From David Bowie to Rihanna, the 21 Best Mullets of All Time

The mullet requires that you notice it, and as a result it’s been a perennial choice for icons and rule-breakers over the decades. Today, the ultimate bad-good haircut has experienced a resurgence during lockdown, with hairstylists reporting an uptick in requests for the business-up-front, party-in-back style. While individuality is baked into its DNA, the mullet has a rich iconoclast history; one that's always transfixing to look back on, but especially so as the cut's popularity peaks and beauty rebels scour the Internet in search of DIY inspiration or pictures to bring to the pros.

Of course, you can't talk the chronicles of the mullet without mention of its defining decade: the '70s, where it experienced a renaissance by way of Jane Fonda, who wore a part-mullet, part-shag in her famed 1970 mug shot and, of course, the chart-topping musicians of the time. There was David Bowie, with alter ego Ziggy Stardust's signature flame red fade, golden couple Paul and Linda McCartney with their his-and-hers shags, and Runaways guitarist Joan Jett with her spiky jet-black chop. And that's just to name a few. Taking the mullet into bigger, bolder territory in the '80s was everyone from Cher, Prince, and Stevie Nicks to Tina Turner, who singlehandedly took the high-low silhouette to new, sky-reaching heights with her platinum-streaked spike as she electrified audiences. But it's not just music's biggest acts that took on the-ever polarizing cut, but Hollywood too, with everyone from actors Rob Lowe and Scarlett Johansson to Broadway legend Liza Minnelli getting in on the action to transformative effect.

Today, the mullet continues to appeal to a wide breadth of beauty rule-breakers with no shortage of star power. Leading the charge is none other than Rihanna, who not only wears a shape-shifting shag with aplomb herself, but has put the style on several of her Savage x Fenty lingerie runway models such as Cara Delevingne. Then there are its other pop star poster children—including Miley Cyrus and Troye Sivan—who continue to put the subversive shag on the map for generations to come. In honor of its rising popularity over lockdown, a look back at the best mullets of all time.