From a Plinky prompt: Show a picture of your worst-ever haircut.
My high school senior yearbook portrait
It wasn’t intentional, I promise.
To be sure, I went through a series of bad hair styles in late high school and through college, and, to a lesser extent, thereafter. Somewhere, there are probably worse pictures of the style in this picture, but it was the worst one I had handy.
In my defense, for what little defense it provides, I didn’t realize I was rocking a mullet.
I blame Jeremy Wells. Jeremy, you see, was my high school newspaper editor my sophomore year, and he was, to my young mind, awesome. He excelled at everything I wanted to excel at and more. And while he was a good writer, his main strength as editor was his design and graphics ability, proving that you could become a school newspaper editor on the skills I had instead of the skills I didn’t.
I wanted to be Jeremy Wells.
And that imitation extended to hair. I wanted long hair like Jeremy’s. So I decided to start growing it out.
Now, I did not want a mullet. To be honest, at that point, I didn’t even know what a mullet was. In fact, it wasn’t until probably a decade after high school that I really realized that I’d had one.
What did I want? Awesome long hair. Like hippie or rock star hair, but clean cut and respectable. That’s totally better than a mullet. Look, I was in high school, whadda you want? Shut up.
What I got was a mullet. That I kept for way too long.
And the irony was this. I was telling this story to someone recently, how I didn’t know I had a mullet and that’s not what I was aiming for, I just wanted awesome long hair like Jeremy’s. I pulled out the yearbook to show his picture to explain what I’d actually wanted.
And in that picture, looking at it again for the first time in almost 20 years, it turns out Jeremy Wells was totally rocking a mullet.
Sigh.
Filed under: Editorial, Photos | Tagged: friends, Hair, Hairstyle, Long hair, Mullets, nostalgia, Plinky |
-- Jeff Weddle
Song In My Head:
stories in my pocket :: david hitt 
Admitting to having a mullet is a new kind of bravery. Best new term I’ve heard for a mullet: ‘Kentucky Waterfall’.
Cheers!
While I know we didn’t go to high school together: You so TOTALLY look like someone who went to high school with me!
Actually, you look like several guys I went to high school with. Because even in the early ’90s, the mullet was still a classic staple of boys’ coiffed locks.
Crazy, huh. We’ve come a long way indeed.
Can’t wait to find a pic of you on your About page (please tell me there’s one there) to do the side-by-side comparison.
😉
i found myself staring more at the stache!
http://dearexgirlfriend.com/
Glorious! That is a thing of wonder!
http://transgressivecinema.wordpress.com/
I had a less “awesome” version of the mullet at various points in the 1980s. I NEVER heard that term used until the mid-to-late 90’s, though.
I used to have that haircut. I´m a girl.
Poor Jeremy! I hope he doesn’t follow your blog, lest he be shamed from the internet forever! Haha!
My little brother once had a “rat tail” (when he was young, like 7 or 8). You remember that awful hairstyle?
You are forgiven for not knowing you had a mullett. However, now that you know you did you must begin the healing process. 🙂
http://www.runtobefit.wordpress.com
Awesome…I’m pretty sure my hair tried to run away from me at one point in my life. The sides were so frizzy that my hair resembled King Tut’s pyramid.
What is “Plinky”? Is it an add-on for your blog?
There are still mulleteers floating around the world, for some people, mullets will remain always and forever, in style.
The mustache makes it so much worse…
There was a piece on a recent tv programme where they were trying to find out who inflicted this terrible “hairstyle” upon the world! It is really isnt a good look!
Haha. What about the mustache?
You look like my brother. He is my hero. He has a dirtbike and takes me down the street sometimes. My mom says no, but he takes me anyway and we have fun!
[…] the original here: View My Worst-Ever Haircut and Mull It Posted on 2010 年 11 月 19 日 by lanshang1460. This entry was posted in 未分类 and tagged […]
The “Camaro cut”.
