30 Athlete Hairstyles We'll Never Forget (Even If We Try)

We’ve gone through the best of the best (and the best of the worst) hairstyles and selected 30 that we’ll never forget.

30 Athlete Hairstyles We'll Never Forget (Even If We Try)

Many of the best athletes have signature moves that they can pull off better than anyone else. Think of Michael Jordan’s fadeaway, Patrick Mahomes’ no-look pass or Mariano Rivera’s cutter. But you don’t need to be a great athlete to have a signature hairstyle that is unique in its own right. When you have the money that pro athletes have, you can have any hairstyle in the world that you want — and get serious attention for it.

We’ve gone through the best of the best (and the best of the worst) hairstyles and selected 30 that we’ll never forget. This includes not just the hair on one’s head but also facial hair, so beards, mustaches and sideburns are also part of the deal. Some athletes have just one defining feature, like James Harden’s beard, while others have multiple, like Johnny Damon’s entire look when he played for Boston.

The follicly challenged may want to look away for this one because these athlete hairstyles may just make you jealous (or laugh out loud).

30. Adam Morrison

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Charlotte Bobcats, Los Angeles Lakers

Career: 3 seasons (2006-10)

Best known for: Mustache

Bottom Line: Adam Morrison

The mustache has died a slow death over the last few decades, but Adam Morrison tried his best to resurrect it. He even filmed a commercial for NBA Live about his mustache, which involved an uncomfortable 30 second closeup of it. While Morrison’s hair underwent a transformation from his college days at Gonzaga to his pro days in the NBA, the ’stache was always present, for better or for worse.

Speaking of worse, or worst, Morrison’s facial hair nabs the worst spot on this list because, according to his former teammate Jared Dudley, Morrison never showered! Thus, his mustache was likely unhygienic as well, which many people may have guessed from just looking at it.

29. Goose Gossage

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Chicago White Sox, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners

Career: 22 seasons (1972-89, 1991-94)

Best known for: Mustache

Bottom Line: Goose Gossage

"Goose" Gossage speaks with a member of the media

Ever since George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees in 1973, he and the Yankees’ brass have implemented a facial hair policy. It does not permit beards, which caused a problem when Goose Gossage and his full beard showed up to camp.

Gossage complied with the policy by shaving his beard — and only his beard — leaving behind a Fu Manchu. He liked the look so much, and pitched so well with it, that he decided to permanently keep it. Although it’s a lot grayer than before, Gossage still has the look today.

28. Garo Yepremian

Sport: Football

Teams: Detroit Lions, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Career: 14 seasons (1966-67, 1970-81)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Garo Yepremian

Bald-shaming isn’t a cool thing to do. But Garo, come on? What is that? The Armenian placekicker for the undefeated ’72 Dolphins had something growing on the sides of his head and nothing growing on the top. Yepremian clearly wanted to hold onto whatever last bit of hair he had, and since this was the ’70s, the look was probably more acceptable than it is now.

But props to him for not giving into whatever peer pressure he faced and keeping the look up until his death in 2015 — although he, thankfully, trimmed his “side hair” to provide a less-bushy look.

27. Anthony Mason

Sport: Basketball

Teams: New Jersey Nets, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks

Career: 13 seasons (1990-2003)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Anthony Mason

Mason was a brolic power forward who was as notorious for his NFL-like physique as he was for the carvings in his hair. He was raised in New York and achieved his most fame with the Knicks where he and his Queens barber collaborated on the designs for his hair. Sometimes, it was a shoutout to his favorite rapper while other times it was one of Mason’s favorite quotes etched on his head.

There were likely many young Knicks fans from that era who, likely unsuccessfully, tried to convince their parents to allow them to have a similar hairdo. One person who did copy Mason’s style as a tribute to him was his barber, Freddy Avila, who etched “RIP Mason” into his own hair when Mason died in 2015.

26. Kelly Olynyk

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Houston Rockets

Career: 8 seasons (2013-present)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Kelly Olynyk

You know your hair is a big deal when someone tracks your stats and how you play with different hairstyles. That was the case for Olynyk in Boston where a side-by-side comparison was made on how he played with his Bill Walton-inspired headband look versus his man-bun style.

Chris Forsberg, then a Celtics beat writer for ESPN, determined that Olynyk averaged more points, rebounds, assists, shot better percentages and had a better team record with him in the man bun versus wearing a headband. Well, there you have it.

