local flavor

Sometimes the fashions at BYU amaze me. Looking around my BOM class, I like to imagine the average boy's morning routine. It probably starts with a 30-minute ritual in front of the mirror (involving 1/2 gallon of hair gel) to get that perfect just-out-of-bed look. Throw on some pre-ripped $58 jeans and a BYU shirt, and you're ready to go share mission stories with your future wife.
And then there's the boy with the mustache who sits next to me. He also wears girl jeans. If he wanted to make a statement, he sure has, and it says "I don't ever want to be kissed by a girl." Or maybe the mustache is supposed to counteract the girl jeans, as if to say, "Don't be fooled; I really am a boy."
Tumors have become remarkably popular among the girls at BYU. I've heard it called many things--the beehive, the Provo bump--but I think its technical term is ratting. These girls "rat" their hair into a huge bump on the back of their heads. I'm beginning to suspect that some girls carry their food/school supplies in it. I can think of a few origins of this phenomena:
The movie Hairspray
Some social diva had a really bad cowlick, and some poor girls started to follow the trend until it got popular
or, Utah girls became jealous of those cool turbans they get to wear in the Middle East and started mimicking it with their hair.
However atrocious these styles may seem, I'm glad that BYU students embrace them. Cougartown really wouldn't be the same without the emos, the glorious ex-APs, and the beehives. I was once that little girl that never showered, and I am engaged to a boy who only recently abandoned the fauxhawk (which Mom calls the "fountain). Keep being weird, BYU.