own son must have taken up using hair gel around this time in 1988.

Must be extra, extra, EXTRA strong gel.

In the 60’s, ladies used hairspray for the same purpose. :D

It took me awhile to get this one. Why so many superfluous bystanders?

This strikes a chord, as I’m highly allergic to the vast majority of hair gels, hairsprays, and perfumes!

A little dab will do you — Brillcream. (Hope that I spelled it correctly. Haven’t seen it in years.)

Kids nowadays have the luxury of waiting inside the warmth of Mom or Dad’s car or getting a ride to school. I did not get that benefit back when I was in school. Up until my late high school years, I was either walking to school or waiting for the bus to come. And it was always in the cold the bus ran five minutes late. Like on purpose.

As it turns out, it is not gel at all, but something like the plastic hair pieces Devo wore on the New Traditionalists album.

Anybody else remember Dippity-Do?

It was a go-to for mom for years.

Anyone else remember “Hey, jelly-head” the ad that went against jels?

As for the shelters, I remember going somewhere once and seeing these shelters along the main road and thinking how nice it was for that insurance company to put them up. Then, I turned off onto a back road, and here the kids were shivering in the rain waiting for the bus.

Back in the 1950s when I was in a Military school, I used Butch Wax on my flat top!

I remember this stuff called “Dippity Do.” My mom (RIP) used to put it in our hair. No better than “greasy kid stuff,” whatever that was.

Why in the world are these kids carrying a giant sheaf of loose papers in that wind? I think they had heard of notebooks and binders back in 1988.

I can never think about hair gel, without being reminded of the hilarious scene from There’s Something About Mary.