25. Kyle Beckerman

Sport: Soccer

Teams: Miami Fusion, Colorado Rapids, Real Salt Lake

Career: 21 seasons (2000-20)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Kyle Beckerman

Kyle Beckerman spent a decade with the USMNT, played 21 years in MLS and is the all-time leader in minutes played by an MLS position player. But even with all of that, he’s best known for the scruffy dreadlocks he rocked for most of his playing career.

Beckerman started growing his hair out in 2005 and kept the look until 2017, and anytime he was on the field, he was instantly recognizable. Once MLS establishes a Hall of Fame, Beckerman is a first-ballot entry, and the same can be said once a Hair Hall of Fame is established.

24. Andrew Luck

Andrew Luck in action at Epic Pro dodgeball event

Sport: Football

Teams: Indianapolis Colts

Career: 6 seasons (2012-16, 2018)

Best known for: Beard

Bottom Line: Andrew Luck

Andrew Luck is a Stanford graduate who was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Germany and London. He is a cultured man who was known for giving out books to his Colts’ teammates. But just from looking at Luck, you would think he was an 18th-century army commander, thanks to his inglorious neckbeard. The beard would poke out from the bottom of his chinstrap when he had his helmet on, and even Luck admitted it was a hideous sight. He once told reporters that he realized it was a bad look, and that both his mom and girlfriend would constantly tell him to shave.

It’s a shame that injuries forced him into an early retirement, as NFL fans were robbed of more glimpses of the Andrew Luck Neckbeard.

23. Dustin May

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Los Angeles Dodgers

Career: 3 seasons (2019-present)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Dustin May

Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard could have easily made this list with his luscious, long locks, but instead, we went with the pitcher affectionately known as “Gingergaard” for obvious reasons. At 6-foot-6 with curly, bouncing red hair, Dustin May draws your attention, and in 2020, he got the attention of Dodger Nation.

May was part of a “Best Hair in Baseball” tournament, and despite being a rookie with only two career wins, May won the tournament after calling on the help of the Dodgers faithful.

22. Tiger Woods

Sport: Golf

Career: 26 years (1996-present)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Tiger Woods

You may have forgotten the memorable hairstyle of Tiger Woods, and no, it isn’t the current balding look that comes with him being a middle-aged man. In 2001, Woods dyed his hair blonde while on vacation in The Bahamas, although he joked that all of the sun he got ended up bleaching his hair.

Many thought that this was a publicity stunt for Woods, who had won the previous three Grand Slams and was angling for the Tiger Slam, but it was just a 25-year-old having some fun.

21. Tim Tebow

Sport: Football

Teams: Denver Broncos, New York Jets

Career: 3 seasons (2010-12)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Tim Tebow

No one is exempt from NFL rookie hazing, not even a Heisman winning, two-time champion who may be the greatest player in college football history. During Tim Tebow’s rookie year in Denver, the vets gave him a friar tuck haircut, in which he had hair all around his head but no hair on the top of his head.

Throw in Tebow’s chinstrap beard, and it was quite the look for fans who watched the clean-cut, fresh-face Tebow for four years in college. His friar tuck look would be short-lived because, after Tebow was “initiated,” he simply shaved his head and let it grow back to his natural look.

20. Carlos Boozer

Carlos Boozer sits on bench and looks out

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Cleveland Cavaliers, Utah Jazz, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers

Career: 13 seasons (2002-15)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Carlos Boozer

Cleveland Cavaliers' Carlos Boozer waits to enter game

We use “hair” loosely with Boozer because there was a game in 2012 when the two-time All-Star seemingly with shoe polish on his scalp. Boozer had been bald pretty much his entire career up to that point, so it was noticeable when there was something that didn’t look like hair up there.

After he retired, he would admit it was hair dye and not actual hair, but kudos to him for not getting beads of black sweat running down his face during that moment in sports hair history.

19. Yuli Gurriel

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Houston Astros

Career: 6 seasons (2016-present)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Yuli Gurriel

Gurriel’s impressive mane has gone by many nicknames: The pineapple, a mutated carrot and a rabbit’s tail being electrocuted are just a few. It defies gravity and must add an extra 7-8 inches of height to the Cuban native who defected in 2016. Not even wearing a cap or batting helmet all game fazes the hairdo, which has even teammates wanting to run their hands through it. The hairstyle actually makes Gurriel appear younger than he really is — he turns 37 during the 2021 season.

