Thomas Wentworth Wills
Essentially a Victorian gentleman with his brushed back curls and moustache, Wills was one of the founders of our game, as well as being involved in cricket during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Norm Smith
With his tidy, slicked back style, Smith exemplifies a generation or more of ‘Brylcreem Boys’, dominating from the 1920s through to post-World War 2.  Involved in ten premierships as player or coach, Smith is the supreme symbol of his time.

Peter Giles
In complete contrast to his forefathers, Giles captured the laidback look of the time – although he did crop the locks in later years.  Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the shaggy style took hold, and the Demon defender did it full justice.

Carl Ditterich
Like Giles, Ditterich had the hair and moustache combination happening in full flow – but ‘Big Carl’ kept matters under control during the 1970s and early 1980s, not only with his on field ferocity, but with a stylish bandanna.

David Schwarz
Another great advocate of the bandanna early in his career was David Schwarz, whose determination was on a par with the pioneering Ditterich.  Sadly, the Schwarz bandanna was a short lived feature of the early 1990s, soon cast aside for the remainder of his memorable career.

Todd Viney
In common with his playing days, Viney packed everything into his hairstyles between 1987 and 1999.  Not only was there a dalliance with the bandanna in Ditterich-Schwarz style – before he was a clean cut captain and dual Best and Fairest, Viney even embraced the mullet and blond tips combination in classic late 1980s style.

Shane Woewodin
While Shane Woewodin also embraced blond tips to grace his Brownlow win in 2000, before that memorable season ‘Woey’ went for the fully bleached look, making him stand out in startling fashion in 1999 after starting with neutral brown tones at the time of his senior debut in 1997.

Stephen Tingay
Embracing all possible combinations have been two red and blue favourites, each almost directly overlapping the other from the 1980s till recent seasons.  First came Stephen Tingay, starting off in typically dashing style with the blond mullet, which grew to shoulder length, then shortened and moved through the dark to blond spectrum in almost seasonal changeover between 1989 and 1999.

Nathan Brown
A truly dogged performer throughout the late 1990s and into the 2000s, Brown gained a reputation from early days for his versatility – not only in on field performance, but in variety of hairstyles.  Like Tingay, he moved through the blond-brunette range, starting with a white-blond mane that shortened and darkened to a close clip by the time of his retirement in 2007.

Nathan Carroll
Another Nathan took hairstyling to an extreme during his mid-2000s stay at the Club – Nathan Carroll started off as a clean cut boy from Claremont, before progressing through levels of shagginess to a mega mohawk, complemented by Ditterich-style moustache.

Jack Fitzpatrick
While the classic look has returned to by and large dominate the game, there will always be those who come up with something different.  Whereas Nathan Carroll may have echoed Ditterich, newcomer Jack Fitzpatrick started off his career with a remarkable shaggy hairstyle to complement his 200 cm height.  Notably, it disappeared between recruitment in 2009 to early in 2010, but its very existence shows that, like Tom Wills in the beginning, Melbourne’s players have been able to find their own style, whether hair or playing – or both.