Mullets Throughout History

Written by Leanna Serras

Associated primarily with the 1980s, the mullet hairstyle, "business in the front, party in the back" has become the punchline for that decade. However, they have been around for a long, long time. Buffalo Bill famously sported one. Tom Jones, a popular singer in the late 60s, was one of the first people to wear the hairstyle publicly. Who can forget Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie, Jaromir Jagr of hockey fame, or the early George Clooney? No other hairstyle has garnered the attention and notoriety of the mullet.

Just about every other person on the planet had some form of the hairstyle in the 80s. Nowadays, it is universally panned, associated with blue-collar workers, heavy metal and country music fans, bikers, lesbians, and hockey fans. Songs have been written about the infamous style, including “I Want my Mullet Back” by Billy Ray Cyrus. Movies are made with the mullet as the centerpiece Joe Dirt and Wayne’s World. Even whole books discuss the hairstyle, for example, The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods by Mark Larson and Barhey Hoskyns . With so much bias and opinion surrounding the mullet, it is a wonder that anyone would dare to do the do for fear of being ostracized. Yet the mullet is poised for a comeback.