Mullet

Mullet

Mullet

Mullet is one of many names given to hair that is cut short on the top and sides and grown long in the back. The name mullet can be traced to the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke in which a prison inmate called men from the U.S. South who wore long hair "mulletheads," after a popular southern fish called mullet.

During the 1980s fashions reflected the influence of the punks, who wore their hair raggedly cut to different lengths and shaped into spikes. At the same time gays and lesbians began to challenge society's ideas of gender identity. They created androgynous styles that could be worn by either men or women. By cutting their hair short on top and wearing it long in back, they combined the uneven cuts of the Punks with a look that combined the masculine and the feminine. Many rock musicians of the late 1980s wore the mullet, including glam rock stars David Bowie (1947) and Lou Reed (1942). Up-and-coming female musicians Joan Jett (1960) and Pat Benatar (1952) wore crisply cut mullets to give themselves a strong, hard-edged look, while pop singer Michael Bolton (1953) wore a flowing mullet that suggested a romantic masculinity.

By the mid-1990s the mullet began to be denounced by fashion commentators as a terrible fashion mistake. Some mullet nicknames are descriptive: 10/90 (refers to the ratio of hair on top to hair in the back), sholo (short-long), and business-in-front-party-out-back. Others identify the style with the American South where the mullet seemed extremely prevalent: Tennessee Top Hat and Kentucky Waterfall. Country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus (c. 1961) wore a mullet and his hit song of the late 1990s, "Achy Breaky Heart," gave rise to another of the mullet's many nicknames: "Achy Breaky Mistakey." Jokes about the mullet have become widespread, with hundreds of Internet Web sites devoted to mullet humor. Nevertheless, the mullet continues to be a hairstyle worn by some people.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Larson, Mark, and Barney Hoskyns. The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2000.

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"Mullet." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"Mullet." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3425500649.html

"Mullet." Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear through the Ages. 2004. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3425500649.html

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mullet

mul·let1 / ˈmələt/ • n. a chiefly marine fish (families Mullidae and Mugilidae) that is widely caught for food. mul·let2 • n. Heraldry a star with five (or more) straight-edged points or rays, as a charge or a mark of cadency for a third son.

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"mullet." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"mullet." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-mullet.html

"mullet." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-mullet.html

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mullet

mullet (grey mullet) Marine food fish found in shoals in shallow tropical and temperate waters throughout the world. Its torpedo-shaped body is green or blue and silver. Size: to about 90cm (3ft); weight: 6.8kg (15lb). Family Mugilidae.

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"mullet." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"mullet." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-mullet.html

"mullet." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-mullet.html

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mullet

mullet XV (molet). — OF. mulet, dim. f. L. mullus red mullet — Gr. múllos, rel. to mélās black.

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T. F. HOAD. "mullet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "mullet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-mullet.html

T. F. HOAD. "mullet." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-mullet.html

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mullet

mullet White fish, Mugilidae and Mullidae families.

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DAVID A. BENDER. "mullet." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

DAVID A. BENDER. "mullet." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-mullet.html

DAVID A. BENDER. "mullet." A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. 2005. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O39-mullet.html

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mullet

mullet See MUGILIDAE, MULLIDAE.

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MICHAEL ALLABY. "mullet." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL ALLABY. "mullet." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-mullet.html

MICHAEL ALLABY. "mullet." A Dictionary of Zoology. 1999. Retrieved June 01, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O8-mullet.html

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mullet

mullet see silversides .

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"mullet." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"mullet." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-X-mullet.html

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mullet

mulletmallet, palette, pallet, valet •tablet • pamphlet • aglet • anklet •candlelit • hamlet •Caplet, chaplet •lamplit • flatlet • mantlet •haslet, Hazlitt •scarlet, Scarlett, starlet, starlit, varlet •armlet • lancelet • branchlet •martlet, tartlet •plantlet • pellet • reglet • necklet •playlet • lakelet • bracelet •platelet, statelet •wavelet • leaflet • eaglet • streamlet •billet, filet, fillet, millet, skillet, willet •driblet, triblet •piglet • singlet • gimlet • inlet •kinglet, ringlet, springlet, winglet •ripplet, triplet •wristlet •eyelet, islet, stylet, twilit •pikelet •collet, Smollett, wallet •goblet • rodlet •omelette (US omelet) • droplet •torchlit •corselet, corselette •gauntlet (US gantlet) • owlet •townlet • toadlet • notelet • toilet •moonlit • sextuplet • fruitlet •bullet, pullet •booklet, brooklet, hooklet •quadruplet • annulet • septuplet •rivulet • quintuplet •gullet, mullet •doublet • floodlit •runlet, sunlit •couplet • cutlet • frontlet • violet •coverlet • circlet • verselet

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"mullet." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 1 Jun. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"mullet." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (June 1, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-mullet.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

MULLETS RULE THE WORLD; Simon tours the planet as a tribute to haircut time...
Newspaper article from: Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland); 1/30/2010
A meditation on mullet: smoking out Southwest Florida's archetypal fish.
Magazine article from: Sarasota Magazine; 3/1/2004
Mulling over the mullet Some call it hip. Some call it hillbilly. But those...
Newspaper article from: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL); 7/25/2002

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