Mullet … over? Infamous hairstyle the focus of praise, derision

Kirk Baird

Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 | 8:13 a.m.

The 'do is both short and long.

It's all business-executive in the front and on the sides, while a wild college kegger-party rages out of control in the back.

For this reason, the mullet is the oxymoron of hairstyles.

And maybe because of that, it is also the most maligned 'do around.

There are websites and books devoted to the mullet, aka the Kentucky Waterfall, the Missouri Compromise, Hockey Hair and the Weekend Warrior. There are shirts, posters, calendars and action figures.

There's even a song, "Mullet Head," courtesy of the Beastie Boys. A sample: "Number one off the side and don't touch the back. Number six on the top and don't cut it wack, Jack ... You wanna know what's a mullet? Well I got a little story to tell about a hairstyle that's way of life. Have you ever seen a mullet wife?"

How is that a simple hairstyle choice should receive such passion and attention? "I think it's because it's very difficult to be neutral about it," said Mark Larson, co-author of "The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods" (Bloomsbury, $15.95).

"The mullet takes a stand," he said in a recent interview from his home in Woodstock, N.Y. "It can be political or apolitical. It makes a bold statement. And some people love it and some people hate it."

And the style, like it or not, may be coming back.

Throughout the last 30 years, mullets have been the stock market of hairstyles; a bear and bull of public sentiment.

But in a recent issue of GQ, for example, male supermodel Tyson appears to have a mullet.

"I think they're trying to introduce it back (into mainstream society)," said Andrea Jones, hairstylist and director of Dolphin Court Grand Spa and Salon at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino. "They're trying to go a little longer in the styles."

While Jones said most of her male customers still prefer to keep their hair short on all sides, she did perform a mullet cut as recently as two months ago for one of her teenage sons.

"I like my kids to stand out," she said. "As long as they are cool."

In "The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods" Larson traces the infamous cut as far back as the Egyptians, who painted mulleted hieroglyphics on pyramid walls, among other places.

But the 'do's 20th-century revival came courtesy of rock 'n' roll icon David Bowie.

It was during his Ziggy Stardust phase in the early '70s, when the glam rocker craved a revolutionary hairstyle to match his cross-dressing alter-ego, that Bowie resurrected the mullet.

Bowie took two fashion magazines to his hairstylist and pointed to pictures of both long and short-hair models.

"He said, 'I want it to look a little like that and a little like that,' " Larson said. "And thus the mullet was born, the first multipurpose, quirky 'do."

The singer-songwriter has since drifted in and out of the mullet look during his career, most recently cropping the short-on-top, long-in-back style in the early '90s.

"(And) that's the power of the mullet," Larson said. "It draws you back."

Other celebrities who have joined the mullet parade at one point in their careers include: music stars Lou Reed, Michael Bolton, Joe Elliot, Geddy Lee and Paul McCartney; hockey star Jaromir Jagr; and baseball's Big Unit, Randy Johnson. Las Vegan Andre Agassi wore a spectacular mullet mane until he went under the razor several years ago.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and quasi-celeb Joey Buttafuoco also sport mullets. And Patrick Swayze, Kurt Russell, Mel Gibson, Eddie Murphy, Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme have all donned the 'do for film roles.

Larson speaks most highly of country heartthrob-turned-actor Billy Ray Cyrus' mullet. The coif, what the author calls the "The Achy Sacred Heart" in honor of the singer's biggest hit, has earned Cyrus the title Crown Prince of the Mullet.

"He's really carried the torch the longest of (celebrity mullet-wearers) and done a marvelous job of it," Larson said.

While mullets often elicit a stereotype usually associated with country-music artists and fans of monster-truck rallies, the cut's fans are much more universal than that.

"People talk about it being the trailer-park thing but we chronicled rich guys with mullets, poor guys with mullets, there are black mullets, there are white mullets," he said. "It crossed all boundary lines. Men, women, gay women, gay men."

All, Larson said, are attracted to the "power of the mullet."

"You have to think that someone is suddenly catapulted to a different level of power when they've linked their look with the power of the mullet," he said. "You're no longer just living in your trailer park. You're living large in your trailer park."

On the hunt

Pat Rice loves mullets. In fact, mullets -- rather, the act of hunting them -- have become his hobby.

The 28-year-old San Diego resident thrills in the chase and conquest of the mullet. Armed only with a Nikon 990 digital camera, Rice spends his free time searching for the big score: a finely coifed mullet.

So far Rice has bagged nearly 40 mullets, the proof of which he sends to mulletjunky.com under the pseudonym Rick Starr.

The site has published seven of his photos, earning him a ranking as the third-most frequent contributor to mulletjunky.

"When I see a good mullet I hunt it. I take a picture of it however I can," Rice said. "Sometimes it involves taking pictures very secretly, other times it involves just going up to them and taking a shot and they're just left with their reac-tion.

"It's funny how much you can get into it. It's kind of a weird passion, if you can call it that."

While Rice said he occasionally feels badly for his sniperlike tactics on the unsuspecting mulletheads, the sometimes paparazzo said he is not mocking the 'do, rather celebrating the wonders of the short-on-top, long-in-back look.

Rice, who has never had a mullet, does have thick-as-a-rug sideburns that trail down to his chin. His '70s-Elvis approach to facial hair has also earned him both quizzical looks and laughter among friends, family and co-workers.

"If someone were to make fun of me for the way I look, I would see it as their problem. And I would hope they would look at it the same way," he said. "But if somebody put me up on their website for my sideburns, I'd be flattered."

Mullet mockers

Jawn Randomschtuff (he preferred not to give his real name) created mulletjunky.com in college several years ago as a school project. The site has since become immensely popular, with about 5,000 hits a day.

Mulletjunky features photos of mullets according to classification: albino: "mullabino"; child: "the infantullet"; women: "femullets"; Latinos: "mullatinos"; bald on top with a long tail: "skullets."

Despite the disparaging humor, Randomschtuff insists his Web page is all in good fun.

"We're a site that embraces the mullet and that it's not something that needs to hated or feared," as other sites maintain, he said from his office in Los Angeles. "It's an interesting part of our subculture."

But not all mullet sites are as kindhearted.

Jeff (who did not give his last name), began mulletlovers.com in 1997 as a form of "personal therapy."

During the '80s Jeff brazenly sported a mullet. But the 'do died a "painful, horrific, long-overdue death" in October 1989, he said in a recent e-mail from his home in Portland, Ore.

"It didn't go quietly and it put up a valiant fight, but in the end justice and taste prevailed," he said.

And now Jeff's out to make other mullet wearers aware of what he perceives as their major fashion faux pas.

At mulletlovers.com the consequence for being spotted wearing a mullet is among others, having a photo posted in the site's Hall of Shame.

"Mullets as a whole generally have extremely low IQs, poor personal hygiene and a fashion sense that dates back to arena rock shows from 1983," Jeff said. "It's the whole 'personal choice' thing that really sets them up there to have stones tossed at them. Being a mullet isn't a handicap you're born with, it's a choice. So if you choose to make (mullets your) choice, then you also choose to suffer the consequences."

But the much-maligned 'do is not without its share of supporters and fans, Larson among them.

When talking about the mullet, the author speaks in almost reverent terms and even notes the spiritual nature of the "mudflap."

"We maybe had humor on our mind when we started the (book) project, but it became a thing where you're impressed and must be impressed with the power of the mullet," he said. "You may think (the mullet is) funny, but there's a reason it continues on. It's unique, it's individual and that's the key to its longevity.

"Many, many mock, but when they have turned to dust, the mullet is still here."

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