The
mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back. Widely panned as a lowbrow and unappealing hairstyle, and facetiously referred to as "business up front, party out back," the mullet began making appearances in the popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not catch on with the general populace until the early 1980s. It continued to be popular until the early 1990s and has enjoyed a partial return to favor as a
retro look in the 2000s.
Etymology
It is unclear whether there is an etymological relation between the term
mullet as a hairstyle and the slang used to denote a stupid person in the late 20th century. There are also no known etymological connections with the
Mullet fishThe mullets or grey mullets are a family of ray-finned fish found worldwide in coastal temperate and tropical waters, and in some species in fresh water also. Mullets have served as an important source of food in Mediterranean Europe since Roman times...
. Conflating the two into one, a mullet wearer and a mullethead, is a product of the 1990s, several decades into the style's popular appearance.
As detailed in the
Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language...
, the term
mullet as derogatory slang for a mullet wearer was "apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by U.S. hip-hop group the
Beastie BoysBeastie Boys is an American hip hop group from New York City. The group comprises Michael "Mike D" Diamond, Adam "MCA" Yauch, and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz...
", whose 1994 song
Mullet Head uses "mullet" and "mullet head" in contemptuous reference to mullet wearers, and whose fan publication,
Grand Royal Magazine, featured a reference to the
mullet in a 1995 edition as the first published use of the term.
It is also possible that the term is derived from the french word for
muleA mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
, "mulet". These horse-donkey hybrids typically exhibit a long mane and a relatively short, spiky foretop, similar to the effect intended by the hairstyle in question.
It was recorded that the hairstyle originated in Maine, USA in the 18th Century and was called the Maine Mullet. But as the style spread, the name got shortened to 'mullet'
History
A precursor of the mullet, unrelated to the style explosion in the latter part of the 20th century, first appeared in the early part of the 19th. According to the Notes section of the Viking edition of Lydia Davis's translation of
Marcel ProustValentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, essayist, and critic, best known as the author of À la recherche du temps perdu , a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven parts from 1913 to...
's
Swann's Way,
"Jean Baptiste Prosper BressantJean Baptiste Prosper Bressant was a French actor born in Chalon sur Saône in 1815. In 1838 he went to the French theatre at St. Petersburg, where for eight years he played important parts with ever-increasing reputation...
was a well-known actor who introduced a new hairstyle, which consisted of wearing the hair in a crew cutA crew cut is a type of haircut in which the hair on the top of the head is cut relatively short, graduated in length from the longest hair at the front hairline to the shortest at the back of the crown. The hair on the sides and back of the head is usually tapered short, semi-short or medium. A...
in front and longer in the back."
First popular appearance
The modern mullet began to appear initially in the late 1960s, Welsh pop singer
Tom JonesSir Thomas Jones Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer. Since 1965, Jones has sold over 100 million records.-Early life:...
sporting one.
Glam rockGlam rock is a style that developed in the UK in the post-hippie early 1970s that was "performed by singers and musicians wearing outrageous clothes, makeup, hairstyles, and platform-soled boots." The flamboyant costumes, and visual styles of glam performers were a campy, theatrical blend of...
artist
David BowieDavid Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. Active in five decades of popular music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
wore a proto-mullet in the early 1970s.
Florence HendersonFlorence Agnes Henderson is an American actress and singer, best known for playing the role of Carol Brady in the television program The Brady Bunch, which ran from 1969 to 1974.-Early life:...
featured a mullet in the opening sequence of the television sitcom
The Brady BunchThe Brady Bunch is an American television sitcom. starring Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, and Ann B. Davis, which revolves around a large blended family...
(1973–4 season),
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE , is an English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record and film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings, McCartney is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music...
sported a mullet throughout the 1970s. The hairstyle achieved further popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s among entertainers with receding hairlines such as
Anthony GearyAnthony Geary is an American actor. He has starred on the ABC daytime drama General Hospital as Luke Spencer from 1978 to 1984 and from 1993 to present.-Career:...
of "Luke and Laura" fame from the soap opera
General HospitalGeneral Hospital is an American daytime television drama and is currently credited by the Guiness Book of World Records as being the second longest-running soap opera in production and the second longest running drama in television in production. It premiered on the ABC television network on April...
