Origin of The Mullet

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Jan, and I’m calling from San Diego.

Hello, Jan. Welcome.

Hi, Jan.

How are you today?

We’re doing well. What do you have on your mind?

Well, one of my favorite college classes was on etymology, the study of words and their origins.

Yay!

And I’ve been looking for a long time and never really found the origin of the word mullet as used as a haircut, that ugly short in the front, long in the back one.

Aha. And you’ve looked high and low?

Well, I’ve looked and I’ve had the description of the haircut, and it’s also a fish, but I’ve never figured out how being a fish became an ugly haircut.

So we’re talking about the haircut that’s short in the front, long in the back, and you think is stupid.

Yes, I do.

You know I have a haircut just like that.

I know it’s back in fashion.

No, I’m kidding.

Well, I don’t know if it ever left fashion.

In certain circles, it’s been fashionable for decades, hasn’t it?

Yes, I guess so.

Well, let’s talk about the etymology first, and then in a minute I’m going to theorize on why I think that haircut remains popular, all right?

Okay.

Have you ever heard somebody called a mullet or a mullet head just to mean stupid person? I mean, they weren’t being called that because of their haircut?

Yeah, I guess they have, actually.

I’ve heard mutton head.

Mutton head.

Yeah.

Well, mutton head, too.

But you’ll find that mullet as an insult or kind of a way of describing somebody as a stupid person or a fool dates back a long time, long enough that it predates any use of mullet to refer to the haircut, which is also known, by the way, as the hockey haircut.

Or people say it’s business in the front and party in the back.

Right. I’ve heard that definition.

Right.

I like that.

So in any case, mullet head is kind of a derogatory term. Dates to the mid-1800s.

It was later shortened to mullet.

And then by 1994, it shows up in the printed record, actually, in a magazine put out by the rap group The Beastie Boys, which is the first in-print use of it we can find.

The theory is, and this is what most of my colleagues think, and this is what I agree with, is that this is simply a way of saying first you start out as a mullet head meaning stupid person.

Then it was shortened to mullet meaning stupid person.

And then the haircut, which people think was stupid, borrowed that term and became not just the name of the person, but the name of the haircut that a stupid person might have.

So it is a stupid haircut.

Well, unless you’re Billy Ray Cyrus a while back.

Who made a mints off of that.

Probably a mullet defense league or something out there, don’t you think?

Let’s talk about this.

Why does it exist if people don’t like it?

Here’s my theory.

When I was growing up in Missouri, the mullet was a popular hairdo.

I did not in any case ever have a mullet.

I did not have it.

But the problem is if you want to be kind of a rebel, it usually involves keeping your hair long, right?

But if you keep your hair long in the front and the sides as well as in the back, then you find yourself kind of reflexively doing these hair-flipping motions or like pushing the hair back behind your ears.

These are very feminine gestures.

The only way to keep your hair doing its own thing without having to use, like, a scrunchie or a rubber band or something like that, or without having to constantly flip it back behind your ears with your hands, is to keep the front and the side short.

And then the back is long, so you get points for being the rebel, for having long hair in the back, and then you lose all possibility of having any kind of accidental feminine kind of way of dealing with your hair.

Because it’s definitely seen as a macho masculine thing.

Right.

Well, you certainly don’t see women wearing it.

Oh, I have seen women wearing it.

No, I have seen women wearing it.

Definitely.

It’s not common, but, yeah, it does exist.

Oh, yeah.

Well, Janice, I hadn’t really thought about all these theories, but I think Grant makes a lot of sense.

What do you think?

I do, too.

I like the revolution from the mutton head to mullet to the hairstyle.

It answers the question.

Thank you very much.

All right.

You’re welcome.

Thanks for calling.

All righty.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

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