BBCBusiness in the front, party in the back.
A mullet is never far away around the sheep sheds and showgrounds of this year’s Royal Welsh Show.
The outrageous hair style of 1970s and 80s rock stars is making something of a comeback, with the farmers of Wales leading the herd.
Ceredigion sheep farmer Gwion Hughes, who is keeping it short and tidy in the back for now – a lone sheep in a growing flock of flowing locks – said: “It’s just a craze now, really.”
“It never really appealed to me,” Gwion told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
But at the sheep showground five-year-old Griff’s flowing blond locks would be contenders if the Royal Welsh were to bring in a mullet category.
Mum Sophie, from Builth Wells, Powys, said last year at the show his big sister decided “mullet was the way to go” and her son has been growing it ever since.
“He loves it,” she said.
Hayden Clarkson, 17, from Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, said he was pretty sure the mullet’s comeback is complete.
“I’ve had this mullet for about three years now,” he said.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to go back to be honest. The girlfriend loves it.”
“I do,” said 17-year-old Bethan Francis, running her fingers through his long dark hair.
“It’s so curly,” she gushed.
So what does he call someone sporting a mullet?
“Mulletonian,” Hayden offered, before agreeing with Bethan he is a “mulletarian”.
Dawson Ellis, 20, from Rhymney, Caerphilly county, said he started growing his hair after the Covid lockdown.
“I thought, ‘oh why not make a mullet,” he recalled, adding he got encouragement from his girlfriend.
“I love his mullet, it’s lush,” said Gracie Andrews.
Cattle farmer Matthew Iceton from Eggleston in County Durham denied having a mullet at all, despite a clear resemblance.
“That’s not a mullet,” he said, before agreeing his hair style may be inspired by one.
He was also encouraged to shake out his locks by others in the barn and they shouted “mullet”.
Sarah Gibbons, a sheep farmer from Hay-on-Wye, said she does her own hair and may struggle to reach her back locks sometimes.
“I get the sheep shears on it for a mullet,” she said.
“Trouble is farming, we don’t really look in the mirror, so I don’t know what I’ve got.”
And her description of a mullet-wearing woman?
“Mullet mama,” she said.
“That’s want I want to be when I grow up, a mullet mama.”
