THE JOURNAL
It’s August, the schools are out and the youth are in full experimentation mode. Ever your intrepid style correspondent, MR PORTER has been out in the field to investigate. Our biggest takeaway of the summer so far? The emergence of a new trend that we’re calling the post-ironic mullet.
The remarkable renaissance of this much maligned ’do, once famously described as business up front and party at the back, is hardly a new development. Avant-garde fashionistas and punks have been rocking the style for years and it was all the rage back in lockdown when Tiger King and cutting your own hair were both a thing.
What we are witnessing now is different. In the world of fashion – and certainly in the case of Mr Joe Exotic – the mullet is a post-modern and deeply self-referential statement, the purpose of which is to affront and to challenge accepted beauty standards. By contrast, this new generation appears to be engaging with the mullet with absolute sincerity, either blissfully unaware of, or indifferent to, its complicated past.
“Golfer Mr Cameron Smith recently won The Open at St Andrews while rocking a ’do worthy of the country singer Mr Billy Ray Cyrus”
For anyone old enough to remember the mullet’s nadir of popularity during the 1990s and early 2000s, a time when sporting one in public was a shortcut to social death, there will inevitably be questions. Questions such as: how on earth did this happen? Is there really such a thing as a good mullet? And if so, what should I say to my hairdresser? Let’s talk about it.
MR PORTER, I find myself surrounded by mullets. What’s going on?
To paraphrase the American novelist Mr Ernest Hemingway, trends happen in two ways: gradually and then suddenly. That thing you’re seeing everywhere? It didn’t appear overnight. Any trend that reaches critical mass owes its popularity to the early adopters, the trendsetters and the anti-establishment weirdos who rocked it when it was tragically uncool. In the case of the mullet, it has been growing, mainly at the back, for a few years now, popularised by 1980s-themed TV shows such as Stranger Things and championed by intrepid celebs. But it is arguably sportspeople who bear the greatest responsibility for dragging the one-time ultimate bad haircut back into the mainstream.
Sportspeople?
Australian sportspeople in particular. As with the moustache, another tonsorial style that fell dramatically out of fashion in the late 20th century, the mullet has remained staunchly popular in the world of Aussie sports. Among its most high-profile modern proponents are the sprinter Mr Rohan Browning, who was seen last week sporting a glorious mullet in the final of the 100m at the Commonwealth Games, and the golfer Mr Cameron Smith, who recently won The Open at St Andrews, one of the world’s most hallowed sporting institutions, while rocking a ’do worthy of the country singer Mr Billy Ray Cyrus.
“These young players at the top of their game are full of self-belief. They want to look like they mean business”
I’m glad you mentioned Mr Billy Ray Cyrus because the mullet is, for me, a 1980s hairdo. Even now it’s impossible to talk about it without making references to that decade. Surely, the irony is inescapable.
You are not wrong. History casts a long shadow and pop culture’s obsession with nostalgia means that, four decades on, the 1980s are far from forgotten. Still, it’s worth pointing out that many, if not most, of the people now enjoying mullets were not even born when they were last in vogue. Smith was born in 1993; Browning in 1997.
OK, if it’s not irony or nostalgia, then what is it? Aerodynamics?
That may well be a contributing factor, especially in the case of Browning. If you ask us, it’s got less to do with practicality and more to do with the mullet’s inherent swagger. According to Mr Jonathan Long, founder of the London hair salon Lockonego and co-owner of the grooming brand Saunders & Long, it’s a confidence thing. “These young players at the top of their game are full of self-belief,” he says, citing one of his clients, the England cricketer Mr Sam Curran, as an example. “He’s facing up against the best batsmen in the world. He wants to look like he means business.”
And what if I want to look like I mean business?
That depends on what kind of business you’re talking about. This isn’t the kind of ’do that would go down well on your first day as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. If you are intent on giving it a go, our first piece of advice would be to leave it to the professionals. As Long points out, the trend for mullets is providing hairdressers with a lucrative side-business in corrective surgery. “I’ve fixed a lot of DIY jobs,” he says.
Any advice on what I should ask for?
Over to Long again, who suggests bringing the style up to date by cutting it shorter with a bit of texture and well-blended sides. “I don’t like to go full mullet, but I like to keep an edge,” he says. “With Sam [Curran], I bleached his hair white blond first.” He also recommends using a product, such as Saunders & Long Condition & Groom leave-in conditioner, to provide hold and keep any fluffiness at bay.