Fashion FASHION

Mullets

Introducing the worst hairstyle ever - the Mullet! Found on any stonewash-clad 80s-ite and championed by the likes of Fun House's Pat Sharp, Limahl and Billy Ray Cyrus, the mullet was indeed a sight to behold. It was as popular as the 90s "Rachel" among girls, but with more longevity probably because it took a lot longer to grow out as it consisted of short hair at the front and sides and long hair at the back.

Early sightings of the mullet can be dated back to the 1960s, with Welsh singer Tom Jones sporting a fine example. And in the 1970s David Bowie joined in with his own take on the mullet - a trendsetter in the mullet world was Bowie. However, the mullet did not achieve prominence and true popularity until the early 1980s when ‘Hair Bands’ like Kajagoogoo and Duran Duran somehow made them seem acceptable to the mainstream. If it was good enough for the celebrities, then by heck was it good enough for us plebs!

I don’t know what we called them in the 80s, but it certainly wasn’t ‘mullets’ because the Oxford Dictionary has given credit for inventing the name to the Beastie Boys in their 1994 song ‘Mullet Head’. Maybe people just took a cutting of Pat Sharp from their Just Seventeen magazine to the hairdressers, who know?

Thankfully the mullet haircut declined in popularity as the oh-so cool 90s approached and is now almost completely eradicated, except in Eastern Europe where the mullet still thrives. They'll catch on eventually.

But of course, while we may mock the mullet now, surely it's only a matter of time before the trend comes round again...

For anyone who still doesn't know what a mullet is it's the cool haircut in the photo. Did you have a mullet? Email me a picture and I might make a mullet gallery if I get enough good photos.


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Do You Remember Mullets?

Do You Remember Mullets?

  • borgduck
    on
    .......Cool?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    A deviation from the mullet, though just as ridiculous now, was a mid-80s haircut where you had to start with at least mid lengh hair for this one! You got it all cropped short and spikey except for a long strand left at the back at the base of your neck. You could then where a ribbon in it or platt it or even crimp it if you were really out there!! Mum wouldn/t let me have this style, she couldn't grasp the point of having a piece of hair missed out in the cutting proceedure! so i was unfashionably rapunzled throughout this period.
    • Chaobaby7
      on
      they almost all had that hair do in my school days, I wasn't allowed it either.
    • Anonymous user
      on
      As per Tears for Fears :)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Ashamed to say I was the owner of a magnificent mullet into 1990. Various shouts of "Oi Michael Bolton !" Bon Jovi, Billy Ray Cyrus came my way took ages to grow it out into a full David Coverdale style !!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I got the Mullet the day I left school. The first proper mens hairdresser had opened in my home town (he had gel and everything!) and he had the 'Paul Young' mullet. It looked good on him but once again, the mullet takes no prisoners when you have a slaphead & glasses. In all the photos it looks like I'm wearing an 80's party wig!
  • Yellow Watson
    on
    I had a mini flat top mullet. I thought I was the zhizz for a while there.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Business at the front, PAAARTY round the back! WOOOHOOO! Famous Mullet afficiondos: Chris Waddle Glen Hoddle Pat Sharpe Jason Donovan every other bloke in the 80s!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    They were no worse than the '70s cuts - how did they get the name "mullets" anyway ?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I still can't figure out why the mullet has got such a bad name. If done right, it's as good as most hairstyles today. But then on reflextion, it is a bit of a naff look when you look at the likes of Pat Sharp and the 'achey-breaky' bloke.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I had a mullett before 1982! It's actually the only style that suits me when I have long hair, so here we are 23 years later and I have returned to the good old fashioned mullett! I am know to some of my present students as 'THE MISTRESS OF THE MULLETT' oh well - they are only teenagers - what do they know?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I had the mullet from hell ... it reached right down my back and stood up about 5 inches. My g/f still takes the mickey ... the rest of my fellow lezzas still seem to like them ... but I'm never going back! ARGH!