Not Diamond Dave, at least.
Mindcrime is one of the best albums of all time regardless of genre.
Operation: Mindcrime is not remotely hair metal. More like proggy metal, like Rush’s 2112…
This mostly makes sense, except, what about KISS, which owed much of its success to its appearance but which predated MTV?
Oh I agree. Queensryche never fit into a category easily and they changed through the years. But they are often played on the Sirius Hair Nation station and if you look at some of their old videos they were going for the look somewhat but not as flamboyant. Geoff Tate still has one of the best voices in rock.
A band that gets lumped into this genre and does fit many of the criteria listed earlier is Extreme ( particularly the acoustic hit) but personally one of my favorite bands from that era musically closer to Pat Travers than hair metal. One of the best guitar players from that time, Nuno Bettencourt
I hear you - but there were SO many amazing guitarists that got co-opted into hair metal bands. Nuno, George Lynch, Reb Beach with Winger, heck, Steve Vai played with Whitesnake for a bit.
Having an amazingly brilliant guitarist is not a “get out of hair metal free” card. Unless you are Eddie, and were the first.
I agree. They’re all hair bands. Obviously GnR had more success, ability, range, and so on than your typical hair band. But they still fit the genre. I say this as a huge GnR fan and a fan of almost all hair metal. It’s no knock on GnR to put them in the category.
I disagree. GnR was the blacklash against Hair Metal. You might as well say Nirvana was Hair Metal.
I’d say they’re the outro of Hair Metal. They certainly did hair ballads (e.g. Sweet Child of Mine), and did have largely the same attitude as the hair bands. But they were into leather instead of spandex, and usually were into a bit harder version of rock than most hair bands.
DLR has stated on numerous occasions the Queen was VH’s biggest influence.
According to the Map of Metal, Hair Metal is also known an Glam Metal, descended directly from Heavy Metal and Shock Rock. Go study the map and then we can discuss further. 
You mean Elizabeth II?
Excuse me? Have you never seen the video for “Welcome to the Jungle”? GnR were the Hairiest of Hair Bands during the Appetite for Destruction era. They just dropped the look after they got successful. Just like Motley Crue and Ratt and Poison and Twisted Sister and Warrant and every other band going into the late 80’s/early 90’s.
DLR can say what he wants. Go find the album Montrose, featuring Ronnie Montrose on guitar and Sammy Hagar with his first recorded vocals. Rock Candy, Rock the Nation, Bad Motor Scooter, etc.
It was produced by Ted Templeman and engineered by Donn Landee. When VH was around in Pasadena, they couldn’t get signed until Ted Templeman picked them up. He basically saw another attempt to do Montrose - last name of guitarist as the name of the band and all - and went for it.
Templeman produced their albums until EVH got itchy and built his own studio - and worked with Donn Landee when producing those albums.
Sure they liked Queen, but they were packaged up by Warner Brothers to be a more successful Montrose. When DLR left/was fired, the fact that they turned to Sammy Hagar was the biggest inside joke. Not laughing at them; more just making the connection back to Montrose that much more clear.
They never had the look. It was someone’s bright idea for their first video. Once they had one hit and more say in their direction the ridiculous hair went away.
The biggest hair band of all time was Great White Lion Snake.
I know, right? It’s like Britny Rockit Boyz or something.
Some other proto-hair bands that come to mind…not High Hair but definitely play to the tropes and trappings:
Dio / Rainbow
Scorpions
Sammy Hagar
I agree with Hail Ants. The may have had the hair, but they weren’t “hair metal” (which is what I assume is meant by “hair bands.”) The bands that dropped the look were still “hair metal.”