trini

This is a remake of my old compilation posts on Trent Reznor's hairstyles starting with his synth-pop career in the 1980s and ending with the Broken era. During the cleanup of my blog, almost all the posts were accidentally deleted. Therefore, I decided to make the one big post instead of four small posts. Thanks to those who made reposts, because thanks to you I found the contents of my old posts. Please note that there are hyperlinks to the videos, posts and webpages in the text if you want to see the additional material. ***

1982-1988

Let's discover all his hairstyles of his synth-pop/pre-NIN era (1982 - 1988). That was an amazing era that impresses with its variety of hairstyles and colors. I use not only photos from gigs but also basically all photos that show the details of all periods well. Let's go!

In 1982 a high school student Trent became a member of the band Option 30. At that time his haircut was a some kind of a cute short mullet with his natural hair color:

This photo was probably taken during Trent’s college years. I believe he had natural hair color that time but the black and white scale doesn’t allow me to identify this:

The quality of the photo below is poor but he probably dyed his hair for the first time. Seems like bright red:

After leaving Option 30 in 1984 Trent joined his next band, The Urge. There he had a bright red short haircut with obviously a lot of hairspray on his head:

The Innocent. Still a lot of hairspray:

The Exotic Birds (say hi to Chris Vrenna). In 1986, Trent had a lot more experiments with his appearance. There were haircuts of different lengths and colors like blonde, brown...

And, I believe, during this period he dyed his hair his favorite signature black for the first time:

Slam Bamboo and The Right Track studio times. In 1987 he had a shorter black haircaut but later he started growing his hair out:

The last band Trent was involved in before founding Nine Inch Nails was Lucky Pierre in 1988. Back then, he was closest to his classic long black hair:

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1988-1991

And now we're looking forward Pretty Hate Machine era! It was a few crazy years for Trent's hair actually.

At the time of the very first Nine Inch Nails gigs in autumn of 1988 (as support for Skinny Puppy's VIVsectVI tour) Trent had long black shoulder-length ragged haircut with angled bangs and side parting:

In the early 1989 his haircut became longer, more ragged and began to resemble a wolf cut with long bangs:

By the fall of 1989, he shaved off his sides and hairline. Bangs became shorter later in this period. You can see that haircut in Down In It music video, Dance Party U.S.A. clip and the fragment of the MTV's 120 Minutes. Presumably, he wore this haircut until the beginning of 1990 (according to this clip dated March 1990). This haircut was in Pretty Hate Machine promotional tour:

From the spring (?) of 1990 and until August he wore long black dreadlocks. His sides and hairline were still shaved. You can also see his hairstyle in these clips: the 1990 live, Progressive Visions demo reel and this interview.

This hairstyle was in the period of the The Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic Tour, Peter Murphy's Deep Tour and PHM Hate Tour:

And Revolting Cocks' Beers Steers & Queers tour, of course:

RIP dreads and hello buzzcut Trent! He also wore a bandana or just a hat, I don't know. Maybe because he didn't like his buzzcut. Note: maybe you know that was a story by Al Jourgensen and he cut Trent's hair during Get Down Make Love recording session. Well, user TheBand from ETS has made his own investigation and have come to a conclusion that Al just made up this anecdote.

Between touring with Revolting Cocks and the Sin tour (started in December of 1990) Trent apparently grew out some hair to make new dreadlocks which were shorter that they were before. His hair color was natural at that time and sides were shaved. You can also see his short dreads in Sin music video.

There were also dreads with grown sides:

I can be mistaken but it seems that in February of 1991 he cut his hair again so there were no dreads anymore. You can see it in this interview and this soundcheck clip.

He toured with Pigface in April of 1991. That time he grew out his hair, which he combed back, and sideburns. I suppose his sides were short:

The concerts of the first Lollapalooza Festival lasted from July to August 1991. There were also European concerts, which ended in September of the same year. All this time Trent wore his signature Lolla hairstyle: the hair on the side and back was short, and on top they were overgrown, and small braids were attached to them (not dreadlocks as many people think). I think these braids were synthetic. If you look closely, you can see his regrown natural hair under braids:

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1991-1993

So, the PHM era finally finished and the Broken era began. It partially overlapped with PHM because some of the songs from the then-upcoming EP were performed in the last months of the PHM era.

Trent removed his braids and began to grow his hair out. At first he wore a hairstyle similar to the one he had during Pigface gigs. I have a post with these photos by Tom Sheehan.

He also started wearing his facial hair for the first time in the form of a soul patch. Here is Trent for Spin Magazine, March 1992:

In the end, his haircut was almost similar to what would find its final form in the TDS era. He preferred not only a straight but also a side parting. The haircut looked a little ragged:

That's it! And the identified photos as the bonus material:

@miercoles-wednesday once said to me that it was taken in September 1991. Unfortunately, the bandana on his head hides Trent’s haircut at the time:

Those photos were projected during NIN’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, I suppose. It could be April or the late autumn of 1991:

And the last one. This photo caused me the most questions. This may be the period between RevCo and Sin Tour or the period before or after Lollapalooza:

Big kudos to @miercoles-wednesday, @purr-ified and @reznorgasmm for photos they posted there before!

"You don't really feel them til you're off stage."