‘I’m just a big, hairy, American winning machine:’ Voting begins for this year’s Mullet Champ

America’s fiercest unshorn competitors are currently vying for the title of Mullet Champ. Sheila Flynn spoke to a few of the teen finalists — and their supportive moms

Kane Grissinger was crowned the 2023 Mullet Champ in the teen category and he’s back to defend his title (Vanessa Grissinger )

If you’re not sure how to style your mullet, then fret no more: The USA Mullet Championships site has some suggestions. There’s the Kentucky Waterfall. The Pompadour, The Beaver Tail. The Rat Tail. The Shag.

America’s fiercest unshorn competitors are currently vying for the title of Mullet Champ in an annual contest raising money for wounded warriors through their own business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back styles – and the competition is clear from the names. There’s the West Coast Wave, for example. The No Doubter. The Nunnamaker. The Okie Mudflap. The HurriKane.

The style’s heyday was in the high-hair Eighties – but the term only entered the public lexicon thanks to Beastie Boys’ 1994 hit “Mullet Head.”

Back during its ascent, mullets “tended to be popular with white dudes who played rock music or hockey, incredibly cool and trendy for a while,” the Mullet Champ site explains.

“Recent women’s fashion has involved a lot of things that were at one point, not long ago, considered tacky (looking at  you, mom jeans and scrunchies.) Maybe the mullet is the next step in this resurgence, allowing men to embrace the tackier sides of our previous societal fashion faux pas, as well.”

Men, women, teens and children alike are embracing the hairdo for the Mullet Championships, which will award cash and other prizes later this month to the winners in each category. All financial donations accompanying votes will go to Jared Allen’s Homes for Wounded Warriors, a nonprofit set up by the former NFL player.

Here, a few of the hirsute teen contestants — and their mothers — share their hair care regimes and growing efforts.

Will Joyner, 17, calls his mullet the ‘Seaford Special’ after his hometown in Virginia (Jenny Joyner)

WILL JOYNER, 17

Will Joyner looks and speaks as if his picture should appear alongside the definition of “mullet” in the dictionary.

“I’m just a big, hairy, American winning machine,” the 6’1 rising senior and lineman tells The Independent — before getting on his Harley and posing for a picture taken by his mom.

He finished fifth last year in the Mullet Champ contest; the style atop his head just might also be in his blood.

“My uncle had one; my dad had one; all their friends had them,” he says, adding that he’s inspired another family member to adopt the ‘do, too.

“My grandpa’s growing one right now,” he said. “He’s blind, so he can’t see it.”

Will Joyner poses with the hairdresser who cuts and helps maintain his mullet – though he proudly points out the curls are natural (Jenny Joyner)

Will started growing the mullet four years ago, the lush curls now cascading to his shoulder blades. Those curls are natural, he proudly boasts, and he lets the mane air dry – though he won’t share any other hair care tips lest his competition learn his secrets.

He’s accustomed to strangers asking to touch it, and the mullet even prompted his sophomore English teacher to make an unusual request.

“I was sitting there, and I’d come in with it wet – because I don’t blow dry it, it’s all natural – and it was straight and wet and she asked, “Can I braid your hair?”

‘I said, “Well sure,”’ grins Will, as his mother giggles.

He gets catcalls for the style, he says, and other types of shout-outs from passers-by.

“I went to the Creed concert this weekend, and I got a lot of ‘Hell yeahs’ and other American things,” says – because the mullet, according to Will is quintessentially “American.”

“It’s the freest haircut there is,” he says, adding that it has some practical advantages: “I haven’t had a sunburn on my neck in four years now.”

Will, who graduates from high school next year and plans to join the family plumbing business, shows off his mullet on his motorcycle (Jenny Joyner)

He plans to keep the mullet until after high school graduation next spring – but cut it for his entrance into the workforce, joining the family plumbing business.

“There comes a time in a man’s life where he needs to grow up,” he says. “I recently quit football [because of injury]; that was one of those times. And I think when I graduate high school it’ll be time to grow up … I want to be professional, and it’s a bit unruly.”

In the meantime, he and his family are “gonna hit the gas” on his voting campaign to be crowned Mullet Champ. Final voting begins on August 14, and they’ve created QR codes to post around town as well as sharing widely on social media.

A win might derail his mullet-ditching plans, he says – and motivate him to enter the adult competition next year.

“I can’t picture him without it now,” says his mother, who’d originally been against the idea.

“I’ll be sad when he cuts it. But he might not cut it at all. He might just clean it up a little bit.”

CHASON SACHS, 13

A third-time entrant to the USA Mullet Championships, Chason Sachs first began growing his mullet when, like the rest of the world, he couldn’t get a haircut during Covid lockdown.

Chason Sachs, of Missouri, was partially inspired to grow his mullet by his favorite baseball player (Gina Sachs)

“Then I was really into the Cardinals, and Harrison Bader was my favorite player, and he had one,” the 13-year-old baseball fan tells The Independent. “So I talked my mom into it, and then I kept growing it since … she just said, ‘You have to keep and tangle-free or whatever – if I don’t do that, I have to cut it.”

Luckily, he’s had no problem sticking to the rules – carefully maintaining his mullet with perms every six months and “a trim once or twice between that.” On a regular basis, he uses conditioner, leave-in conditioner and gel “to hold the moisture in.”

