The Mullet

A mullet is a hairstyle that is short in the front, top, and sides, but long in the back. This is why it earned its slogan, “Business in the front, Party in the back”. The hairstyle was first worn by French fashion guru Henri Mollet in the early 1970s. The word "Mollet" then anglicised to become "Mullet". The mullets were typically straight and spiky, curly and cascading, wild and wavy, but they were all shorter on the top and sides and longer in the back, and were therefore, clearly mullets.

It really wasn’t until the explosion of rock music, did the mullet claim it’s fame. Most male rockers in the early 1970s were wearing the mullets. And it wasn’t just the rockers who took to the new look. The mullet simply exploded in popularity in the 1980s and not only rock stars adopted mullets, but everyone seemed to have one. Tennis players such as Pat Cash, Andre Agassi, Martina Navratilova all wore them. Soccer players like Roberto Baggio, Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle had them. Movie stars Mel Gibson, Kurt Russell, and Patrick Swayze had them. Mullets have been worn by males and females of all ages.

Although, in the 1990s, the mullet was being cropped off by the rockers, it remained alive in the following years till now, particularly among the Country Western artists.

The mullet hairstyle is great for people with rounder faces, or who want to play up their eyes or cheekbones as a focal feature. It’s also a great style for making the neck look longer. At the risk of offending the sensibilities of those individuals who prefer a more urbane and chic hairstyle, we’re going to let you know the proper way to wear a mullet. Actually, we’ll be talking about the two most popular versions of the mullet: the Classic Mullet and the Ponytail Mullet.

The Classic Mullet
The classic mullet hairstyle looks just like a man’s traditional haircut on the top and sides of the head. The hair is trimmed short around the ears and on top, and then gradually becomes long and layered in the back. It’s worn by men who want to have a neat and tidy look in front and still wear their hair long in the back. Men with almost any hair type can wear this variant, but it looks especially good on men with natural wave or some curl to their hair. The layers at the back of the head maximize the amount of curl in the hair.

The Ponytail Mullet
This is the mullet style worn by many men who want long hair but need to keep a tidy and “businesslike” look for their jobs. It’s especially good for those who pull the hair back into a ponytail. This style works best with straighter hair, because very wavy or curly hair can become “bushy” at the ends because of the blunt cut. Because this style is mostly worn by those men who intend to wear a ponytail, some men opt for a half-inch perimeter of hair to be cut short so that when the hair is tied back into a ponytail it looks more like a traditional haircut until viewed so that the back is fully revealed.