Mullet cuts hang around to repulse, fascinate
By L.A. JOHNSON, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 16, 2003

Some 20 years ago, mullets freely roamed Earth without shame and free of rancor.

They were badges of honor and rugged, rebellious individualism.

In the modern mullet era, singers Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi and Billy Ray Cyrus not only popularized but exalted the hairdo.

The Boltonian-Jovian Age gave way to the Cyrusian Age. Then, a darkness descended and the mullet fell out of favor, becoming a much-maligned and oft-loathed coiffure that exposed anyone who wore it to great ridicule.

"Not everybody has the guts to actually wear one," says Jeff "Joe Dirt" Stefanak, 17, of Aurora, Ohio, who started growing his in May. "Only special people can wear it."

The mullet is a hairstyle but not just any "do." It's short (and sometimes spiky) on the top, front and sides, and long in back.

Business in the front; party in the back. The Bi-Level. The Ape Drape. The Mississippi Mudflap. The Missouri Compromise. The 10/90 (the ratio of hair up front to hair in back). The Camaro Cut. The Achy-Breaky-Bad-Mistakey. Hockey Hair. The Yep-Nope. The Squirrel Pelt. The list goes on and on.

It has spawned this fall's UPN television show "The Mullets," the 2002 documentary "American Mullet" and countless Web sites, including the ever-popular www.mulletsgalore. com, where some have traced the mullet's origin to ancient Greece and Rome.

Twenty years after their prime, they continue to repel and fascinate.

The Oxford English Dictionary offers this among its 12 definitions of mullet: "a hairstyle with the hair cut short on the sides and in front, but long and flowing down the back neck," though most other dictionaries still list only the fish.

However, the word's origin, as it describes hair, still is mysteriously murky, with no one quite sure where the fish met the hair. Some speculate the hairstyle resembles the mullet fish's fins. Others claim that Icelandic fishmongers who fished mullet used to wear their hair short on top and long in the back to keep their necks warm.

The mullet worn by the title character in the film "Joe Dirt" inspired Jeff to make the move to Mulletville and he doesn't believe he looks good with any other haircut.

"I wanted long hair, but everybody wanted me to keep short hair, so I thought I'd go in the middle," says Jeff. "The hottest girls in my school love to touch my hair."

Ed Eichenlaub knows the feeling.

"I get a lot of people who want to play with it," says Eichenlaub, 47, of Bethel Park, Pa. "I'm known for it. If I got it cut short again, it would be like, 'Who are you?' "

His blondish-gray mullet stretches all the way down his back, ending just 5 inches above his belt.

Eichenlaub currently is growing out the front, top and sides of his mullet for a wizard character he portrays as a storyteller. However, he doubts he'll ever give it up completely. It's a huge part of his spirituality.

"Just the freedom of it," says Eichenlaub.

Jennifer Arnold, an unabashed mullet lover, first got the idea to make the documentary "American Mullet" years ago when she was invited to a camping event.

"No one told me it was a women-only and clothing-optional folk-music camping event," says Arnold, who directed and produced the documentary. "There were hundreds of naked women with mullets and if you don't have clothing, all you have to go by is hairstyle."

Years later, what began as an Internet series as part of the Sundance Online Film Festival was developed into a feature-length documentary with dozens of people nationwide discussing their mullets and why they love them.

"Fifty percent of them were aware it was called a mullet and they wore it anyway out of sheer pride," Arnold says. "People would assume they weren't well-educated and lower-class, but they, in fact, were very intelligent and articulate and very few of them lived in trailers."

Arnold says the mullet wearers she talked with fell into five basic categories: the "MexiMullet" (Mexican Machismo Men), "Hockey Hair" (Hockey/Bikers/Jocks/ Studs), "The Lesbian Haircut" (Lesbians), "Mullet With Tradition" (Native Americans) and "The Billy Ray Cyrus" (country-music stars and fans).

Ninety percent of the people she interviewed had worn their mullets for more than 10 years.

Arnold started growing a mullet at the beginning of filming in 2000. Living in Los Angeles, she thought it would be fun.

"It was not fun at all," she says. "People made fun of me and treated me completely differently and that was good knowledge to go into the film with."

Stereotypes persist about members of the "Mullitia" being unfashionable, unintelligent and heavy metal/hard rockers or rockabilly types.

"You really do have to keep all of your prejudices in check," Arnold says. "Everyone makes assumptions based on first impressions and people's appearance, and even with an appearance as strong as the mullet, you've got to get to know the person first. People can always surprise you."