The mullet hairstyle has come and gone throughout the decades, but this year, a new competition at the Three County Fair is celebrating the mullet’s enduring spirit and unique aesthetic.
The Three County Fair will feature its first ever mullet competition, the New England Mullet Showdown, on Sunday, Aug. 31, at 1 p.m. at the Farm Museum Stage, featuring a panel of local judges. There will be three categories – one for kids 11 and under, one for teenagers 12 to 19, and one for adults.
Taylor Haas, executive director of the Three County Fair, said the impetus behind creating a mullet contest was to add programming for fairgoers who wouldn’t be taking part in livestock or craft competitions. The mullet also has an “Americana spirit,” so it was a good fit.
Besides that, she said, “I’m really hoping to provide not only some fun entertainment for fairgoers, but also just a way to really expand on what we have going on at the fair and keep it interesting and new.”
There are a few rules, though: one is that all mullets and facial hair must be real hair – no wigs, no extensions. Another: “have fun with it” – come in a costume and/or bring an entourage of friends to help support your style for the crowd vote, though neither one is required, just encouraged. Three, be ready to be photographed: each competitor will have a “beauty shot” taken once they’ve checked in, which will be part of a “yearbook of hair.”
“I think what makes a great mullet is really how someone styles their mullet – the energy they bring with it, the whole personality that is underneath the mullet,” Haas said. “We’re looking for length, style, creativity, flow, and general enthusiasm.”
Competitors can win first through sixth places, each of which will receive a rosette, and the winner of the crowd-voted “Overall Best Mullet” will receive $100. (That said, registration for the Mullet Showdown has already ended as of this writing.)
One of this year’s competitors is 10-year-old Kaidence Childs of Northampton. Childs has had his mullet for about a year, and he grew the style because he wanted his hair to stick out of his hockey helmet. (He’s planning to wear his hockey gear for the Mullet Showdown, too.)
“Hockey is his entire life,” his mom Tiffany Henry said, “and that’s the reason why he grew it out, so to win something different than a tournament championship that still relates within himself to hockey, I think, is pretty cool.”
Another 10-year-old competitor, Warren Jacques, said that he, like Childs, often gets compliments about his mullet from strangers: “A lot of people tell me they like my hair and it’s really cool,” Jacques said.
He’d had a mullet before, he said, but his mom accidentally cut it off, so “I wanted to grow it again and see if I could grow a better one.” Now, he’s had the mullet for over a year.
“I love it!” his mom Jillian Jacques said. “It totally suits him and he really pulls it off well. It really fits his personality.”
Jacques said his outfit for the competition will be similar to what he usually wears – his favorite jeans, flannel cutoff, and cowboy boots. He said he has a good chance of winning the contest because “I’ve been growing [the mullet] for a long time and I have great curls.” Still, he admitted, “I’m a little nervous about being on stage, but I’m going to try to do my best.”
Rosa Guerra, owner of the hair salon Glamourama in Northampton, said her business sees at least one client every day requesting to get or maintain a mullet – fitting for a place that advertises itself as “a creative venue that values authenticity and self expression” with “an artistic, musical, & colorful crowd.” As a stylist, Guerra has seen the evolution of the mullet’s popularity from a mainstream style in the ’80s to a punk style in the ’90s, followed by ironic mullets after that. Since then, the style has had a resurgence thanks to the queer community.
“With media and everything, it’s kind of catching onto the mainstream,” she said, “and now everybody’s got a mullet again.”
For more information about the New England Mullet Showdown and the Three County Fair, visit 3countyfair.com.
Carolyn Brown can be reached at cbrown@gazettenet.com.
