“I’ve had one person tell me it was a lesbian haircut, but I’m cool with that – I like women,” admits one mulletized biker in the opening to this digital doc on all things mullet. For the uninitiated, the mullet is a near-universally abhorred hairstyle – short in front and long in the back – found on Eighties-era rockers, rednecks, and, lest we forget, Jean-Claude Van Damme in John Woo’s film Hard Target. Nothing screams “white trash” louder than a mullet, but as filmmaker Jennifer Arnold has discovered, there’s more to the cringe-worthy coif than meets the eye. For one, it’s hard to entirely knock a hairstyle shorn and worn with pride by eternal fashion avatar David Bowie, whose Ziggy Stardust incarnation made mullet history. (It certainly beats Bowie’s Let’s Dance-era poofery.) Much fun, even if you don’t like Billy Ray Cyrus. – Marc Savlov
This article appears in November 15 • 2002.
