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Kōrero: Personal grooming

The mullet, 2007

Image
The mullet, 2007

Long hair mutated during the 1980s, and one result was the mullet – short on top and at the sides, long down the back – sometimes with a mere 'rat’s tail' (one lock of long hair), sometimes a waterfall. Favoured by working-class men, it was a hairstyle that some found ugly – a feeling expressed by the referee in this cartoon, as he sends rugby player Jason Eaton off the field. The mullet was also very popular with some, and in the 2000s there were many websites devoted to it.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: DCDL-0003118

by Tom Scott

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Bronwyn Dalley, Personal grooming – Men’s hair, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/cartoon/38747/the-mullet-2007 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Bronwyn Dalley, i tāngia i te 9 November 2012.