I finally have a form working reasonably well. 
I have a custom form_textbox class in my skin.css file that i use to override the DF textbox style.
On two of my textboxes, ones which I have validation set up, the style changes from custom style to plain vanilla HTML, and the style class changes to DynamicForms_Textbox from the custom class.
I tried giving the DF_Textbox the same style as the custom class but the textboxes still change.
These two fields are the only ones so far with required and regex validation.
I have already tried saving everything, closing and re-opening the browser, restarting IIS...
Thank you, Tom