Wesley Willis had a hilarious song about Mullets:
Yeah, about the mustache — similar thing. My dad had a mustache, and somehow made it work for him, so I figured I’d be able to, also. Really, not so much. I’m pretty sure my dad was probably the last man on Earth to really be able to pull it off.
auntbethany — Plinky is a Web site that provides daily writing prompts ( http://plinky.com ). They do have a partnership with WordPress so that you can publish your Plinky responses directly to your blog; it’s a good “blog post idea” generator. I only do an average of one or two of the prompts a month, but they do have some good ones.
Garrett — Yeah, writing this post inspired me to look up Jeremy on Facebook, and he’s on there now. I think I’m going to wait until this post scrolls down on my profile a bit before trying to friend him, though, in hopes of sneaking it past him.
And, oh yeah, I remember the rat tail. Missed out on that one, thankfully.
Very interesting! haha see goatees are ok, but mustaches…well…. 🙂 Nice post. Congrats on Freshly Pressed!
I think every guy has had one of these at one point in their lives.
tiallarising — Thanks so much! Yeah, making Freshly Pressed has made this my highest traffic day on the blog by a long shot. Which, on the one hand is cool, but, on the other, of all things, I’m getting my WordPress 15 minutes for a bad haircut. Good thing I have no shame. 🙂
I looked just like this in high school. I, too, was aiming for long hair but had to pass through this transitional stage.
I’m super-impressed that you tied it all together (literally) with a bow! The genius of the look is in the mullet/dirt stache/bowtie trinity.
LOVE the mullet! The ‘stache is equally awesome!
OK, the bow tie was REALLY not my fault. Required wearing for the senior pictures. In fact, I think we changed into a fake tux that the photographer had, if I remember correctly.
Here in England in the eighties a few brave chaps grew mullets and then had them permed – they were called “Charlie Perms” I get a shiver down my spine just thinking about the evil haircut!
Hey, MacGyver had a mullet, and he was the coolest ever!
Love it, David! You were the best of both worlds: A ‘stache AND a mullet. Thanks for posting!!
LOL! Don;t worry in the 80s…. almost everyone had a mullet…lol….
I’m so depressed now, thinking about all the awful hairstyles I’ve had over the years, that I have to take a sedative and go to sleep.
I rocked a mullet in 3rd grade and I’m a girl. The pictures make for some good laughs!
My mom had a mullet, my sister had a mullet, but I’ve never had a mullet… or at least i’m pretty sure…
Awesome long hair with clean cut means “buisness in the front….party in the back” You rock it dude!
Hunter71 🙂 http://www.hcrproducts.com
Loooool!! great hair dude!
no seriously.. what were you thinking?
I had a mullet but thankfully there is no evidence. I had that infamous Patrick Swazey mullet LOL. Thanks for the article. Needed a good laugh this Friday.
wow you were such a hottie i mean it…i would of loved u ..in the 70s……later
Heheheh…. I had a mullet too once…. and a duck tail – hey, at least it wasn’t a rat-tail!
The adolescent ‘stache though… that’s got to go. Many, many young boys let them “grow”, I pretty much did too, but man, I’ll take a mullet over an adolescent moustache any day. It looks just so pathetic!
It can be painfully humorous looking at old photos of ourselves.
I wonder how many teens and young adults who do or have had mops and unkempt hair will look back in ten or twenty years in horror and regret at their hairstyle.
My favorite for the young ladies was the “boo-fohn” as we called it in South Louisiana. The extremely teased and puffed out/up bangs.
Two things: My school wouldn’t allow mullets on boys (no hair past your ears or your collar – boys must be in collared shirts). I know a guy still rocking the mullet to this day. EXTREME buzz cut until his ears then long silky locks down his back.
When I graduated in 92, several guys still had that same hairstyle you had in that yearbook photo and nobody thought a thing about it or called it anything but “long hair.” I don’t think anyone noticed it was a stupid hairstyle until hardly anyone had it anymore, right about the time 80s nostalgia set in. Personally I had the Patrick Swayze mullet from about 84-87, and I’m a girl. But after that most girls went to the big bangs look.
You need not feel bad; it was an accident, and besides for a long time the mullet was considered cool. Mel Gibson had one in most of the Lethal Weapon films, and back in the day he was like the pinnacle of hotness! Besides, it’s surprising how easy it is to accidentally end up with a mullet…..