But there is a younger Gurriel that’s following in big brother’s footsteps. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is rocking a similar hairstyle as Yuli while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

18. Johnny Damon

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Kansas City Royals, Oakland Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Indians

Career: 18 seasons (1995-2012)

Best known for: Hair/Beard

Bottom Line: Johnny Damon

Remember those GEICO Caveman commercials that aired in the mid-2000s? Johnny Damon was the GEICO Caveman’s doppelganger, but it’s unknown if GEICO was inspired by Damon or if he was inspired by the car insurance company. Damon was clean cut for the first nine years of his MLB career but adopted this look in 2004, which just happened to coincide with the Red Sox ending their 86-year World Series drought.

Damon would keep this Caveman look for two years until he joined the Yankees in 2006, who notoriously have an “appearance policy” in which their players aren’t allowed hair below the collar or beards.

17. Gardner Minshew

Sport: Football

Teams: Jacksonville Jaguars

Career: 2 seasons (2019-present)

Best known for: Mustache

Bottom Line: Gardner Minshew

Minshew’s mustache first gained prominence while in college at Washington State, as his coach, Mike Leach, donned a fake ’stache for a similar look. But the mustache really caught on when Minshew was a rookie with the Jaguars, in part because his whole look was very popular in Jacksonville.

Minshew, who was born and raised in The South, had already expressed his love of jorts, so adding a mustache to his appearance caused North Florida fans to fully embrace him. He’s been a good sport about it, too, really playing into the cult-like following he’s attracted. And in 2020, Minshew (jokingly) debuted his new mullet look, which only added to the endearment.

16. Jaromir Jagr

Sport: Hockey

Teams: Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Dallas Wings, Boston Bruins, New Jersey Devils, Florida Panthers, Calgary Flames

Career: 24 seasons (1990-2008, 2011-17)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Jaromir Jagr

For any Gen Z readers out there, yes, this was an actual trend in the 1980s and early ’90s. Jaromir Jagr, who has scored more NHL points than anyone except Wayne Gretzky, was at the forefront of this trend when he moved from Czechoslovakia to Pittsburgh as a teenager. His iconic mullet was known for its bush-iness in the front, and he kept the look for a solid decade before cutting it off in 1999.

But you know that saying about true love always coming back? Well, Jagr was clearly infatuated with the mullet, as in 2015, at 43-years-old, he brought it back thanks to the encouragement of some teammates who weren’t even born when he first rocked it.

15. Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson pitching in Spring training game

Sport: Baseball

Teams: San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers

Career: 9 seasons (2006-14)

Best known for: Hair/Beard

Bottom Line: Brian Wilson

San Francisco Giants' Brian Wilson talks to reporters

After rocking the clean-cut look through the first few years of his career, Wilson began growing out his beard during the Giants’ 2010 pennant race. The look caught on, and Giants fans then began growing out their beards or wearing fake beards in support. He then adopted a mohawk to complement the beard, and his look became one of the most recognizable in MLB.

However, many detractors noticed that Wilson’s beard almost seemed too good to be true in terms of its hue. It seemed to get darker as it got longer, and there were questions as to if Wilson was dyeing his beard to look more intimidating. While it’s assumed he did, Wilson never directly addressed those rumors and simply said, "It's dark because we play a lot of day games. It's tanned. It's focused.”

14. Antonio Garay

Sport: Football

Teams: Cleveland Browns, Chicago Bears, San Diego Chargers

Career: 7 seasons (2003, 2006-12)

Best known for: Hair/Beard

Bottom Line: Antonio Garay

Garay was a journeyman defensive tackle who had nine sacks over seven NFL seasons. It wasn’t his play that achieved him fame but rather his unique hairstyles created by either dye, shaving or both.

When he played for the Chargers, he shaved a lightning bolt into his beard while also dyeing his hair powder blue. For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, he had a pink ribbon dyed into his hair. And for Halloween, Garay allowed his hair to wear a costume. All of the eccentric looks of Antonio Garay are well worth a look.

13. ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin

Sport: Wrestling

Career: 15 years (1989-2003)

Best known for: Hair/Goatee

Bottom Line: ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin

For those too young to remember, before Steve Austin became “Stone Cold,” he was part of a tag team called The Hollywood Blonds and rocked long blond hair. But when he joined WWF in 1996, he sported a bald look and would later grow in a brown goatee, which became his signature look. That look would become the face of WWF during The Attitude Era, and it fit Austin’s wrestling persona as a brash, anti-authority figure.

