For many of those whose youth coincided with the nineties, the decade is a blur. Not because of a heady mix of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll; not because they spent it fasting in protest; or because they were exhausted from devising a new world order, but because it was, well, a bit boring really. Gone was the hedonism of the eighties, and in its place a couple of blokes in the clothes they woke up in, singing with their hands behind their backs. Yet, it was also the last time you couldn’t guarantee a celebrity had had a nose job, when not all photos were at the mercy of an airbrush, and when preening still amounted to a flannel and some soap. As for the hair, it was a wreck.
Courtney Love
We miss the days when Courtney Love would step out with a farmyard on her head. In an era of tiresome inertia, Ms Love and ill-fated husband, Kurt Cobain, demonstrated a pleasing commitment to vice. Yet, shortly after this photo was taken she cleaned up. Shame.
Gary Barlow
Impeccably behaved, British-born, Take That singer-songwriter, Gary Barlow might not be an obvious bedfellow of Courtney Love, but a bottle of ammonia they seem to have shared.
Geri Halliwell
We thank former Spice Girl and interminable wannabe, Geri Halliwell for her intellectually rigorous philosophical abstraction, Girl Power, but wish she’d used a comb.
Madonna
Here, the hair of mother of invention, Madge, brings to mind not so much a trainwreck as a collision with the Orient Express: for all her finery, not her finest moment.
Michael Bolton
Oh Michael.
Andre Agassi
We do not wish to poke fun at Andre Agassi’s diminishing thatch, for hair loss is not a laughing matter. Instead, we’re going to marvel at his eyebrows. Aren’t we kind?
Hugh Grant
We wish Hugh Grant would lose a strand.
Nicole Kidman
Ah, the days when ceramic irons were but a glint in an updo. We’re not sure what Nicole Kidman is up to in this shot, but those wayward curls suggest it’s no good.
Mariah Carey
Mariah heard a perm got you laid.
Johnny Depp
Who could forget the badger streak? Everyone knew someone who had one – is Johnny Depp, offbeat apparition and one-time bearer of a yellow patch, to blame?