Mullet (haircut)

Vintage 1992 mullet, Buffalo, New York

The mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides, and long in the back. The mullet began to appear in popular media in the 1960s and 1970s but did not become generally well known until the early 1980s. It continued to be popular until the mid-1990s.^{[citation needed]}

The Classical period

In the second book of The Iliad, the 8th-Century B.C. poet Homer lists the various Greeks who shipped out to fight the Trojans, including the mullet-wearing Abantes of the island of Euboea:

The sprinting Abantes followed hard at [Elephenor's] heels, their forelocks cropped, hair grown long at the back, troops nerved to lunge with their tough ashen spears and slash the enemies' breastplates round their chests. In Elephenor's command sailed forty long black ships.

The Roman emperor Nero may have at one time adopted a hairstyle that resembled a mullet, judging from the writings of the ancient biographer Suetonius:

He was utterly shameless in the care of his person and in his dress, always having his hair arranged in tiers of curls, and during the trip to Greece also letting it grow long and hang down behind.

Later, the 6th-century Byzantine historian Procopius' Secret History describes the actions of some of the Blue faction:

First the rebels revolutionized the style of wearing their hair. For they had it cut differently from the rest of the Romans... clipping the hair short on the front of the head down to the temples, and letting it hang down in great length and disorder in the back, as the Massageti do. This weird combination they called the Hun haircut.

1970s

Paul and Linda McCartney in 1974

Mullets were sported by rock stars David Bowie and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney (and wife Linda) as far back as the early seventies.

1980s

The mullet became wildly popular in the mid to late 1980s as a result of the early success of U2's popularity and it was Bono's style from the Live Aid 1985 performance in particular that is most widely credited as being the main influence of the mullet style.^{[citation needed]} The zenith of the mullet's popularity in 1980s continental Europe has been described as an "age of singing tattooed Swedish Flokati Rugs".

1990s

Superman was drawn as having a mullet from issue 505 (1993) to 544 (1997) of Adventures of Superman comic and this look was released in action figure form by Mattel in 2009. In the mid to late 1990s the "tail" of the mullet was occasionally "permed" with loose or tight curls adding even more internal composition contrast to the hairstyle.^{[citation needed]} Punk rock band The Vandals sang of country music singers and Jerry Springer Show guests sporting mullets, and listed regional names for the style in the 1998 song "I've Got an Ape Drape". Country Music singers Billy Ray Cyrus, Travis Tritt, and Joe Diffie were also known for their mullets. The German punk rock band Die Ärzte dedicated in their album "Le Frisur", in which every song is about hair, the song Vokuhila Superstar to the mullet (in German Vokuhila). Sanjay Dutt also wore a mullet in 90s.

2000s

The mullet and its associated lifestyle have been central themes in movies such as Joe Dirt "business in the front, party in the back" (2001), and the television show The Mullets (2003–2004). The 2001 film American Mullet documents the phenomenon of the mullet hairstyle and the people who wear it.

2010s

In July 2010, the Islamic government of Iran issued grooming guidelines to men supplementing the existing modesty stipulations to women. Among the new regulations is a ban of the mullet hairstyle. The ban on mullets is one of the measures that Iran has deployed to "confront the cultural assault by the West." The country aims to promote a set of new Islamic hairstyles that were unveiled at the Hijab and Chastity Festival of 2010.