On the plus side, you totally looked like Kirk Hammett of Metallica!
omg
Did you have to rent a tux for school pictures? Or did your school coordinate picture day with prom night?
I can’t say too much at the mullet. I had Aqua-net bangs back in the day.
Outstanding Mullet! long live the eighty’s
Was that from the glorious ’80s?
that’s an awesome haircut!
as someone who graduated high school post-beverly hills, 90210 (classic), i was surprised to see that one of the main characters sported a mullet in the first season. the only thing he was missing was a ‘stache!
Dude… I’ve always wanted to be freshly pressed, and I find myself coveting those of you who get it… except you… I am pretty much happy to NOT be FP’d if being FP’d means posting my highschool yearbook picture on the front page of WordPress!!! I hope you can survive the shame! 🙂 But really, congrats!
At least with a mullet you do not look nearly 40 like our parents did when they were in high school.
Liz — Bravo to your school for protecting students from themselves.
Wednesday’s Child — I’m also a ’92 graduate, so maybe it’s not just that I was oblivious. Thanks for making me feel a bit better.
Allison — If I recall, it was a fake tux the photographer had.
teapotchronicles — I’m an actor in a local improv comedy troupe, so I have an established history of making a fool of myself for other people’s entertainment. I’ll gladly trade shame for glory, or something like that! Thanks!
hawt x
very funny!!! strange, you wouldnt get away with a haircut like that today. thanks for your post.
http://www.loyaltothemagisterium.wordpress.com
I actually like mullets, mostly secretly, especially in the light of some of the comments here (back off, jeesh, it was the ’80s). I wish they were cool today. Trying very hard to get my conservative, insurance salesman husband to grow out his hair. Totally about the party in the back. Even better if it’s a little curly.
What a great sense of humor you have – I applaud your chutzpah. We all have bad haircuts in our closets, or in my case, several…
http://reganrants.wordpress.com/
never had a mullet but i did have crazy bowl cuts, my older brother did have a mullet and it was super duper nice.
http://enjoibeing.wordpress.com/
Staggering that anyone could EVER have thought this a hairstyle worth sporting.
i really like this.
Hey don’t apologize — I’m a child of the 80s myself, and I LOVE long hair on men. At least the mullet has that in the back, although long all over is best. At least you weren’t walking around with a buzzcut, prison tattoos, and a denim tent buckled around your knees with seven pairs of boxer shorts showing, like today’s Exemplars of Sterling Manhood. *puke*
very reasonable if someone imitating the style of a preferred
I’ve had many bad hairdays but thankfully no mullet to add to the list. Nice post though! 🙂
This is funny. It was once short hair in my primary School.
wow! that’s too ugly!
wooooow. that was brave my man. hmmm…my worst was a bow larger than my head in 3rd grade. i asked my mum why she let me wear it and she replied in her casual fashion, “i couldn’t stop you, you loved the bow”. My reply was simple: “mom it was school picture day and i was in THIRD GRADE.”
ah, if only i could go back in time and speak to myself. I’m sure i’ll be saying the exact same thing about now — 20 years from now.
I recently started blogging too — congrats on being fresh to death–
my recent post is about overcoming your fears, if you have any. basically a blog about life, check it out when you’re free:
http://bigbangbang.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/whats-stopping-you/
congrats again, funny read!
Shan
I find this very insulting, as I currently do have a Mullet.
Brave soul sportin your mullet out there for the whole world to see…..but I would cut my hair in a mullet if it meant I got to be freshly pressed!
Thanks for the laugh and congrats!
I do not see anything funny about your hairstyle in the photo. You look so cool, especially with the ‘tache. All hail the mullet!
nice! beat this http://jevanshead.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/its-elementary/
When younger I had a few bad hair styles which I didn’t realize until I grew up were pretty bad. One of them was a super shiny and solid hard hair combed to the back. I was even called fish headed because it did look like fish skin 😦
Yes, there were so many mullets in the 80’s but we didn’t have a name for them. That name didn’t come around till years later. I don’t even know who came up with that name or how. Can you say “Billy Ray Cyrus?”
http://lifebehindthemakeupcounter.wordpress.com/
That story (and pic) is priceless.
