For many guys, hair maintenance has become a holy grooming ritual. For some, it has become more of an ordeal than women.

Today, men’s hair grooming has been lavishly amplified to luxe proportions. Guys no longer use regular mousse or gel; they use “product” like clay pomades, hair wax, body building gels, sleek texture finishing creams _ need I say more?

All these “products” have brought men to the same level as women’s hair care, but it’s the trends in men’s hair that define a generation – even if some of them are unforgivable:

Like the name suggests, this is a hairstyle that remains a failsafe. It is mostly defined as a conservative cut where the sides and back are relatively short (not a fade) and the top has enough hair to be parted or brushed back. What makes this a safe bet is that it’s very general style that can be tweaked to make it modern but still maintain its classicism.

Hugh Laurie from the TV show, “House’’ is often used as a contemporary example, while Cary Grant is synonymous with the style.

Hairstyles from this era took a cue from the world’s fascination with Farrah Fawcett’s locks: feathery, long and flowy. Guys thought, “If the ladies can do it, why can’t we?’’

Men started to wear their tresses a little longer a la Partridge Family heartthrob David Cassidy. The feathered, bushy craze started to takeover and was worn by John Travolta during his “Saturday Night Fever’’ phase and Donny Osmond let his hair bounce with glee as he flashed his pearly whites.

But the best portrayal of this style was worn best by that “Three’s Company” neighbor Larry Dallas (played by Richard Kline), the disco-cool, womanizing neighbor, who always managed to keep the top three buttons of his shirt unbuttoned:

Do I even have to say which one he is? He’s the one who’s hair has a pair of wings so big, that he might fly away.

Unfortunately, the feather and flow of the ‘70s spilled into the ‘80s _ but it got worse. Hair started to become voluminous. It was like men’s hair was inflatable.

For a really good example, check out George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley (a.k.a. Wham!) on the cover of their “Make it Big!’’ album (pictured above). Their hair takes up 85 percent of the picture.

If you want more examples check out any cop show during the ‘80s. Might I suggest you watch Erik Estrada as Ponch on “CHiPs?” Sure, the show started in the ’70s, but lucky for us his hair still had a strong presence in the ’80s. It was so fluffy and bouffantish, like a pillowy dream of salon quality beauty:

The award for best ‘80s coif goes to David Hasselhoff. He managed to keep his exuberant coif of luscious curls that looked like onion rings in tact while driving a robotic car named K.I.T.T:

Then the ’90s came along and a man named George Clooney modernized the Caesar cut. Before we knew it, every guy, frat boy and mid-life crisis man were cutting their bangs short and combing it forward - including me. But I won’t give you the pleasure of seeing me in a Caesar cut. It might make you vomit like that picture of the “Hoff.”

Fashion designer, Hedi Slimane may have discovered this look, but David Beckham brought it into the mainstream. As a style import from the UK, the faux hawk is still going strong with tons and tons of celebs and normal people sporting the ‘do. I think it is safe to say that I am tired of it - but if it works, it works.

This recent look just combines all of the hairdos of generations past and adds that oh-so-cool emo twist to it. Pete Wentz (above) of Fall Out Boy sports his own version.

Uber tween sensation Zac Efron is the ultimate poster boy for it:

And even Tom Cruise is trying to maintain his youthfulness by putting his own spin on it.

It’s not really my taste. It’s like a horrific hair hodgepodge.

So what’s next for trends in men’s hair? I know what it will be - every dude is just going to shave their head - it’s low maintenance, you can do it yourself and best of all, you’ll be cool like me!