The Death of the Jersey Shore Look

[View on the web]( [Visit our site!]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Features]( [How 'Jersey Shore' Killed the Guido Aesthetic]( [The Jersey Shore cast]( I’d never anticipated the premiere of a show quite like I did the original Jersey Shore. “It’s going to be amazing,” I kept saying, and everyone in Staten Island agreed. Having lived on the outskirts of New York City, only a few miles (but still, somehow, a world away) from the fashion epicenter for most of my life, I often felt like people from just about anywhere else lived in another version of America, one I couldn’t find my way into. The realities of the working-class, pseudo-suburban lifestyle of where I was from seemed like something so highly specific, so layered and complex, that it was impossible to explain. So the trailers for Jersey Shore were promising as far as offering up a cultural touchpoint to begin to make sense of outer-borough culture. With three of the nine original cast members hailing from “the forgotten borough” (mine) and a bevy of Facebook friends already in common with the cast, I felt like the show could be a long-overdue representation of what life looked like in my corner of the world. My boyfriend and I made a date out of that first episode when it aired on December 3, 2009. (This was the pre-“Netflix and chill” era; I guess they used to call it “appointment television.”) When Mike Sorrentino came on the screen in his distressed, low-slung Diesel jeans and a black Armani tee, introducing himself as “the Situation” and gesturing to his toned, artificially suntanned abdomen, we laughed until we cried. When Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi sauntered in with a “Bump It” hairstyle, leopard-print camisole, and lip gloss such a pasty pink that I could feel its flaky consistency just from watching her speak, we erupted, exultant, with recognition. Forget the soggy oversize sweaters and delicate lace-trimmed tank tops from scripted teen shows like The OC. Here was a version of early adulthood that I recognized, dressed up in knockoff Louis Vuitton and neon polyester. Snooki, Pauly D, Mike, Ronnie, JWoww, Vinny, and the rest have reunited to tape Family Vacation, airing April 5. In a countdown to this reunion special, MTV will air several “greatest hits” style episodes that splice together clips of the cast’s best (worst?) moments in a trip down memory freaking lane. And I can’t wait to see their clothes again. Because in the years after Jersey Shore made its big debut, their entire dress culture disappeared. People living at the fringes of New York City in the mid- to late aughts held a very specific dress culture of their own, and these trends did not mirror (or, okay, even really resemble) the sleek, straightened turn-of-the-millennium aesthetic that prevailed just a few miles across the bay. These young people onscreen, most of them from second-generation Italian-American families, were raised the same way I had been: surrounded by the city-life exaltation of brand-name acquisition, distinctly American but also a bit new to understanding what “being American” might mean. [Read the rest of the story here >>]( Ad from our sponsor Entertainment [The Secrets Behind the Most Impossibly Perfect Hair on Reality TV]( [Lauren Wirkus]( The closest I have ever come to a Summer House experience was a weekend at a house on Fire Island, and before the ferry had even brought us ashore, my hair was already the wind-battered, salt-ridden texture of a North Atlantic fisherman’s beard. Needless to say, Lauren Wirkus does not have this problem. Wirkus is a cast member on Summer House, the Bravo reality TV series that began on an episode of Vanderpump Rules, which itself is a spinoff of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which is a franchise of the original Real Housewives of Orange County, which exists thanks to the popularity of The OC and Desperate Housewives. This is all to say that Summer House has a long and storied history within the past decade of pop culture. The premise of Summer House is simple: A bunch of late-20- and early-30-something Manhattanites spend their summer weekends at a house in the Hamptons. They drink, they hook up, they fight, they break up, they drink more, they get back together. But there is one aspect of Summer House that is just as compelling to me as any of those things: the impossibility of a single cast member’s hair. [TV hair]( may be ubiquitous on scripted series, but rarely on a reality show do we see such commitment to the straight-on-top, curly-on-bottom canon. Every Friday night when Lauren arrives at the summer house, her very long, very thick, and very beach-waved hair looks perfect. Her hair looks perfect on Saturday mornings immediately after waking up from a night of partying. Her hair looks perfect sitting in hot tubs, steam swirling up from the water. Her hair looks perfect on boats, around campfires, and scorching in the sun. Naturally, I needed to find out whether this was witchcraft or just really expensive hair products. And on a recent phone call with Lauren proves, I learned it’s neither! Below is the full interview, in which we discuss her daily routine, where she gets all those swimsuits, and that one time she was a brunette with bangs(!). Congrats on a great season! You made it! Thanks so much. It’s fun to watch everything back, but reliving something again can sometimes be difficult. Sometimes you’re just ready to close that chapter. On a lighter topic, your hair: It’s awesome. Thank you! I have always been sort of a hair girl and obsessed with hair. So you wake up, then what happens? My hair is naturally pretty oily, so sometimes when I work out or style my hair, it gets even more oily. I’ve had to really train my hair so that I don’t have to wash it every day, because obviously washing it every day can be damaging. Living in New York, the water is really hard on your hair, so I am the biggest proponent of dry shampoo. My favorite brand is actually the drugstore brand; it’s called Batiste. I literally live off that. There’s one in every suitcase I travel with, every bag, because it really is such a lifesaver to extend the life of your hair. If I’m not washing my hair that day, then I’m dry-shampooing and I’m restyling over the hair. What I actually do is I blow it out again, so I re-blow out; even if I’ve sweated, I’m like, “It’s all right, it’s my own sweat, it can go back into my hair.” I try to go at least two days between washing my hair, so I wash every third day. I use [Pureology Hydrate shampoo]( and [conditioner](. I find that it’s really hydrating and makes the color not only last but also keeps it really moist and not dry. I’m not really into so many products — I use a [heat protectant from Pureology as well, called Color Fanatic](, which also helps to keep your hair bright. I’ll do a mask maybe one day a week, just an intense conditioner basically. When I come out of the shower, I’ll use a [wet detangler brush](. I live off those wet brushes. [Read the rest of the story here >>]( Ad from our sponsor [More Stuff to Read Today](#) - [For Some Reason, Brands Are Obsessed With Clementines]( - [We Talked to The Ordinary’s Creator About Trump, Firing People, and Instagram]( - [Why We Spend Real Money on Fake Clothes in Free Games]( - [What It’s Like to Shop When You Can’t Shop in a Store]( Did a friend forward you this email? [Sign up for the Racked newsletter](. Ad from our sponsor From Our Partners A selection from the editors at Racked [A woman in jean]( [Brands Are Betting on a Denim Revival]( Jeans have struggled to beat back more comfortable styles such as leggings and yoga wear, but fashion brands are renewing their focus on denim. [Read more]( [A woman in a blazer]( [How to Create a Capsule Wardrobe]( Here's how to simplify your closet and create a pared-down wardrobe of just 37 pieces. [Read more]( Ad from our sponsor [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. 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