When I was 16 I thought I thought the best haircut for me would be shoulder length hair, which was fine cos I liked Obituary and Metallica LOADS, so it fitted with my whole look. The problem with it was that my hair is really thick so the whole ‘do’ sort of pushed itself outwards and turned my head into a pyramid.

I rocked it hard for about a year, and I thought I looked like a young Kurt Cobain, but I actually looked more like Hey Arnold. If my parents had allowed a photo to be taken of me during that period of my life (The Metal Years), then I still wouldn’t show you.

Bad haircuts are usually to do with people taking what they think is cool to its logical extreme and it being left unchecked, so it’s a fun way to see what people are into.
Like pretty much everything in the whole world, I’m sure you’re starting to realize, there is a blog featuring images and comment on peoples’ bad haircuts. It’s called Don’t Judge My Hair and it’s run by a nice lady called Jessica. I just spoke to her over the world wide web and here’s what she said:

What started your fascination with badly thought out haircuts?
One day I was getting my usual, admittedly boring haircut, and my stylist was chatting with another client of hers to whom she’d recently given a cut. This woman had a wild, asymmetrical mullet that was shorter on the left side than on the right, with longer pieces that hung down in front of her ears. It also had an unnatural looking wave, like maybe she’d had a perm too.

As they were chatting, my stylist lamented that she’d cut the sideburns too short, and I thought to myself, “Really? That’s what’s wrong with that haircut?” It made me laugh to myself, but also made me realize that no matter how outlandish a haircut might be, it’s probably the product of someone’s very specific vision.

What do you think drives people to experiment and think outside the box, haircut wise?
People go nuts with their hair because it’s a low-risk way to express personal style. Unlike tattoos, piercings, or buying sports cars, there’s very little commitment involved in changing one’s hairstyle. Even if you really screw it up, you can always shave it off and start over.

It’s either that or to piss off their parents.

Have you had any particularly bad hairstyles yourself?
A couple years ago, I asked my stylist to trim my bangs a little shorter than usual, and she cut them A LOT shorter. That evening I headed off to a bar to meet some friends, and the first thing someone said to me was, “Oh my god, you got mental-patient bangs!”

What is your favourite era for hairstyles?
Definitely the late 50s/early 60s era of giant styles. Other eras had big hair, but none combined sheer mass with such sculptural precision. A good beehive is not only defies gravity, but is also a fascinating reminder of how different the role of women was just a generation ago. I mean, can you imagine dedicating that much of your day to getting your hair to stand up on top of your head in a perfect dome? I can’t even be bothered to blow-dry in the morning. I’d have been a failure in the 1960s.

Which are your favourite three haircuts on the blog?
I love this 60s album cover (below) for so many reasons. The hair is great, but the album title is insane. I’m also fond of these two family portraits (further below). I make fun of them, but really, either of those could have been my family. Fortunately, my parents lost interest in family photos by the time my brother and I were toddlers. By then, my baby-mullet had yet to come into its own, and I was still years away from teenage hair-rebellion.