There’s not one person alive who hasn’t experienced a bad hair day, but there are some hairstyle disasters that have been around for decades, and David Beckham has been known to try out a few of them during his many years in football.

In the 1980s the mullet was the number one hairstyle for football stars and celebrities everywhere. But it made an appearance way back in the eighteenth century in an oil painting called ‘Blue Boy’ by Thomas Gainsborough. Two hundred years later and David Bowie’s alter ego Ziggy Stardust made it cool again prompting a revival. Ten years after that it was the height of fashion being sported by celebrities from the worlds of rock, film, sport and fashion. There is evidence of noughties take on the mullet but it has never reached the dizzy heights of the 80s.

The poodle perm was also a favourite of football stars and soap stars of that era. Kevin Keegan, Coronation Street’s Deidre Barlow and Queen’s Brian May are prime examples of this spring-coil curl disaster. Eastender’s favourite poodle Roly and its on-screen owner actress Anita Dobson began to uncannily resemble each other. Hairdressers across the UK were snipping their scissors with glee as people flocked to sit under the perm driers.

It may be pooh-poohed by various members of society but the Mohawk cannot be classed in the same cringe worthy category as the mullet or poodle perm. Initially a hairstyle invented by the Native American Mohawk tribe it made its first fashion and socio-political statement in the early 1980s when it became a signifier of rebellion for youths everywhere. The Faux Hawk, which is a recent style choice, is entirely a different matter. David Beckham proved that no shaved bits at the sides could transform this once subversive hairstyle into the corporate norm. In 2011 the style is virtually synonymous with everyone from the corporate suits to hairdressers themselves!

It is perhaps the comb-over that could steal the title of world’s worst hairstyle. A trend favoured by older members of society, it has been known to create very awkward situations for onlookers. A hairstyle so displeasing, it is no surprise wearers have suffered abuse akin to the following: “Get real mate! You’ve lost your hair. Shave, why don’t you?”

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