I bought these a few years ago on a trip to The States, and I use the medium one a lot. I got them because I didn't want to backcomb (tease) my hair I did a bit too much of that in the 80's and it can wreck the hair. It's great for a 'bad hair day'.
I remember that hairstyle was in back in 2005-2009. I bought them for my sister in 2007 & they were terrible. They wouldn't stay in place & kept falling out when she would put them on to style her hair.
while i do admit this does seem like a very 'karen' type you have to use some creativity! These can be used for achieving any kind of large hairstyle. For instance im a gothic scene emo type, an emo/scene subculture found mostly in the early 2000s, and something very popular in this fashion is large, teased hair. I hate using loads of hairspray, teasing, etc. and with this product im able to achieve that alternative look im going for! You just have to be creative and see that products can do more than what infomercials tell you. a lot of other fashion oriented alternative subcutures have similar hairstyles and im sure some of them might even use this product!
yeah, you've been gaslit. You've been surrounded by ugly styles and told they look good, so that when you look back on the older styles you're surprised that they're actually the styles that look good. Beach waves and curtain bangs are abominable.