A Gentle Reminder of David Beckham’s Wild Hair Evolution

It was the textbook teenager-of-the-’90s look that’s having a revival today thanks to Becks’ superfan and fellow soccer player, Jack Grealish. But there’s no denying that David was the OG surfer-curtains connoisseur, after coining the look back in 1993 when he was just 18 years old and playing for Manchester United and England’s youth teams.

In 1998, it was the birth of brand Beckham. After proposing to Posh Spice in January, we slowly started to notice that 2 really do become 1 as the couple stepped out repeatedly in matching outfits with his-and-hers haircuts. Now that Beckham was the fiancé of one fifth of the UK’s biggest girl group, his hair became decidedly more boy-band-esque. With buttery-blond highlights dyed through his longer-length curtains, it was a look that perfectly accompanied his array of tank tops.

A year after becoming a first-time dad to Brooklyn, and possibly now lacking the time to prune his hair, Becks decided to shave the whole lot off, surprising fans with his debut at a Premiership match against Leicester City. It could be that it was a transformative look to shake off bad press, as the buzz cut style came two years after he was sent off in the 1998 World Cup and picked up a lot of bad stick from fans and the media. He later shaved half his eyebrow off, too. Fast-forward to today, and he’s gone back to the fuss-free look.

It was the look that spawned a thousand clones: the buzz cut-meets-mohawk. Controversial at the time, due to then Man Utd. manager Sir Alex Ferguson’s clear disapproval of the David Beckham hair catalogue. Recalling the moment in 2019 on the 20th anniversary of United’s Treble season to Otro, Beckham said: “I walked in the changing room and he hadn’t seen it because I was too scared to even show him. I’d gone into training the day before with a beanie on, had dinner, beanie on. Then as I got ready for the game I took it off, he said ‘go and shave it off’.”

David Beckham‘s hair at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea/Japan sparked the Hoxton Fin; a flicky, shaggy haircut that resembled a fish’s fin. The spiked-do also made its way into Downing Street for his meeting with then Prime Minister Tony Blair in May 2002, paired with his big, glistening diamond earrings, and a neat beard.

After Becks made the controversial choice of wearing cornrows to meet Nelson Mandela in South Africa, The Mandela was coined. And has since, understandably, become the only regrettable look for Becks. In an interview with The Sun, he said: “People ask if I have any regrets about my hairstyles and while I don’t regret any of them, I do sort of regret the cornrows.”

2003 was a busy year for Beckham’s hairdresser, thanks to sporting several looks in just 12 months. One that became a global sensation was the man bun. It appeared as a slick top knot as well as a half-up, half-down combo. A David Beckham hair moment that he was still fond of 14 years later, as he was pictured donning a bun for the Professional Footballers’ Association Awards in 2017.

Another look that the youth of today may associate with soccer player Jack Grealish, but it was actually another OG David Beckham hair moment. A way to keep his long hair out of his eyes while playing, and to mix up the look from his man bun, Becks would enlist the help of a hairband. An accessory which was later adopted by footballers Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and Neymar.

Not your OTT Mullet, but your dipping-your-toe-in-the-trend version. With Adidas soccer boots now named after him, Beck’s status as a style icon was rising. It’s not easy to pull off a mullet, yet this sweeping move with flicked up ends at the back seemed to be a surprising hit.

Ten years on from their first meeting, and Posh and Becks were still very much in the matchy-matchy phase, and not just with their clothes but their hair, too. This time, Becks bleached his buzz cut to coordinate with his wife’s bleach blond bob. The bright buzz remained for his 32nd birthday celebrations that year.

A few years later and, at the age of 36, the David Beckham hair game started to mature, kicking off with a sleek comb over. The short, back, and sides, with a swooping mane on top, first appeared on the Fantastic Man S/S cover in 2011. It soon became one of his most dapper looks to date, plus the longest-running hairstyle since his career began. It marked the beginning of more subtle changes, instead of drastic transformations.

It was still in Beckham’s DNA to mix up the hair looks, only they became more sophisticated and less eyebrow-raising. A sign of the times, as he had retired from soccer and become a Fashion Week regular to support wife Victoria’s designer brand. The most notable of this period was the quiff, a look that soon became a long-standing favourite in the David Beckham hair archives. There were days where it rivaled Danny Zuko’s infamous version in “Grease,” and others where it was a more under-the-radar sleek curve.

After showing off another long blond bob in 2017, Becks was back to an uber short style. It was around this time that speculation began to grow about a David Beckham hair transplant. The rumors surfaced when a source told The Sun that he had secretly paid for a new head of hair, and was later seen frequently wearing beanies. As Becks has not responded to the speculation, and the before and after is not clearly obvious, the hair transplant still remains hearsay (or should we say “hair-say”?).

In recent years, David Beckham has not strayed too far from his favorite quiff or short, back, and sides. But he surprised his 83 million Instagram followers in August with an Instagram story, captioned: “Nothing much changes. [I] get bored of my hair [and] chop it off,” alongside a pic of his fresh buzz cut. Copying son Romeo, he buzzed off what hair he did have in a transformation that reminds us of his swift hair changes of the ’90’s and ’00’s. Only this time, he left his eyebrow alone and has a more obvious salt and pepper sprinkle throughout his hair and beard.