, and the rock performers
Michael BoltonMichael Bolton is an American singer-songwriter and a former hard rock singer. He is best known for his soft rock ballads and tenor vocals....
and
Phil CollinsPhilip David Charles "Phil" Collins LVO is an Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, drummer, keyboardist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for English progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
.
1980s
As the 1980s progressed, big and
bouffantA bouffant is a type of hairstyle characterized by hair piled high on the head and hanging down on the sides. It was a mainstream hairstyle in the mid-to-late 18th century in western Europe. It was thought to be created for Marie Antoinette, as she had relatively thin hair and wanted to create the...
mullets increased in popularity, and like other popular hairstyles at the time, often included spiking or blond highlights. Popular bands such as
RushRush is a Canadian rock band originally formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
,
Guns N' RosesGuns N' Roses is an American rock band that was formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band, led by frontman and co-founder Axl Rose, has gone through numerous line-up changes and controversies since its formation...
and
Mötley CrüeMötley Crüe is a American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The band was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
probably contributed to the popularity of the hairstyle.
Australian Rules footballersThe Australian Football League is the major professional Australian national competition in the sport of Australian football and is arguably Australia's biggest sporting competition in terms of membership, corporate sponsorship and attendances .The league comprises 16 teams which play 22 home and...
were instrumental in establishing the popularity of the mullet in
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. Notable players included Warrick Capper and
Dermott BreretonDermott Hugh Brereton is a former champion Australian rules football player in the Australian Football League.In a 211 game career, Brereton kicked 464 goals and played in five premierships for...
. The mullet is well known and widely remembered in Germany, where it is known as the "Vokuhila", which is an acronym for "vorne-kurz-und-hinten-lang" or "short in front and long in back". The stereotypical German image of the mullet is epitomized by 1980s soccer teams and their fans, as well as by the ubiquity of the hairstyle in images dating from the fall of the Berlin Wall. This fact has led to an unfortunate tendency to associate the mullet with negative stereotypes of the former East Germany, which is probably not fair, as the hairstyle was also popular in West Germany and elsewhere at the time. The zenith of the mullet's popularity in 1980s continental Europe has been described as an "age of singing tattooed Swedish
Flokati RugA flokati rug is a wool rug. They date back to 5th Century Roman province of Macedonia, where they were used by Vlach shepherds, near Samarina, currently in Greece, which is the highest village in the Pindos mountains....
s" .
1990s
In the mid to late '90s the "tail" of the mullet was occasionally "permed" with loose or tight curls adding even more internal composition contrast to the hairstyle. This is often called a French mullet or a Mullét (pronounced moo-lay).
The VandalsThe Vandals are an American rock band established in 1980 in Huntington Beach, California. They have released ten full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour...
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band performed a song called "I've Got an Ape Drape" on the album
Hitler Bad, Vandals GoodHitler Bad, Vandals Good is the seventh studio album by the southern California punk rock band The Vandals, released in 1998 by Nitro Records. Much of the album is characterized by the pop-punk music and humorous lyrics for which the band is known, and it became their most popular and commercially...
which listed alternative geographic names for the mullet, as well as linking it to the type of people who appear on
Jerry SpringerGerald Norman "Jerry" Springer is an English/American television personality, best known as host of the tabloid talk show The Jerry Springer Show since its debut in 1991. He is a former Democratic mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a musician.-Early life:Springer was born in Highgate tube station in...
or fans of
Toby KeithToby Keith Covel , best known as Toby Keith, is an American country music singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. Keith released his first four studio albums — 1993's Toby Keith, 1994's Boomtown, 1996's Blue Moon and 1997's Dream Walkin, plus a Greatest Hits package for various divisions of...
:
2000s
The mullet and its associated lifestyle have been central themes in movies such as
GummoGummo is a 1997 independent American cult film written and directed by Harmony Korine. The film stars Nick Sutton, Jacob Reynolds, Max Perlich, Jacob Sewell, and Chloë Sevigny...
(1997)
Joe DirtJoe Dirt is a 2001 comedy film starring David Spade, Dennis Miller, Christopher Walken, Brittany Daniel, Jaime Pressly, Erik Per Sullivan, Adam Beach and Kid Rock. The film was written by David Spade and Fred Wolf.-Plot:...
