Disappearing items/hair during character creation in Sims 3

After almost a year of not playing the game, I just came back. I browsed through the store and bought a set of pig tails from the Oktoberfest set. However, every time I attempted to use those pigtails on my Sim it would disappear the second I got onto choosing their formal clothing and a different style would be placed on my Sim. I tried to reload the game as well as searching through all the hairstyles (at which point I discovered that the hairstyle was not even listed anymore). This keeps happening, much like the old freezing in the middle of the game (as I just came back I don't know if that part still  happens). 

Thanks for any help.