Short (And Long) Story
The mullet is back. Really. Jancee Dunn unpacks the post-lockdown appeal of the ultimate bad-good haircut.
Jancee Dunn mulls the maligned mullet
If you type “mullets are” into Google, a compelling list of thought finishers pops up: hot, ugly, weird, cool. Few hairstyles are as polarizing as the businessup-front, party-in-back optical illusion featuring a straight-on short cut that is quickly betrayed by cascading longer lengths down the neck. It provokes such strong feelings that the look has actually been argued over by legislators— banned in Iran in 2010 and forbidden in an Australian school just this March for being “untidy” and “nonconventional.”
But unusual times call for unusual haircuts. As the vaccine effort ramps up, hairstylists are reporting that their novelty-starved clients, emerging from a year in quarantine, are eager to embrace the drastic, statement-making style, which is fast becoming a symbol for this postapocalyptic era and its promise for rebirth.
“People want to stand out in a crowd, and there’s no better haircut than a mullet to do that,” says celebrity hairstylist Harry Josh, who is perhaps best known for crafting Gisele Bündchen’s ubiquitous golden beach waves in the early aughts—a very different moment from our own, which is decidedly devoid of barrel curls. “It’s one of the only haircuts that can be on a man, a woman, or a nonbinary person,” confirms Mischa G., effectively describing the diverse clientele at Treehouse Social Club in downtown New York, where she has been cutting