I just started Blogging today –congrats to you!
Take a gander at my blog — it’s an effort to help the clueless.
http://janedoedating.wordpress.com/
Huge perms and giant bangs…rock on ’80’s!!!
nice one, i like it
Kudos to you for being brave and posting this! Back when I was 12, I had my hair cut like Harry Potter. Except I’m a girl. With really thick wavy hair.
Let’s just say it didn’t work out.
I think it looks nice sweety
I am glad mullets had gone out of fashion by the time my year book photos were taken!
Love, love, love your photo. You actually look just like all the handsome guys in my yearbook–seriously. I’d been working on a post of my own entitled, Mullet Girl: 1973. Like you, I had never heard of a mullet; was the word even coined yet? Like poor Marty above, my friends told me I looked just like Rod Stewart. Not what a teenage girl wants to hear. Later I got the length hacked off and it turned into a cute shag.
I LOVE your hair! Reminds me of the late 70’s 😀
You look like my stepbrother. A lot. Are you 5’2″? And did you flunk the ASVAB?
LOL!! THIS IS HILARIOUS! I was about to look at my blog dashboard until this photo caught my eye. I was like, umm no way…this I gotta see. I read it and died laughing, this totally made my day. I plan on sharing this with select friends.
It wasn’t that bad at all. :O
Lol, this is a great post 🙂 We all have haircuts that look “bad” now, but back in the day–they were stylish.
Just think, some people still sport this today!
I don’t think you look bad at all, for the era it was most likely in 🙂
Take care!
Well, at least you made that mistake in High School! It’s the most excusable time for bad hair, I think. Thank God you moved on. Some guys still haven’t.
when i was 16, i fell madly in love with this guy named Jay…and he had the coolest mullet in all the land!!
I would sit there and play with it all the time, braiding it.. combing it…
lmao…
M-U-L! L-E-T! MULLET MULLET MULLET!
Great post.
Mullets are very much in fashion in parts of Eastern Europe, particularly Russia.
I spent a year there and even tried growing my own to fit in. Alas, I had to return to civilisation before fruition of my own mullet.
I am glad mullets had gone out of fashion by the time my year book photos I am glad mullets had gone out of fashion by the time my year book photos were taken!were taken!
I saw a guy from Cambodia a week ago with mullet – his back hair was too long.He was wearing cow boy long shoes. I asked him why he has got these styles in 2010. He smiled and said, “I like it” 🙂
http://gulzameenkhan.wordpress.com/
Aw, don’t feel bad. I remember my older sister and her friends getting Farah Fawcett cuts, and I was guilty of a Dorothy Hamill. Every generation has silly fashion. What do you think the next crowd will think of the faux hawk? Congratulations on making Freshly Pressed!
I married a guy with a mullet! I thought he was hawt! Of course, over the years, he has only gotten better.
Congrats on being Freshly Pressed -and for your self-deprecating humor.
Wonder where Jeremy Wells is now.
Come visit me at “Lessons From Teachers and Twits”
http://rasjacobson.wordpress.com
I had a shorter version of “the mullet”, many years back. It wasn’t so much the rock star look than it was the pro wrestler “image” I was trying to copy. With that said, now I’m semi-embarrassed.
Someone gave me a mullet once when I asked for layers. Evidently the woman heard “layer”, and so she carved out what looked like a helmet bowl cut on top, and let the locks in back flow.
Also at this point in my life I had headgear.
I guess what I’m saying is, had I seen you then-I probably would have followed you around like a little puppy.
Bon Jovi had a mullet.
Anything he did was ok in my book.
I used to have a really awesome mullet.
lol, nice, Billy Ray.
My school pics were not so good either….its good that we grow up and choose better hair styles…lol…
Actually, the guys in my 1970’s high school class had precursors to mullets, or ‘pre-mullets.’ I thinks yours is perhaps circa 1980’s Billy Ray C. vintage, but I could be wrong. There was a website called ‘mullets.com’ which we used for years; it’s probably gone, but others would pop up. Meanwhile, rest assured that ‘mall-bangs’ trump a mullet any day of the week.
i think the mullet will soon make a comeback! as it should…
Actually, I like the haircut. It looks like something from the 70s like Chachi wore in Happy Days. Totally hot – at least for the times:) Great post.
