‘Ugly in a beautiful way’: Denmark’s mullet championship celebrates divisive hairstyle

Business in the front, party in the back. A packed Danish crowd has celebrated the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle, defined by very short hair at the front and longer hair at the back.Denmark’s raucous 2026 Mullet Championship, presented on an outdoor stage in central Copenhagen, attracted 12 well-coiffed competitors and more than 1,000 spectators.The organiser, Steffen Stiw Weber, a 37-year-old electrician, said the championships began after he had a hair transplant and chose to grow a mullet. “I think in our culture, when everything must … be perfect on social media and everything like that, I think that’s why people have to stand out from the crowd,” he said.Competitor Martin Sedolf performs as character pro wrestler Benny Bacchus at Denmark’s Mullet Championship. Photograph: James Brooks/APCompetitors in Saturday’s championships were evaluated on their cuts’ style, uniqueness, and overall performance and “mullet moves”. They were given 60 seconds each to perform on stage to showcase their cuts.“I like the finesse, the twist, the nostalgia. I like it if it looks ridiculous or maybe ugly in a beautiful way,” said Bobby Agren, a judge in the contest, who owns two hair salons in Copenhagen.The event featured an array of exuberant performances, including beer swilling and body popping. One competitor wore a mullet haircut styled to resemble the Danish flag. The crowd screamed and chanted.The judges displaying their mullet ratings Photograph: James Brooks/APThomas Berg, 43, a construction worker, eventually took home the top prize after wowing judges by frantically jumping on a trampoline while clad in neon green gym wear.He complemented his mullet haircut with an orange headband. “I think it’s just funny. It’s just a big party,” said a smiling Berg after collecting his prize. “It’s just nice to be a bit outside the box.”Though mullets have probably been around for longer than there have been barbers, the Oxford English Dictionary cites the hip-hop act the Beastie Boys for helping to popularise the term mullet with the song Mullet Head on their 1994 album Ill Communication.The coiffure was popular with ice hockey players and 1980s musicians but later fell out of favour. The fashion magazine Vogue reportedly once described the mullet as “history’s most divisive hairstyle”.But in recent years, the mullet has seen a global resurgence. The British magazine i-D declared 2020 “the year of the mullet” as the Covid-19 crisis shuttered hair salons and lockdown-weary citizens let their locks flow.Numerous mullet competitions are now staged around the world. Belgium hosted the European Mullet Cup last month. Agren said: “It comes back every 20-30 years. There’s always a circular motion in fashion.”