Photo: Joshua Rawson-Harris
People make all sorts of changes to their appearance throughout life. Some become permanent fixtures of identity, while others fade away as quickly as they arrived. A haircut that felt perfect at 22 might seem ridiculous by 30. That tattoo chosen on a whim could become either a cherished part of someone's story or a regretted decision requiring expensive removal.
The difference between what sticks and what doesn't isn't always obvious at the time. Sometimes, choices that seem temporary end up defining someone's look for decades. Other times, modifications meant to be lifelong statements get abandoned within a year or two. Understanding what makes certain style decisions last helps people make choices they're less likely to regret later.
The Identity Factor
Style choices that align with core identity tend to stick around. When someone gets a piercing or makes a fashion change that genuinely reflects who they are rather than who they want to be, it usually becomes permanent. The decision comes from an internal sense of self rather than external pressure or trends.
This explains why some people keep their modifications through major life changes while others phase them out. Someone who got a navel piercing because it felt right for them personally will keep it regardless of age, career shifts, or relationship status. Someone who got one because everyone else had one in the early 2000s likely removed it once the trend passed.
The test often comes during life transitions. New jobs, relationships, moves to different cities, becoming parents, all of these shake up identity and force reevaluation of appearance choices. The modifications that survive these transitions were usually authentic expressions of self to begin with. The ones that don't often reveal themselves as temporary experiments or attempts to fit in with a particular group or era.
Photo: Alexander Grey
Practical Realities Set In
Some style choices don't stick because they're just too much work to maintain. That elaborate hair color requires salon visits every six weeks. Those acrylic nails need constant fills. The high-maintenance look that seemed worth it at first becomes exhausting after a while.
Body modifications face similar practical tests. A navel piercing might seem perfect until dealing with clothing restrictions, healing complications, or the daily awareness it requires. Belly bars need regular cleaning and attention, clothing has to accommodate them, and activities that once felt natural require new considerations. For some people, these adjustments become normal parts of routine. For others, the ongoing effort outweighs the benefit.
Career demands filter out certain choices too. Someone might love their facial piercings, but remove them when landing a corporate job. Others change careers or find employers who don't care, letting them keep the modifications that matter. The choices that stick are often the ones where people either find ways to make them work professionally or decide they're important enough to influence career paths.
Physical changes over time affect which modifications last. Weight fluctuations, aging, and pregnancy all impact how body modifications look and feel. A piercing placed perfectly at 20 might sit differently at 40. Some people adapt and keep them anyway. Others decide the change isn't worth maintaining anymore.
Social Context Matters
Friend groups and social circles influence which style choices persist. Someone surrounded by people with similar aesthetics will probably maintain their look longer than someone whose social circle shifts to more conventional styles. The social reinforcement, or lack of it, makes a real difference.
Family reactions play a role too, though not always in obvious ways. Some people drop modifications to please family members, while others keep them specifically because family members disapprove. The ones that stick through family pressure are usually deeply meaningful to the person, not just rebellious statements.
Romantic relationships complicate things. A partner's preferences shouldn't dictate appearance choices, but they often do anyway. Some modifications survive multiple relationships, while others get removed to please a new partner. The ones that last through relationship changes tend to be the ones the person values, independent of anyone else's opinion.
Geographic location affects longevity, too. Moving from a city where everyone has tattoos and piercings to a conservative small town tests commitment to those choices. Some people don't care about standing out and keep their modifications regardless. Others find the constant attention uncomfortable and scale back their look to blend in better.
The Pain and Commitment Test
Modifications that required significant pain, time, or money often stick around longer. The investment creates attachment. Someone who endured hours of tattoo sessions or months of piercing healing has literally invested in that modification. Removing it feels like wasting all that effort and discomfort.
But this doesn't guarantee permanence. Plenty of people remove piercings or get tattoo removal despite the original investment. The sunk cost fallacy works both ways. Sometimes the ongoing dissatisfaction outweighs the initial commitment, and people cut their losses.
Reversibility matters more than most people think when making the initial decision. Piercings can close up, hair grows back, and clothing can be replaced. These temporary modifications get tried more readily than permanent ones, which means people discover whether they actually want them long-term through experience rather than speculation.
Tattoos sit in a different category because removal is expensive, painful, and not always completely effective. This permanence means people either learn to live with regretted tattoos or they were sure enough from the start that regret never develops. The ones who researched thoroughly, waited through cooling-off periods, and chose designs with personal meaning tend to stay happy with them.
When Meaning Evolves
Sometimes style choices don't stick because their meaning changes. A modification that represented freedom at 18 might feel like a constraint at 30. What once felt rebellious becomes mainstream. The personal significance fades, and without that meaning, maintaining the look loses purpose.
Other times, meaning deepens over time. A simple piercing becomes associated with a particular period of personal growth or a reminder of overcoming challenges. These accumulated associations make modifications more valuable as years pass, cementing them as permanent features.
Life events can either strengthen or weaken attachment to modifications. Someone might remove a piercing after it caused problems during pregnancy, or they might keep it specifically because it represents their pre-parent identity. The same event pushes different people in opposite directions depending on what the modification means to them personally.
Photo: PeopleByOwen
The Trend Cycle Effect
Fashion moves in cycles, which means modifications that felt dated can become cool again. Navel piercings went from trendy in the 90s and early 2000s to somewhat dated in the 2010s to making a comeback recently. People who kept theirs through the unfashionable years either didn't care about trends or recognized the cyclical nature of style.
Following trends guarantees eventual regret for some modifications. Microbladed eyebrows that look perfect now might seem obviously dated in ten years. The stretched lobes popular in the 2010s alternative scene have led to many people seeking reconstruction surgery. Trend-driven choices have shorter lifespans than personally meaningful ones.
Some people embrace this and view modifications as temporary by nature. They get piercings knowing they might remove them later, try bold hair colors expecting to change them frequently, and treat their appearance as an ongoing experiment rather than a fixed identity. For them, nothing needs to stick permanently because the experimentation itself is the point.
Final Thoughts: Making Choices That Last...
Understanding these patterns helps with making modifications more likely to last. Waiting through initial excitement to see if the desire persists filters out impulse decisions. Choosing modifications that reflect actual identity rather than aspirational identity increases satisfaction long term. Accepting that some choices won't stick and planning for that possibility takes pressure off making every decision permanent.
The style choices that stick are usually the ones made thoughtfully, for personal rather than external reasons, and maintained through various life changes because they continue feeling authentic. Everything else tends to be temporary, and that's fine too. Not every modification needs to last forever to be worthwhile. Some serve their purpose for a season and then naturally fade away as people grow and change.