Austin would later credit Bruce Willis in “Pulp Fiction” as the initial look he was going for, but when he shaved his hair off with a razor blade, he didn’t like the look. He then decided to just shave everything off, and that’s the look that stuck ever since.

12. Scott Spiezio

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Oakland Athletics, Anaheim Angels, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals

Career: 12 seasons (1996-2007)

Best known for: Soul patch

Bottom Line: Scott Spiezio

Scott Spiezio waits for batting practice

The soul patch is an often-overlooked part of a man’s facial-hair repertoire. But Scott Spiezio did his damndest to make sure his soul patch got all the attention it needed. While with the St. Louis Cardinals, Spiezio decided to dye his soul patch red to match the Cardinals’ colors. With baseball games being played essentially every day, Spiezio admitted that he had to dye his soul patch every day, so it wouldn’t look faded.

The Cardinals’ marketing team eventually caught on to Spiezio’s unique look, and they profited off it by selling fuzzy strips of fake red hair, which were a hit in St. Louis.

11. Walt Frazier

Sport: Basketball

Teams: New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers

Career: 13 seasons (1967-1979)

Best known for: Sideburns

Bottom Line: Walt Frazier

During his first few years in the NBA, Frazier was clean shaven, but he started growing out some porkchop sideburns in 1969. By 1970, they had reached their zenith, and that coincided with the first Knicks championship in franchise history. The look, and the exposure which comes with being a champion in New York, made Walt “Clyde” Frazier a cultural icon and one of the most fashionable athletes.

Later in his career, Frazier would grow in a beard as well, which then connected the sideburns, and he would eventually shave off the sideburns and just keep a goatee look. However, the defining look of Clyde Frazier will always be those gnarly mutton chops that helped lead the Knicks to a title.

10. Dale Earnhardt

Dale Earnhardt celebrates winning Daytona 500

Sport: Auto Racing

Career: 27 seasons (1975-2001)

Best known for: Mustache

Bottom Line: Dale Earnhardt

Would The Intimidator have been as intimidating without his big, bushy mustache? The answer is “no” judging from a picture of Earnhardt without his mustache in 1999. Earnhardt without his mustache is like his car without the No. 3 on the side — it just doesn’t seem right, and for most of his career, Earnhardt knew how valuable it was to his brand. His longtime barber recalled when he first started cutting Earnhardt’s hair and trimming his mustache.

“The first three times I cut his hair, I couldn't touch the mustache,” said Steve Ellsworth. “He liked that big bushy mustache. I finally talked him into it, and he said, 'Oh Lord! Wrangler's gonna fire me!’”

9. James Harden

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets

Career: 12 seasons (2009-present)

Best known for: Beard

Bottom Line: James Harden

James Harden didn’t always have a beard; it just seems like it since he started growing it as a sophomore at Arizona State. His reason for growing it is something many college kids can relate to — pure laziness. He was simply too lazy to shave and, now that it’s part of his brand, it may be too expensive to shave.

His nickname of “The Beard” shows how deeply he is connected to his facial hair, and Harden’s beard has appeared in commercials, rap songs, on T-shirts and even on the package for some gummy candy.

8. Andre Agassi

Sport: Tennis

Career: 21 years (1986-2006)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Andre Agassi

A couple of years after retiring, Agassi published his autobiography in which he admitted he wore a hairpiece early in his career. We don't know what Agassi’s real hair was as opposed to his wig, but his overall look in the late ’80s/early ’90s is worthy of this list.

He had a blond mullet for the ages that played into his “bad boy” persona at a time when everyone else in tennis was very clean cut and mild mannered. Later on, Agassi added the headband to his repertoire, and one can assume that’s when the hairpiece was also added, as the headband would theoretically help keep it in place.

7. Odell Beckham Jr.

Sport: Football

Teams: New York Giants, Cleveland Browns

Career: 7 seasons (2014-present)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Odell Beckham Jr.

OBJ has had many hairstyles ranging from a fauxhawk to a mini-mohawk to even a bowl cut during his LSU days. But he’s been known for his bleached blond look during his years with the Giants, and that forced many parents to buy bottles of hair dye to appease their young sons who wanted similar looks. LaVar Ball was probably one of those parents.

Beckham’s curly blond locks made him one of the most popular athletes in the world, and combined with his exciting play, it landed Beckham numerous endorsement opportunities that other players never had. Those include Beckham getting a deal with Head & Shoulders and later signing the largest endorsement deal in NFL history with Nike.

