Mullet (hairstyle)

The mullet is a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides and long in the back.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, use of the term mullet to describe this hairstyle was "apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by U.S. hip-hop group the Beastie Boys", who used "mullet" and "mullet head" as epithets in their 1994 song "Mullet Head". The term "mullet head" had previously always or nearly always been used to refer to a person of dubious intelligence, e.g. as in the movie "Coolhand Luke," where defeated villains had been referred to as "mullet heads." Since the term probably originated from the song "Mullet Head", and that term had previously been defamatory, "mullet" is very likely only short for "mullet head".

In the sixth century, Byzantine scholar Procopius wrote that some factions of young males wore their hair long at the back and cut it short over the forehead. This non-Roman style was termed the 'Hunnic' look.

Mullets were used by rock stars Rod Stewart, David Bowie, Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, and Paul McCartney as far back as the early 1970s.

The zenith of the mullet's popularity in 1980s continental Europe has been described as an "age of singing tattooed Swedish Flokati Rugs".

In the United States of the 1980s, the mullet became popular within lesbian culture, where it came to be used as a way of identifying oneself as a member of that culture in public.

In the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States area the mullet was glamorized by several members of the Pittsburgh Penguins (winners of the NHL's Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992). The mullet remains popular to this day, even mocked to much acclaim by WDVE radio hosts in particular.

After the much-publicized 1992 DC Comics storyline in which Superman apparently died, the character returned in the 1993 follow-up storyline, "Reign of the Supermen" in which he was depicted with a mullet. He remained with that hairstyle until 1997, and this look was depicted in an action figure released by Mattel in 2009.

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Wikipedia