This weekend, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose made his long-awaited Coachella comeback. Unexpectedly grounded with a broken foot, he delivered anthems like “Welcome to the Jungle” and “November Rain” from atop an iron throne on the festival mainstage. But while his signature serpentine dance moves were admittedly missed, perhaps it’s a different Axl trademark altogether that stands as the ultimate symbol of his early-’90s glory: Now chopped to a just-below-chin-length bob, Rose’s silky, waist-length ginger hair was once a beacon of chiseled bad boy testosterone—perpetually conditioned by an onstage mist of head-banging sweat.
Way back in the late ’80s, he wore it teased into a matted pompadour fueled by rock ’n’ roll and gyrations and framed by brow-grazing bangs. By the early ’90s, Rose’s strands had evolved into a sleek, salon-worthy blowout with an aura of hard-partying insouciance. Of course, it wasn’t just the hair itself that was so seductive, either. The vocalist was a skilled purveyor of the head accessory—most famously employing a backwards dad cap or an epic bandana wrapped around his crown like a pheromone-dripping emblem of debauchery. Before the band takes the stage for their second Coachella performance next weekend, here’s a longing look back at Rose’s best ’90s hair moments.