Chason’s luscious locks had already earned him a following around his hometown of Wellsville, Missouri — his family found out about the contest after people started tagging them in social media posts. He missed the deadline to apply for the 2021 competition but entered in 2022 and placed in the top 100. Last year he made it to 13th place in the children’s competition before aging into the teen category.

“My mom has made business cards for me with the picture that I’ve entered and QR codes and stuff – so when we go out in public, I hand those out,” Chason says. He enlisted the help of his baseball buddies at the county fair, too, parceling out some of the 2,000 cards his mother had printed.

“I hand them a stack of cards and they come back like ten minutes later asking for more,” he says.

Chason’s mother laid out ground rules when she decided to let him grow out the mane -- and he’s dutifully conditioned, combed, detangled and otherwise maintained his flowing locks (Gina Sachs)

It’s common for him to get recognized or asked to pose for photos – and one local child turned up with a picture of Chason at a nearby salon, asking for his mullet to be recreated.

“My mom printed out a picture of me and I signed it and we mailed it to him,” says Chason, who’s entering eighth grade. Like Will in Virginia, Chason plans to keep his mullet for graduation pictures but will likely shorten his style before high school.

In the meantime, Chason and his family and friends are gearing up for his third shot at the Mullet Champ title.

“Everybody absolutely loves it,” his mother says. “They’re all excited and looking forward to it …like, when do we get to vote again?”

KILLIAN TODD, 13

Killian Todd, 13, of Hamilton, Illinois, began growing out his mullet about four years ago after making a bet with his older cousin (Erica Todd)

Illinois boy Killian Todd was on a family vacation in the Lake of the Ozarks four years ago when his decade-older cousin made a bet with him on who could grow their hair the longest. The teenage cousin lasted a few months; Killian, now 13, is still going.

“He actually did cut it once in the very beginning, and he cried – so we grew it back,” his mother, Erica, tells The Independent.

“I looked weird without it!” counters Killian, who dreams of playing professional baseball one day.

He’s certainly nurturing an appropriate haircut for an MLB career – and he’s got professional in-home help; his mother is a hairdresser with her own salon. She realized Killian should try a perm to take advantage of his natural wave, though his hair’s “not super-curly.”

“We went to my shop and we wrapped it up in the rollers … once I was done and took the rollers out, he loved it instantly,” she says.

Killian, who also entered Mullet Champ last year, plays travel baseball and hopes for a professional career in the sport (Erica Todd)

Now he dutifully completes a 20-minute daily hair-care routine after showering in the family bathroom.

“I put leave-in conditioner in my hair, then I take it out, and then I put curl cream and oil in my hair,” he says. “And then I take it out, and that’s it.”

“And then you lean your head sideways and scrunch it with your hand,” his mother laughs.

He first competed in Mullet Champ last year and has high hopes this time around, handing out printed QR codes and encouraging votes on social media.

“Whenever we’re out and about, we’ll go up and say, ‘Excuse me,’ and I’ll say, ‘He’s a little shy sometimes … my son is in a US mullet competition, and then I give them the QR code to scan,” Erica says.

Killian and his brother titled his mullet the No Doubter, named after the baseball term for a certain home run – and also because “there’s no doubt that my mullet’s the best,” he says resolutely.

“I have fun when I talk to people about it,” says Killian, who’s going into eighth grade. “They always laugh about it, because they think it’s funny that [the contest] is actually, like, a thing.”

KANE GRISSINGER, 16

Florida 16-year-old Kane Grissinger, who was crowned the 2023 Mullet Champ in the teen category, hopes to clinch the title again this year (Vanessa Grissinger)

Vanessa Grissinger wasn’t too thrilled when her husband took their son for a hair cut three years ago and returned him with a mullet – a style the boy had never even heard of until his dad showed him a picture.

“I was like ... this is from the Eighties. We’re in 2021. What is this?” she tells The Independent. “But as the awkward phase of growing out the mullet went by, I just saw a change in his personality – like a little bit more outgoing.

“And as the mullet grew, I started just to warm up to it, and then it started looking, Okay, this looks really good,” she says. “And it totally fits his personality.”

Kane, now 16, says “it definitely did make me feel a little more confident going out and being probably a little more social.”

What began as a whim then turned into a trademark and, within a few short years, a triumph. Kane not only became known locally for his mullet but also entered and won Mullet Champ last year – taking home the trophy for his HurriKane style.

Kane, proudly displaying lat year’s trophy, wants to pursue an acting career and has starred in local productions (Vanessa Grissinger)

The principal had even announced his candidacy at a pep rally just a few days after the beginning of last school year. Not everyone is a fan — his grandfather offered him $500 to cut it off.

“I said no,” Kane says.

Last year his family and supporters campaigned heavily, in person and online.

“It was actually wild doing the mullet competition; we went around … holding up posters with a QR code for him to get people to vote,” his mom says.

He used some of the prize money for a band trip to London; Kane plays the tenor saxophone as well as starring in local theatrical productions like the Nutcracker. He’s only had to tie his mullet up for band performances and stage roles – and plans to pursue acting professionally.

As he tries for the Mullet Champ title a second time, Kane says he can’t recommend growing a mullet highly enough.

“If it fits your style, then you’ve just got to go for it – and don’t let anyone stand in your way,” he says.