mullets, faux-hawks & friends

[Laurence Horn]

As a distraction from our ads-l server's take on the return of the
repressed, I recommend (for N. Y. Sunday Times readers) an article in
the Men's Fashions section of tomorrow's paper, pp. 64-66.  It's
called "Mullet Mania", and it revists the hair style of that name
that we kicked around a year or two ago.  Evidently, reports of its
death (but not its passing from fashion into camp) were premature.
The article, by Joyce Chang, discusses various aspects of "mullitude"
[sic], beginning with a cable-access show called "The Mullet Hunter"
produced for MTV by Matt Smith from Georgia, "a self-described member
of the American mullitia".   We're told that alternative names for
the mullet are "the ape-drape, the neck warmer, and the 10/90", we're
given a brief cultural history and a set of recommendations for
various films and books about it, and finally we're warned that it's
making a comeback.   Did you know that Chrissie Hynde and Joan Jett
popularized (so to speak) "the femullet", proving that "their hair
could be as bad as any man's"?  And finally, did you know about the
influence of the mullet in the emergence of the "faux-hawk"?  This
do--described here as "a love-child of the mullet and the mohawk,
favored by Ewan McGregor [cf. Star Wars and Moulin Rouge] and Hedi
Slimane [OK, I give up]"--is interesting in its own right.  A quick
search in the usual places turns up 11 hits on Nexis (some are
different printings of the same story) and 8 on google (not counting
one from www.bobcathill.com involving a jay with a "faux hawk-screech
with its usual rasps and cackles") and this blend is defined at one
such site as as 'a low-maintenance Mohawk with short hair that can be
groomed into a little point'.  Poignantly, it appears that
"faux-hawk" would have been a true instance for our Brand-Spanking
New category, as all these cites originated in 2001 or later.

Someone will probably correct me on this, perhaps Fred with a JSTOR
comment on how  Warren G. Harding was sporting a faux-hawk during one
of the Teapot Dome get-togethers, but until then, it stands as one of
2001's contributions to the permanent lexicon.  As for "mullitude",
"mullitia", and "femullet", can we pretend we never saw them?  They
struck me as pretty noncy, but it turns out that google provides 79,
147, and 220 hits on them respectively.  What a world.

larry