Mullet

Hockey-hair, bi-level, neckwarmer, mud-flap, sho-lo, the cousin-chaser. This eclectic haircut went by many names, but the essence remains the same: short top, long back – “business up front, party in the back”.

An outcropping of the earlier ‘shag’, the mullet meshed two extremes and furthered the outrageous androgynous trend started by the glam rockers of the early seventies.

The unisex pendulum had swung the other way: men gave up the effeminate frills of glam, and women wanted a harder, more masculine edge.

Leather-clad rockers adopted the mullet for its fierceness: Joan Jett‘s jet-black mullet propelled her to hard chick status in an era when soft, feathered wings were the norm.

By the end of the seventies and into the early eighties, the mullet became an integral part of teenage fashion, along with tight jeans, mirrored sunglasses, and a single dangling earring (in the appropriate ear, of course).

Richard Dean Anderson brought the mullet into living rooms each week as television’s MacGyver, and the mullet helped new TV star George Clooney look hip.

On the big screen, Mel Gibson – especially in the Lethal Weapon movies – made the mullet look cool. So did Kiefer Sutherland, who stole teen girls’ hearts and a lot of scenes as a mulleted vampire in The Lost Boys.

There were cases, however, when the fashion police should have issued mullet citations. John Stamos misfired with his Full House, full-headed mullet that was so large it could have provided shelter for his co-stars. Other flagrant violators include Jean Claude Van Damme and Hulk Hogan.

Mario Lopez’s mullet in the TV teen show Saved by the Bell helped the haircut transition from the Eighties into the Nineties, and Captain Planet (pictured below) picked up the look as one of several mulleted cartoon characters. When you think of country star Billy Ray Cyrus, what springs immediately to mind – his mullet or his 1992 hit, Achy Breaky Heart?

The hairstyle’s name wasn’t officially coined until 1994, when the Beastie Boys screamed the lyrics “Cut the sides, don’t touch the back” in their hard-rock anthem, Mullet Head. But by then, this fad was frizzing out.

While the mullet has mercifully faded from mainstream fashion glory, it is still very much alive and well on the heads of everyone from musicians to NASCAR drivers.

Some former mullet heads like Bono have publicly regretted ever sporting the look. Billy Ray Cyrus, however, crooned I Want My Mullet Back in his 2006 song.

There have been brief attempts to resurrect the mullet, from adventurous hairstylists to courageous starlets like Scarlett Johansson and Zendaya.

They also continue to love the mullet in the Land Down Under. There’s even an annual “Mullet Fest” in Australia.