(2001) and the television show
The MulletsThe Mullets was a sitcom that was created by producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. It first aired on UPN in 2003, and was cancelled in 2004 due to poor reception. It starred Michael Weaver, David Hornsby, Loni Anderson, and John O'Hurley...
(2003-2004).
Despite its negative reputation, the mullet remains a moderately popular hairstyle among certain social groups in various Western countries. In Spain it can be widely identified in the streets of cities like
BarcelonaBarcelona is the capital, most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and the second largest city in Spain, with a population of 1,615,908 in 2008. It is the 11th-most populous municipality in the European Union and sixth-most populous urban area in the European Union after Paris,...
. The Spanish mullet is generally shorter and lighter than a classic mullet, only using the last inch or so of hair above the hairline. It rarely extends beyond the neck. Also in Spain, the
mullet is associated with two different ethnic groups: young Gypsies and young separatists from the
Basque CountryThe Basque Country is an Autonomous Community of northern Spain.The Basque Country was granted the status of historical region within Spain with the Spanish Constitution of 1978...
.
It is also fairly popular among the 18–34 age group in some East European countries, notably
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, where it is most popular among high school aged males. In the U.S. and
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the
mullet is particularly associated with
blue collarA blue-collar worker is a member of the working class who typically performs manual labor and earns an hourly wage. Blue-collar workers are distinguished from those in the service sector and from white-collar workers, whose jobs are not considered manual labor.Blue-collar work may be skilled or...
men, fans of
countryCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
and
heavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States...
, soccer fans and
ice hockeyIce Hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport...
players, as well as lesbians. In the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
the
mullet is most commonly associated with thugs, David Shales,
Pat SharpPat Sharp is a British radio and television presenter and disc jockey, currently presenting drive on Heart 103 in Cambridge. In Britain he is known mainly for his work on 1990s children's television programme Fun House, his mullet and his radio shows, while throughout Europe he is known mainly as...
or with Central and
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
ans, particularly professional
footballersAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
. In
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
the haircut is associated with
BoganThe term bogan is Australian and New Zealand English slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for a person who is, or is perceived to be, of a lower-class background. According to the stereotype, the speech and mannerisms of "bogans" indicate poor education, cheap clothing and uncultured...
s and
Australian rules footballAustralian football, also commonly referred to as Australian rules football, football, or Aussie rules, colloquially as footy, and historically as Australasian football or Victorian football, is a variant of football played between two teams of 18 players, plus four interchange players, outdoors on...
players, particularly those from the 1980s, as well as Lebanese-Australian youths. In
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
, the hairstyle has once again become popular, and is often worn by working class youth, especially those of Turkish immigrant origin. There it is commonly referred to as "Vokuhila" -
vorne
kurz,
hinten
lang (short at the front, long at the back).
In recent years, the mullet has enjoyed resurgent popularity among the hip set, becoming commonly known as "Le Mullet" or a "Fashion Mullet", in particular the
emoEmo is a style of rock music typically characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, D.C., where it was known as "emotional hardcore" or "emocore" and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring...
sub-culture, probably due to its association with 1980s
retroRetro is a term used to describe, denote or classify culturally outdated or aged trends, modes, or fashions, from the overall postmodern past, but have since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into...
kitschKitsch is a German word denoting art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap...
. A modified asymmetrical mullet is also gaining popularity, especially when straightened.
In European countries the mullet has regained popularity. The mullet's stronghold within Europe is still, by far, Spain. In Ireland, due to the huge eastern European immigration there, with styles such as the "v-mullet" and the "box mullet". The v-mullet is similar to mohawk but wider, with a "V" shape at the back. The "box" mullet is similar to the old 80's mullets but shorter and straighter. Usually people put color in the back, such as blond and red. Both these styles are generally popular amongst the eastern Europeans in Ireland and occasionally the scangers and culchies.
The mullet is also popular in
ColombiaColombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a constitutional republic in northwestern South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the northwest by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean...
, especially
MedellínMedellín , officially the Municipio de Medellín or Municipality of Medellín, is the second largest city in Colombia. It is in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northerly of the Andes in South America. It has a population of 2.4 million...
y
BogotaBogotá – officially named Bogotá, D.C. , formerly called Santa Fe de Bogotá – is the capital city of Colombia, as well as the most populous city in the country, with 6,776,009 inhabitants...
.