From scrunchies to butterfly clips: 6 style fails every girl experienced as a kid.

As a child of the '80s and the '90s, I grew up with great fashion and style.

OK, that's a complete, utter lie. We all know the '80s, '90s and even early '00s weren't really synonymous with great fashion or style, and as every girl or mother of a child knows there comes a time around the age of seven or eight where we really think we know best in the style department.

For me, that was matching fluoro parachute pants and jackets, too many butterfly clips, hideously patterned vests and mismatches of all of these items that really did not work. AT ALL.

This photo should never have seen the light of day. Image: Supplied.

Now, for some reason (I blame my mum) I managed to be the poster girl of all style fails one can experience as a child, but OMG how much fun it was at the time? And how much do my own girls love looking at these photos now? And come on…we do learn from our mistakes, right?

I really do encourage my daughters to embrace their sense of style and fun, even if it involves "fails" along the way. That's the thinking behind a new toy called FailFix that's actually made for kids who want to play with style and not be afraid to get it wrong.

With six fails to fix, kids get to play 'style saviour' on dolls with unique personalities and looks, like dance style master @Dance.Stylz and mermaid-haired @2Dreami. Think untangling accessories from the doll's hair and restyling it, trying out rare outfits and applying a Magic Spa Mask to reveal a new makeup style.

Better fail on a doll than on their own hair, right? Image: Supplied.

But really, it teaches them to celebrate the failures because, as we all know, they sure do happen.

Most of us have evidence of that. Here are some of the best of the best (or worst of the worst – depending how you look at it) of the style fails that every girl has experienced growing up...

1. Questionable hats.

Blossom had a lot to answer for. Image: Getty.

There were the Blossom hats – remember those hats with the upturned brims with the HUGE flower stuck right on the front worn by Blossom and her friend Six in the TV show? And by '90s Aussie girl band Girlfriend? I, like many of my generation, had an array of these to choose from (because you could not just have option), plus that flower had to match your outfit.

2.Butterfly clips.

Along with the hats, there were the butterfly clips. I mean, were you even a girl of the '90s without butterfly clips?

It seemed there was a definite belief that you could never have too many of these plastic beauties in your hair at the one time. Personally, I preferred a baby blue shade of butterfly clip, one that matched exactly to a blue fake fur trimmed top. Fah-shun.

 3. Some deeply regrettable hairstyles.

Thanks for the hair-mories. Images: Mamamia staff.

My seven-year-old has already started to 'style' her own hair and there is a definite reason I use inverted commas around that word.

Yes, I did the exact same thing when I was around her age, including (this list is not definitive FYI): butterfly clips of course; an overuse of scrunchies, ponytails and other hairstyles that were positioned on top of my head so they looked like unicorn horns or a genie gone rogue; and finally, the huge mistake that was the almighty crimper. *SHUDDER*

Among the Mamamia team we've also found plenty of bowl cuts and Alice bands in the vaults...

 4. Bad hair, part two (because it was that bad).

Nope, the bad hair definitely didn’t stop there because how can we talk about style fails without mentioning DIY haircuts?!

There were times when I decided to trial haircuts (thankfully on plastic dolls’ hair and not my own). These cuts were jagged, varying in length, and not layers - just completely uneven. On occasion, this resulted with the doll in question becoming as close to bald as could be without an actual razor. You live, you learn.

5. The outfits. Oh, the outfits.

My jumpers will forever haunt me. Images: Shona Hendley.

I was an only child, independent and opinionated (I possibly still am) and really for my mum, let's just say fashion wasn't her priority.

This disastrous combination led to a sequence of facepalm-creating outfits throughout my youth including: an array of jumpers with pom poms, giant buttons and other things stuck or sewn onto them, happy pants or patterned fleecy jumpers, peach 'dressy' pants which looked like something Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would wear, hyper colour tees, tearaway buttoned Adidas pants (hey Sporty Spice) and vests…so many vests.

 6. Makeup trials.

When I was young, I would be forever finding my mum's collection which in the '80s meant red, red lips and blue, blue eyeshadow. The results? Let's just say The Joker would be proud...

My own girls also love to experiment with makeup. I'm more than happy for my kids to do each other's makeup because roleplay is such a great way for kids to learn to express themselves. Better that than risking them testing creations on the family pet, or upon an Aunty's freshly painted walls with her expensive Chanel lipstick like I may have once possibly done… (sorry).

As you'll see below, I might have to get her one of those FailFix dolls next time!

A budding makeup artist right here. Image: Supplied.

FailFix is available to buy online, and from all major retailers and toy stores. The FailFix Total Makeover Doll Pack retails from $35 RRP, while FailFix Epic Colour N Style Makeover Pack is $60 RRP.

What are your funniest style moments from your childhood?

Feature images: Shona Hendley/Erin Docherty.