Was Michael Jackson's permed and curled hair ever real after the 1970s? It's difficult to know for sure because the singer's appearance varied so dramatically. We do know he generally preferred to wear his hair long, though, and it never looked better than it did during the late 1980s.
These were arguably the peak years of Jackson's career, and he almost single-handedly made the Jheri curl fashionable. Many people tried to imitate the style, but nobody ever did it better than him.