Four fads of the 90s that were awesome, then a bit rubbish, and are now awesome once again

The 90s were a wondrous time. Britney was young and innocent in her schoolgirl outfit and years away from shaving her head, the Friends were entertaining us with a new adventure every week (OH ROSS HOW COULD YOU SAY RACHEL'S NAME AT THE ALTAR?!?!11?!) and the Spice Girls weren't old and mothers and were instead teaching all us young girls how awesome Margaret Thatcher was because girl power.

As with any decade, fads in the 90s came and went with wild abandon. We've picked four trends which were amazing at the time, then embarrassing as we tried to impress others with and new jobs and Nokia 3330s with interchangeable cases, and then rejoined the ranks as precious memories, rather than cringeworthy recollections, because clearly we're much more mature and comfortable with ourselves now us 90s kids are nearing our 30s.

Hypercolour t-shirts
Right, I don't know how these ever went out of fashion. Sure, they changed colour around the hottest/sweatiest areas (boobs/pits) and sure, you wasted your entire lifetime carbon footprint allowance pointing a blow-dryer at yourself in an effort to change the colour of the entire t-shirt before it started getting cool again, but they were amazing. Especially when friends would leave a hand print mark on your back like some kind of shadow puppet. It was a sure-fire way to gain friends and a brilliant way to flirt. 'Oh hey [boy's name here], can I leave a hand print on you?' So not only were they an amazing look, they also helped you pull. Singletons: they're available on eBay.

Mood rings
Following on from hypercolour t-shirts was another colour-changing accessory: the mood ring. These rings would change colour depending on your mood (funnily enough), using liquid crystals. That's right. The same stuff in your telly. There's tenuous science behind the logic. If you're having lovely romancetime with your sweetheart you'd probably be quite warm, and therefore your mood ring would be accurate with a dark blue reading. If you're nervous your hands tend to get cold and clammy, therefore giving a black reading. But aside from that it's quite muddled and was no more an indication of your mood than wearing a shark tooth necklace (remember those?). You could buy mood rings anywhere for a few quid, and they were often found in new age stores and my home town's gift shop, Balagan. Here are the colour changes and their meanings from hot to cold:

Dark blue: Happy, passionate

Blue: Calm, settled

Blue-green: Somewhat relaxed

Green: Normal

Amber: Anxious

Gray: Very nervous

Black: Stressed

Tamagotchi

It took me about five years of begging before I was allowed a cat, and even then I still didn't get a kitten. In the meantime though, my parents tested my petcare abilities by getting me a Tamagotchi. I don't think anyone needs an explanation of what these are because they were amazing, but kids are getting younger so I'll try and explain. The precursor to the Furby (which, btw, is back and is scarier than ever), Tamagotchis were egg-shaped digital pets you needed to feed, clean and nurture on a daily basis or else you'd murder it through abandonment. Much like Candy Crush or Farmville, having your own digital blob was addictive, and they eventually got banned in my school. This of course meant leaving your beloved creature sat starving in a pile of its own faeces in the deep recesses of your teacher's desk, which ultimately meant dead pet. Now they're back, but in app form. If anyone has bought the Tamagotchi app for their iPhone, please, please let us know what it's like! Also, if you ever managed to keep one alive for more than a week.

Tattoo-effect chokers

As we neared the end of the 90s, it was only natural that the cool kids wanted tattoos. But the just-as-cool sensible ones refrained from getting a dolphin-style tribal tattoo on the small of their back from some clearly dodgy tattoo artist who didn't mind inking fourteen-year-old girls without parental permission. Somehow predicting the tramp stamp connotation that was to come years later, most of us didn't end up with a permanent tattoo, instead opting for a tattoo choker in our early years. I don't fully know what the point of these was, as even from a distance they didn't look like any tattoo I'd ever seen, but that doesn't matter. They were grungy, gritty and perfect for teens who wanted to show a little bit of rebellion while still being home for bed at 9pm. Bonus points for layering up those bad boys in a rainbow of colours in an effort to look super cool. They fetch a fair price on eBay now, so they're clearly winning. Oh, and Helen, I hope your now thirteen-year-old tattoo looks as, er, sexy as it did when you got it in Year Eight.

So these are our picks. What do you remember being super cool at the time then cringing over years later? Let us know in the comments below or on twitter. If you want to remain anonymous, you can with our new comment system!