Sanjaya’s styles: “Andy Gibb,” Bad Hair Day, “Paula”/”Rachel,” “Sathya Sai Baba” (americanidol.com)

Sanjaya Malakar has made it through another week on American Idol, another week of negative comments from the judges, another week of changing hairstyles. While his fellow contestant Brandon Rogers was voted off on Wednesday night, 17-year-old Sanjaya managed to garner enough votes to go to the next round of competition.

How does Sanjaya do it? E! News reports that [1] votefortheworst.com, the anti-Idol site endorsing him as having the weakest vocals in the competition, may have played a part. “As soon as Malakar was declared safe Wednesday night, Vote for the Worst credited its minions for prolonging his survival.” (“[2] Idol Says Buh-Bye to Brandon“)

Another reason may be the hair. Like [3] Samson, Sanjaya seems to draw strength from it. Fans of his look may constitute a voting block that has successfully kept him on the show so far. His ever-changing hairstyles suggest that he carefully cultivates and caters to this constituency. How far his coiffure will carry him remains to be seen.