A small Australian town is laying claim to the title of being the country’s home of the mullet by hosting a festival to celebrate the hairstyle that’s all about business at the front, party at the back.

The inaugural Mullet Fest in Kurri Kurri, 150km north of Sydney, will honour the best cuts in five categories – everyday, grubby, “ranga” (red hair), women’s and junior. Entrants will be judged on haircut, overall presentation and stage presence.

The person with the “best mullet of them all” will then be crowned, according to the festival host, hairdresser Laura Hawkins.



Hawkins – whose husband sports a razor-shaved “skullet” – said the mullet scene was strong in Kurri Kurri, a Hunter Valley mining town that is home to 6,000 people.

“We’ve already had 50 entries,” she said. “There’s such a variety: there are the hardcore, tough mullets, but also the coiffed, well cared for kind.”

The short on top, long at the back hairstyle goes back at least as far as the Roman empire but surged in popularity in the 1970s and 80s.

Hawkins said she was keen for more women to enter the contest. “I see plenty of lady mullets walking around town but I know they’re not signed up,” she said. “I think they’re a bit shyer than the proud male mullet.”

Mullet Fest will be held at the Chelmsford hotel on 24 February.