6. Michael Jordan

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Chicago Bulls, Washington Wizards

Career: 15 seasons (1984-93, 1995-98, 2001-03)

Best known for: (Lack of) Hair

Bottom Line: Michael Jordan

Through MJ’s first five years in the NBA, he kept a short and neat hairstyle. But by 1989, his hairline started to recede, and Jordan shaved it off. That proved to be a smart move because there’s no human on Earth that you associate with being bald more so than Jordan.

However, that move did cost him an endorsement, as Jordan admitted in a 1992 Playboy interview that he had a deal with Johnson & Johnson when he decided to go with the bald look. The deal called for another two to three years, and Jordan could have been greedy and still demanded J&J live up to its end of the contract. But he elected to forfeit the rest of the deal and the rest of the money owed to him because it wouldn’t have been fair to the company.

5. Carlos Valderrama

Sport: Soccer

Teams: Colombia

Career: 14 seasons (1985-98)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Carlos Valderrama

Perhaps the greatest Colombian soccer player of all time, Valderrama was known as much for his precise passing skills as he was for his big, beautiful, blond afro. It was a glorious sight to behold and made him one of the most recognizable soccer players during the 1980s and ’90s. It was a texturized afro that provided for great action shots when Valderrama was running and it was blowing in the wind.

With a hairstyle as legendary as his, Valderrama likely gave a few people heart attacks when he was photographed in 2019 with straight hair. However, it was just a wig he used during a commercial shoot, and “The Valderrama” is still intact.

4. Troy Polamalu

Troy Polamalu runs with football against Cincinnati Bengals

Sport: Football

Teams: Pittsburgh Steelers

Career: 12 seasons (2003-14)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Troy Polamalu

Polamalu’s luscious mane has surpassed two decades of growth, as he started growing out his hair in 2000. It’s gotten him into trouble at times because the NFL doesn’t forbid players from getting tackled by their hair, and Polamalu was yanked down by his after an interception. But it’s also worth its weight in gold — literally. In 2010, he got a $1 million insurance policy on his hair, and Guinness World Records anointed him with the highest insured hair in the world.

Polamalu has leveraged his locks into numerous endorsement opportunities, including with Head & Shoulders, P&G and Suave, but he’s also used his hair to raise money. In 2013, he had four locks of his hair cut off to benefit the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Mane Event, which brings awareness and offers aid to struggling veterans.

3. Julius Erving

Julius Erving answers questions during a news conference

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Philadelphia 76ers

Career: 11 seasons (1976-87)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Julius Erving

Many NBA and ABA players rocked the afro in the 1970s, but Julius Erving’s just seemed cooler than all the others. Perhaps it was because Dr. J, himself, was cooler than everyone, but his hair and style of play added some flair and excitement to the game of basketball, which was struggling during the decade.

Dr. J’s entire aesthetic from his afro to his goatee to the gold chain he played with was one that was copied throughout the NBA. But there was no cooler sight than seeing Dr. J running down the court with that afro blowing in the wind, as evident in his epic free-throw line dunk in 1976.

2. Rollie Fingers

Sport: Baseball

Teams: Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Brewers

Career: 17 seasons (1968-82, 1984-85)

Best known for: Mustache

Bottom Line: Rollie Fingers

Rollie Fingers gets drenched in champagne

Rollie Fingers is a Hall of Fame pitcher with one of the best names in sports history, but his mustache is what he’s best known for. It wasn’t just any mustache but rather a perfectly groomed handlebar mustache, which was originally grown during a bet.

In 1972, the Oakland A’s owner offered $300 to whomever could grow the best facial hair. Many Athletics players got in on the competition, but Fingers used images of baseball players from the 1800s as inspiration. He went all out with his mustache, won the bet and still maintains the look today.

1. Dennis Rodman

Dennis Rodman's red hair with a Bulls insignia

Sport: Basketball

Teams: Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks

Career: 14 seasons (1986-2000)

Best known for: Hair

Bottom Line: Dennis Rodman

Was there any other option for the top choice? Dennis Rodman’s hair became its own brand during the 1990s, as he seemingly dyed his hair every color of the rainbow and then some.

Rodman also wasn’t shy about weaving political messages into his hair whether it be the AIDS ribbon to bring attention to the disease and support the LGBT community or adding multiple “3s” to his hair to honor injured teammate, No. 33 Scottie Pippen. Rodman’s outside-the-box approach to his hair inspired a whole generation of people including many on this list.