Yes, folks. The COVID mullet is real. And it’s spectacular.
Remember the last gasp of the mighty mullet? It was likely around the early 1990s, when country star Billy Ray Cyrus was rocking that much-maligned, business-in-the-front, party-inthe-back hairstyle to full achybreaky effect, just as grunge mowed through the last of the hair bands.
Now, three decades later, that Billy Ray back-flap is back with a vengeance. And you can thank — or blame — the ongoing pandemic.
Yes, folks. The COVID mullet is real. And it’s spectacular.
Not since the golden days of mullet gods like Cyrus, Patrick Swayze and Mel Gibson has the hairstyle been this ascendant with modern celebrity. Now mullets are topping the famous heads of country crooners Blake Shelton and Morgan Wallen, as well as pop stars Rihanna and Zendaya. And don’t forget that “Tiger King” title headcase Joe Exotic or “RuPaul’s Drag Race” breakout drag queen Crystal Methyd.
Then there’s Miley Cyrus. The singer and doting daughter of Billy Ray did her dad proud in 2020 with what San Antonio barber Jonné Jasso calls “a highfashion mullet,” a more mod spin on the mullet that softens the style with elements of a classic shag cut.
“It’s kind of like a little middle finger to the whole debacle of the last 12 months,” said Chesney Blue, a San Antonio stylist whose blue and purple mullet lives up to her business name, Shades and Fades by Blue.
After 20 years of styling hair, Blue gave herself a mullet this month. She said she’s been surprised at the positive feedback from friends and family about the new style, which also has brightened Blue’s mood for the first time in a long time.
“You kind of feel this selfesteem boost in a weird and funny way,” Blue said. “And on the right person, it looks gooood.”
Most people associate the birth of the mullet with the free-flowing 1970s, when guys first dared to go long, or at least longer in the back. But the mullet actually has ancient style bona fides.
History.com traces the first description of what sure sounds like a mullet to around the eighth century B.C. in Homer’s “Iliad,” in which the ancient Greek poet described the Abantes spearmen as wearing “their forelocks cropped, hair grown long at the backs.” Yet according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “mullet” was not coined until 1994 with the Beastie Boys’ song “Mullet Head.”
Famous mullet heads of the past are legion: Singers like Michael Bolton and Toby Keith. Athletes like Wayne Gretzky and Andre Agassi. Heartthrobs like Rob Lowe and George Clooney. Action stars like Chuck Norris and Kurt Russell. And singing sensations Cher and Liza Minnelli in the early ’80s.
Even rock gods have done it: Prince circa “Purple Rain.” David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust. The Beatles circa breaking up.
But then came the ’90s, and by the time Billy Ray Cyrus was waving his hair flag, there were haters. Oh, so much mullet hate and so many deliciously derisive mullet insults: the ape drape. The El Camino. Hockey hair. It even had state nicknames: the Mississippi mudflap. The Wisconsin waterfall. The Texas tailgate.
There was even a computer game called “Mullet Hunter” — the cursor became an electric razor and users scored points cutting off mullets, thereby restoring order to the universe.
Jasso, the self-proclaimed “guy for the mullets” at San Antonio’s Pinstripes Classic Barber Shop, attributes the recent spike in mullets to the past year of quarantine closures and hunkering down to work and attend school from home. Not reporting in person to a boss or principal gives more people an excuse to try a more daring style.
So they’re popping that collar cape with pride.
Just ask high school senior Cristian Muñiz. After seven years of the same hairstyle, the 18year-old decided in October it was time to shake things up and really let his hair down — in the back.
“I kind of wanted it because of quarantine. It was getting boring,” said Muñiz, whose look features a feathered tail with a fade cut on the sides. “I’m the partier of the group, or whatever. So it kind of matches my personality.”
Not only does Jasso maintain the mullets of Muñiz and other clients, he also does the do of fellow Pinstripes barber Sebastian Thompson, who refers to his mullet as “scholar in the front, baller in the back,” because the one timeless feature these mulleted men and women share is a healthy sense of humor.
“It’s more like learning how to laugh at yourself,” Jasso said. “Honestly, 90 percent of the people that have mullets, it started off as a joke.”
That joke certainly has brought its share of smiles — something that’s been in short supply the past year.
Of course, hairstyles come and go, and it’s just a matter of time before the COVID mullet goes the way of the Rachel cut.
“I bet it’s going to be something you still see in pictures, but nobody in real life as much,” Blue said. “I don’t really see the current lust for it exactly living past this upcoming year.”
Muñiz said he promised himself he’d keep his mullet for at least a year, then see how it goes.
“If I don’t like it that long, I’ll trim it,” he said. “But I’ll probably keep it for a while.”