mullet
noun

- a hair style that is short in the front and long in the back

- any of various stout-bodied, edible fishes of the family Mugilidae, found worldwide in tropical and temperate coastal waters and some freshwater streams

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

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WORD ORIGIN

A mullet is a (usually) male hairstyle that reached the peak of its popularity in the late 80s and early 90s. The distinctive look is characterised by short hair in the front and on the sides (the sides are also sometimes shaved) and extremely long hair in the back.

The mullet goes by other names such as SFLB (short-front-long-back), short-long, 2-haircuts-in-one, Kentucky Waterfall and Tennessee Tophat. The last two refer to a disparaging stereotype of a member of the white rural labouring class of people, especially in the southern United States where Kentucky and Tennessee are located.

Rock legend David Bowie is thought to have popularised the look, which was then copied by many celebrities and sports stars like Andre Agassi (who eventually adopted the no-hair style). Legend has it that the name stems from mullet fishermen who wore their hair long in the back to keep warm.

In the United States of the 1980s, the mullet became popular within lesbian culture, where it came to be used as a way of identifying oneself as a member of that culture in public.

The mullet was banned in Iran as one style on a list of "un-Islamic, decadent Western cuts".

SOURCES:
-  Andrew Grant Jackson, "Still the Greatest".
-  Johnson, L. A. , "For 'mulletheads,' it's not just a hairstyle, it's a lifestyle".
-  Dweck, Jessica, "Whence the Mullet? The history of Iran's forbidden haircut".

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Other hairstyles that have gone in and out of fashion are:

- the ponytail (the hair is wrapped together in the back and then tied close to the head with a band. The result is something that, as the name implies, looks like a pony's tail).

- the beehive (this woman's hairstyle was popular in the 50s and 60s. The hair is essentially piled very high on top of the head and given a lot of hairspray to keep it stiff. British singer Amy Winehouse revived this look).

- the poodle perm (the word perm is short for permanent, a process by which the hair is made curly or wavy through the use of chemicals. With the poodle perm, the hair is curled all over in very small and tight curls so that it resembles the fur of a poodle dog).

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Our most senior programmer is the guy at the corner work station with the MULLET."