Welcome to Beauty School, the corner of Dazed Beauty dedicated to learning. From guides to histories, that is where we make clear past subcultural movements and educate our readers on current trends and various goings-on.

The mullet. Business up front, party within the back – it’s a hairstyle that has shapeshifted out and in of fashion since its inception. The name itself wasn’t coined until recent times, with the Oxford English Dictionary crediting the Beastie Boys’ 1994 classic Mullet Head for common popularisation. But as we all know, the infamous cut also known as the ‘Kentucky Waterfall’ existed way before that.

In his book Mullet Madness, author Alan Henderson says that prehistoric peoples would likely have discovered the sensible advantage of cutting their fringe to maintain it out of their eyes while extra growth on the back would keep their necks warm and protected against the rain. There are also Greek statues that date back to the sixth century BCE that show mullets were at the inception of western culture. Ancient Roman chariot racers rocked them, too. And within the sixteenth century, Hittite warriors sported them, together with the Assyrians and the Egyptians.

Within the US, the style dates back to Native Americans tribes that always combined the look with a Mohawk. Then there’s president Benjamin Franklin, who within the late 18th century wore a ‘skullet’, a method that’s bald on top and long on the back. He apparently thought that with this down-to-earth, barely rough look he could charm France into increasing its financial and diplomatic support of America.

In popular culture, the look only fully took flight – still and not using a name, remember – within the 70s. It was the appearance of glam rock, with David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust leading the best way, a carrot-orange waterfall cascading down his neck. Bowie was known for his androgynous style throughout his profession, and it was all encapsulated in that one hairdo: a fusion of traditionally disparate female and male styles, long and short in a single.

That very same decade saw Rod Stewart’s mane of hair bounce from shoulder to shoulder, as he performed in jumpsuits on Top of the Pops. The mullet topped off the look that was all pomp and performance. It was exhibitionist. There was Wings-era Paul McCartney, too, his famous Beatles mop now prolonged on the back. Not to say the parade of white male rockers with oversized drum kits and flying-V guitars. Because it seems, though, this was only a taste of what was to return.

Welcome to the glory years of the mullet: the Nineteen Eighties. That is when the in-your-face statement style from the 70s became, well, normal. Teens had posters of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing, little doubt contemplating a mullet of their very own. They drooled over Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, marvelling at his short spikes on top and horse-like tail on the back. There’s zero irony in these looks, just pure, distilled cool. The cherry on top of a teen rebel’s iconic look.

Within the 80s, the mullet transcended culture. Everyone from Metallica’s James Hetfield to Billy Ray Cyrus had a mullet. Whether you were metal or country, yuppie or punk, jock or biker, the mullet was a mainstay of hairdos. Typically signifying fun and flamboyance, it said to the world, Hey, I party and I enjoy riding in open-top cars.

Though the style was seen predominantly on white dudes – with notable exceptions like Little Richard – a slew of female figures did rock the mullet, Cher, Jane Fonda, and Joan Jett amongst them. It was also fully embraced towards the top of that decade by lesbian culture. Within the documentary American Mullet, one woman sees it as a signifier of her sexuality. “I absolutely think it’s a lesbian haircut since it’s at all times my hair that offers me away,” she says, “it’s the dyke cut, the lesbian cut, it’s butch.” One other says she loves the mullet because “it’s type of a genderless haircut. We want to speak about what it means to be female and male.”

Within the 90s the trend began its regular decline. There have been some beautiful ones, to make certain – AC Slater in Saved by the Bell, and this kid from Terminator 2. Not only was the style fading, it was becoming some of the infamous, most divisive hairstyles of all time. It’s hard to pinpoint what caused this shift in opinion, however the emerging stereotype had taken shape. It depicted low-income families in backwater towns, redneck dudes in dive bars who clung to their beloved country music. One man in a TV report said mullets immediately made him think of fellows with cigarette packs tucked under their T-shirts. “It just looks dirty,” he says, “it emanates dirt.”

Now not paraded by pop stars and TV hosts, now not legitimized in the general public eye, the hairdo quickly became taboo, a source of embarrassment for individuals who once proudly flicked their mullets into the wind. Bono regretted having a mullet, Mel Gibson chopped his off, as did Rob Lowe and almost everyone except Billy Ray Cyrus. Mainstream mullets were now not a thing.

By the late 90s and early noughties, only art weirdos and subcultural freaks happily took up the hairdo, now viewed because the proud mark of an outsider knowingly going against the grain (see the wonderful Nashville mullets in Harmony Korine’s Gummo). Over in Monterrey, Mexico, the Cholombianos, a subculture of teens obsessive about Colombian Cumbia music, began expressing themselves through whacky hairstyles. Sharp and short fringes, tails on the back; gelled mullets, flat mullets, curly mullets. There was also Jason Dill, the eccentric pro-skater known for his zany style over time. In a 2007 doc on Dill, he skates through Recent York with a totally shaved head and a wisp of curly hair on the back. To employ a haircut that was, by this point, generally accepted as bad taste or kitsch was an announcement, a type of ‘fuck you’ to dominant trends.

Within the last ten years of western culture, mullets have broadly remained tethered to 80s nostalgia. TV characters like Steve from Stranger Things have gleefully tipped their hats to the trend. In throwbacks like these, there’s a transparent Look how crazy that 80s hairstyle was! And with mullet competitions also a thing, there’s a way that it’s still one big joke, just like the name itself is synonymous with all things hilariously awful.

Surely all of which adds as much as the impossibility of a comeback? Incorrect. There are signs of a comeback. In 2013, Rihanna sported a full-on mullet on the opening of Recent York Fashion Week, while Zendaya appeared on the red carpet on the 2016 Grammys with a more subtle tackle the style. Then in September 2017, Virgil Abloh sent models down the Off-White catwalk in high fashion variations of the hairdo, while last 12 months, Vogue hailed the mullet as street style’s unlikely new star, as worn by Dazed Beauty favourite Princess Gollum.

So, yes, the comeback is indeed happening but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You may’t just dive within the deep end and go full-on Patrick Swayze. As hairstylist Riawna Capri tells me, the brand new mullet is more low-key, less drastic and in-your-face than the 80s mullet. “What I’ve done recently is a more modified and more fashion-forward version of the mullet called ‘the chillet’ or a chill mullet,” she says. “The hair within the back shouldn’t be longer than the hair within the front, nevertheless it has the illusion or silhouette of a mullet.”

So then, the much-maligned mullet is revamped and prepared for the twenty first century. This 80s staple is back, but with a caveat: it’s not for everybody. Yes, it takes balls to have one in 2019. As Capri explains, even her ‘chillet’ style is for somebody who’s “confident and isn’t afraid to step outside the box. If you may have the arrogance to rock it and be different, everyone else will adore it too,” she says. And that’s what it’s about. Owning it and having fun with it.