From faux-hawks, to dye jobs to perms gone wild, 'American Idol' has suffered its share of truly bad hair days -- and no, we're not just talking about Sanjaya.

Despite help from professional stylists, even 'Idol' winners like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood went for looks that gave new meaning to the phrase "hair don't."

We're counting down the 16 worst 'American Idol' hairdos ever. See all of the hair-raising moments after the jump.

We scoured the earth (and the archives at various record companies for failed projects that showed vocal promise) to create the greatest assemblage of singing talent American Idol has ever seen! So what happened? After last year's virtual snooze-fest, how did a season that truly did give us perhaps the greatest depth of talent we've ever seen (an argument could be made for Season Five) give us such lackluster shows?

After Sanjaya-gate last year, the biggest controversy to come out this year was that finalist David Hernandez used to be a stripper and David Archuleta's dad might be a Mr. Meany-Pants. And we got to be pissed that Kristy Lee Cook outlasted the likes of Michael Johns. Not until we got to the finale of Davids did things get really intense.

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(S07E42) Forty-two episodes later we're finally ready to find out who is going to take home the crown of the next American Idol. Look at all those faces up there, and now it's all come down to the Davids. The lingering question is if they're going to be Idols the likes of Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson; sales in the millions with mantles full of awards; or will they find mainstream success more of a challenge, like Taylor Hicks or Justin Guarini (I know he came in second but let's face it, at this point first and second are almost interchangeable as far as getting a shot at a career)? The show's an hour early and an hour longer, clocking in from 8:00 PM - 10:00 PM Eastern Time. That means you have two hours to chat live right here with your friends and frenemies about which David should win and how stupid they are for disagreeing with you.

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

Welcome back to "AI Aftermath," where we explore Idol's past. Each week, as one more American Idol hopeful is eliminated from the competition, we take a look back at contestants past who were eliminated in the same week. We'll examine how they did on the show and what they've been up to since their elimination. We've relocated to Mondays with this week's installments, so in honor of Amanda Overmyer's elimination last week we'll be looking at other eleventh place finishers.

This week: 11th place finishers, featuring Charles Grigsby (Season 2), Matthew Rogers (Season 3), Mikalah Gordon (Season 4), Kevin Covais (Season 5) and Stephanie Edwards (Season 6). Season 1 broke at the Top 10 so we don't have 11th and 12th place finishers to examine.

My wife was a huge fan of Amanda's. Of course, she loved Gina Glocksen last year and loves any and all "rocker chicks" that ever appear on the show. She also can't figure out why most of them don't do well. Is it the same reason female rap artists tend to struggle on the sales charts? Do we have a hard time seeing our women as hard-edged?

In AOL's coverage of the exit interview with Amanda Overmyer, she reiterated over and over again that she always felt like a "square peg in a round hole." She would have liked to go on the tour but feels they have a better group for it because she wouldn't have fit in. As for the oft-maligned excuse of going first leading into her elimination, Amanda isn't having any of it. In a direct dig to others who have, she said, "You'll never hear me pissing and whining that I was first or anything like that ... That's not how it worked out. I'm not going to cry over spilled milk."

(S07E23) Everyone had so much fun in the live chat during the Top 11 performance show that we're doing it again! We'll be hosting another live chat during the live 9pm ET broadcast tonight. And we may just do it for the rest of the season, too. Watch the results and sound off about the painful group number as it happens. Critique Kellie Pickler's return to the Idol stage and vent about all the "filler" Ryan subjects us to before voting out ... well who do you think it will be?

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

(S07E22) In response to the huge excitement and interest in this season's batch of American Idol contestants, we'll be hosting a live chat during the live 8pm ET broadcast tonight. Watch the show and share your throughts with other Idol fans in real-time. Don't agree with what Simon said? Speak out and be heard! Tonight, the Top 11 continue last week's theme by performing songs from the John Lennon/Paul McCartney catalog of classic hits.

You can join the chat by following this link. Look for the full episode review right here later tonight.

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Rather than have all these various posts about this American Idol poll and that American Idol poll, we decided to pool them all up into one delicious post each week. We will look at a few online polls that were conducted from the end of last week's results up to the performance show Tuesday. And then a few that were conducted after this week's performance show, but before the results were revealed Wednesday.

