It received more attention than Haley Scarnato and her legs.

We're speaking, of course, about Sanjaya Malakar and his hair. But how much say did this American Idol favorite have in the styles that captivated America?

“Well with my hair, I always had an idea of what I wanted. The hair person would help me to execute it," Malakar said. "With the styling of my clothes and stuff, I just wanted to really capture my personality and put it out there. Then the stylist really helped me with that. So I did have a lot of help but the ideas were mainly mine.”

Even though American Idol viewers will likely never forget the ponyhawk, Sanjaya revealed that wasn’t actually his favorite hairstyle.

“My favorite hairstyle was when I sang “Besame Mucho” minus the grease, because I’ve always wanted my hair to be curly like that. It’s a little bit curly naturally but I mean that’s like my dream hair. So I really liked it.”

Okay, but was the altered lyrics during his farewell song - “Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About ... other than hair” - an expression of frustration over how his hair got more attention than his singing?

“No, because at a certain point that had kind of become my thing, because I think that everyone – like everyone looks for something to grab onto with each contestant. So I feel like my hair was that for me. So that was just kind of my little joke back-at-you thing. I just wanted to put that out there.”

Fair enough. We wonder if Phil Stacey will joke about his scary resemblance to a vampire once he's voted off.

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.