I’m going to be honest, here. In this photo, you look like Jacob Black’s (from the 1st Twilight film) not-so-evil twin brother. Who happens to be rocking a mullet.
haha.. you look like my uncle..
Very cute and funny – thanks for sharing!
haha fits perfectly the ugly moustache.
i love a man who can rock a mullet!
Hey David — it’s shanna again, a bugaboo of sorts 😉
Please check out my latest post, it’s dedicated to a fellow wordpress blogger, after reading his comment I was inspired to write a piece:
http://bigbangbang.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/sheer-laziness-or-robot-state-of-mind-you-decide/
Is it just me…or is it really not that bad?
lol kewl. i like that haircut visit sparx.tk everyone plz
Very funny, back when you didnt think about it to much until it was too, late.
Good for you having the nerve to post it! Puulease! Everybody has bad hair days & bad haircut pictures it’s just a fact of life. I never knew it as a mullet at the time, only after when everyone started calling it that in derision, easy to after right, hind sight is 50/50?! I’m sure your hair is better now right?! Good going on the Freshly Pressed!!
Enjoy…
evelyngarone.com
Funny post, we’ve all been there in one way or another….Just wait till it comes back in style.
http://semicoloncloseparenthesis.wordpress.com/wp-admin/
What a chuckle! thanks mate
The mullet is badass man lol, pretty brave to post it
http://www.withallsincerity.com
I love how you now own it. My 80’s hair looking back resembled clown hair. That too lasted way too long. I have a new style now, but sadly it still looks like clown hair 😉
Congratulations on being Freshly Pressed from all of us here at http://www.allovernews.wordpress.com consider it an honor to be Freshly Pressed .
I think you are being way too hard on yourself. We have come through a period of very bad hairstyles. You look like you were a cool dude to me. I do know how you feel though and trust me I have had many many what the hell was I thinking haircuts.
well you do look handsome.
i mean, 20 years ago, you gotta be one of the most handsome students.
but if anyone has that kind of hairstyle, RIGHT NOW, on 2010… they wont look handsome.
we have to admit, what look good 10-20 years ago, probably would look not that good anymore these days 😉
but who knows? 10 years from now, on 2020, the hairstyle like yours is gonna be a trend again…
All you need is Pontiac Firebird Golden Eagle Edition and you’d be all set. Fun post.
~Mike
Nice share,this is cool in 1980s, and I have more terrible one than yours.
Hey man don’t worry about it. Mine was worse than yours back in the 80’s. At least your wearing a respectable tux in that photo. Even though it’s a B&W photo I can tell it’s not baby blue or Burgundy.
hey man, Business in the front, Party in the back!! At least you know NOW! So you won’t make the same mistake again…. 🙂 Great post!!
I almost went out with a mullet guy when I was in college (to defend myself, he was cute!!). fortunately he cut his hair 2 weeks before he made a step to get to know me better. so, yes, I went out with him. but he was not a mullet guy anymore at that time 🙂
i knew the fact that he was rocking mullet after I checked his photo album. and he told me that story.
This is amazing, but I can top it.
Are you ready for it?
I too had a mullet and…
*drumroll*
I am a woman.
Ugh. For some reason I rocked a Carol Brady-like shag/mullet for three years. It was the transition between elementary and middle school, and I still had no chest and my baby chub to make the look complete. It was the worst thing ever, and I think I’ve now destroyed every piece of photographic evidence.
This is brave of you too share. I thoroughly enjoyed it. 🙂
marlowesnymph.wordpress.com
Mike — Oh, man, my life seems so incomplete now.
Sarahthebaker — OK, now THAT’s one I haven’t heard before. 🙂
I love the mullet! I have some pictures of myself with hair just like that! I am too embarrassed to put them on the internet though! You are a brave soul!
http://www.hudsonsluxury.com/
Always thought mullets were amazingly cool! 😀
X
The baby hair above your mouth kills me.