The rise and fall – and rise again – of the mullet, the hairdo that won’t die
In his Nelson barber shop, Nathan Nukunuku has had a busy week. He’s cut around 20 mullets over the past six days, a hairstyle he’s noticing is on the up and up.
Not limited to subcultures and playfully ironic youth, mullets are now everywhere – spotted on the school playgrounds, sports fields and even in Mitre 10.
Nukunuku said mullets were big back in 2019 and 2020, but the trend dampened down as people decided to cull their locks back.
In the past six months, he says, they’ve made a comeback. Again.
Catherine Hubbard
Riley Morrison-Humm rocks his newly tidied up mullet at Chop City Barbers, Nelson.
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“I used to be one of them ones that hated them. Now I love ‘em,” he said, though ditching the hairstyle himself because his thick curls “dreaded up” at the back.
He’s seeing boys from primary age up to young adults go for the often derided ‘do, sometimes to wear to summer festivals.
Barbers like Nukunuku say basketball players, Australian hip-hop artists and Kiwi rugby stars like the Highlanders’ Folau Fakatava are influencing today’s kids.
Technically they describe the mullet as “one of the easier haircuts” – much because mullet wearers want the back of their head to be left well alone.
Joe Allison/Getty Images
The mullets of sports stars like Folau Fakatava of the Highlanders have been fuelling the hairstyle’s popularity.
Riley Morrison-Humm, 18, has had a mullet for about two years. “All the boys have done it,” he says.
Nowadays, mullets can include fades – where the hair is cut very close to the skin, a comb-over, a side part, or a crop. Nukunuku is also seeing horse tails and rats’ tails.
It’s fair to say it’s not a style all women love, but one which some will tolerate within reason.
“Most of them say it does look better when it’s all tidied up,” Nukunuku said.
Napier barber Jabez Makawe’s mullets have made him something of a TikTok star. His most popular video has been viewed 1.2 million times, garnering 186,000 likes.
Jay Asalele has his hair cut by barber Jabez Makawe AKA “Thy Mullay King”.
People travel from all over the country to have him cut their mullets, he says. The 35-year-old, who also goes by the moniker “Thy Mullay King” sports a mullet himself, and gets a kick out of how polarising they are.
“People [either] love them or hate them. I love that. I love getting that reaction from people.”
Women, he said, “love the mullays, absolutely love them”.
“In my experience it’s a certain type of woman that love it,” he said, but didn’t elaborate about that ‘certain type’.
Makawe sees a diverse range of age groups – including many in their 30s and 40s who were nostalgic about a look their dad had when they were little, or wore themselves when they were younger.
”They want to look a little filthy but also fresh like ‘fireished’, like the top and the sides look nice and tidy, but the back’s got a little bit of ruggedness to it.”
He also has lesbian women among his clientele. Other barbers say the cut is popular among the gender diverse.
“It’s a certain type of person that can have one,” Makawe says.
“We get a lot of tradies. They don’t have that stigma with being customer facing.”
Every now and again, he has to deliver devastating news.
“You get the odd guy who is like ‘I want to get a mullet, but the missus won’t let me’ or ‘I’ve got to go to a wedding, so I’m going to cut it off’. I always tell them, ‘It was never meant for you, you know’.
Yes, even Rihanna has rocked a mullet.
“It’s like a lifestyle, you’ve got to be about it. For me it sets me apart and because I’m in a creative industry, it’s just part of my swag.”
Barber Luke Kimiora works in Auckland’s CBD, and apart from young people, he’s seen businessmen and corporate types come in for subtler versions – a uniform finger length on top and a finger length at the back.
Kids and “good-looking dudes” rocked mullets the best.
Students at some Auckland schools were not actually allowed mullets, he said, though they got around that by growing their hair out in the summer holidays.
Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images
Rugby fans around the world were horrified when Jack Goodhue cut off his famous mullet.
Mullets were popular during lockdown – because all you needed to do was to shave the sides – something Kimiora said most people could manage even without experience fading or blending into the top.
The mullet is also apparently the cut de jour for Crate Day, the first Saturday of December tradition in which the goal is to binge-drink a dozen 745ml bottles of beer in one day.
A mullet doesn’t have to be pretty to be cool.
“My thing is, the uglier the mullet, the better it is,” Kimiora said. “It captures the eye I think.”