That way we can see how the week's performances affected a contestant's overall popularity, and how well the internet can predict eliminations. We'll also see how each contestant fared week to week in each poll, moving up or down. If you don't like waving at boring numbers, you might just want to move onto that nice article below this one. It looks friendly enough. But if you like getting mired in stats and rankings and seeing more than any sane human should ever need to about eleven singers, follow me across this jump...

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The songs of Lennon/McCartney again?! The "best" Top 12 -- okay, 11 now -- continues to tackle some of the greatest songs ever written. To celebrate enthusiasm for this year's crop of finalists, we're hosting a live chat during tonight's live performance episode (8pm ET). It's a great opportunity to sound off on the performances and offer your own critiques of the contestants ... and judges.

The chat will begin shortly before the show starts. A link to the chat will be provided in the recap post, so check the front page later tonight to join the conversation. See you tonight!

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Well, the final results are in from AOL's Idol Poll, running from the end of the competition on Tuesday to the "Results Show" on Wednesday. While there's not a great deal of deviation from the preliminary results we reported on Wednesday, it's interesting that David Hernandez actually went up slightly in their rankings, from 9th to 8th, before ultimately getting eliminated. They were way off on this one. What's the margin of error, I wonder.

The only other change of any significance was Carly dropping from the #2 slot all the way down to #4, allowing David Cook and Brooke to each move up a slot. This I can understand as both of them had really good nights. But what's up with all the Syesha haters? The final tally is "after the break."

(S07E21) For the first in a season full of hour-long American Idol results show, I'll give Idol credit for filling it pretty well. It was nice to see past runner-up Katharine McPhee perform on the Idol stage again, as well as the video footage of the Idols reacting to their sudden fame. What they need to do is turn the Results show into more of a classic variety show. And keep those past Idol contestants coming, too. American Idol has been around long enough now that it has it's own legacy and tradition, so keep honoring that.

As for the results, while the person who left wasn't necessarily the consensus choice, it was someone that I'm perfectly alright with seeing leave at this early stage. In fact, I could have lost the whole "Bottom Three" tonight and not lost any sleep over it.

What a difference a day makes. After the surprising performances on last night's Top 12 performance show, AOL's American Idol poll has shown some significant shifts. While David Archuleta has been a strong favorite across most polls, I don't think anyone can argue that last night he had a pretty dramatic misstep, forgetting lyrics and generally turning in a pretty bad performance.

The question is, will the David A. faithful continue to flock behind their golden boy, or is one bad performance enough to knock him off the top perch. And what about Chikezie, who turned in his strongest performance of the competition so far. Was it enough to bring him up in America's hearts? I've got two sets of poll results for you. The first from the week prior to last night's show, and the second after last night's performance.

(S07E20) After what went down last week, I'd be scared to death to perform first. On the girls' side, Asia'h performed first, followed by Kady. For the boys, it was Luke up first followed by David Archuleta and then Danny. So, other than David, all four eliminated contestants sang first on their respective performance shows. Do we forget so quickly, America? Maybe a whole night of Beatles classics will make it all a bit more memorable for you.

TVGuide.com ran a poll ranking the Top 12 American Idol finalists. While you can click on the link to check out the full list, and their percentages, I have to ask if it's really as cut and dry as that list makes it out to be. A couple of years ago, Taylor Hicks was an early fan favorite, never appearing in the bottom and always polling high like this, but even he didn't garner nearly half of all votes like a certain Star Search winner.

Is it that people really like David Archuelta to win or that they think it's inevitable he will win? I know some people I've talked to that say they figure he'll win at the same time saying they don't think he should. What do you think? Do you think David Archuleta has already won, basically, and it's all going to come down to who can come in second?

(S07E19) Thank god it's the end of three-times-a-week Idol. Tonight, we lost four more contestants to the ether and said hello to our Top 12. It's been a long road coming, and while I can't say I agree 100% with the Top 12, I will agree that most of the contestants in it deserve to be there.

Honestly, I think the Idol team accomplished their goal of creating the most talented Top 12 in Idol history. Say what you want about their professional pedigree and the lack of true amateurs in this group because in the end it won't really matter. What they will bring is a better more consistent product to the screen. Sure there's early favorites, but who can honestly predict the winner at this point (I know some of you are very certain you know who it will be)? Can you even predict the Top 12?