Iran's Haircuts Special: The Revenge of the Mullets

There has been tremendous interest in our coverage of Iran's new guidelines for appropriate haircuts for men, identifying transgressors such as Imam Ali, Shi'a Islam's first Imam.

Well, our EA hair correspondents --- always a cut above the rest --- have this update. It appears that a Million Mullet Army (mullet: a hairstyle that is short at the front and sides and long behind) is being formed to put the case for the men's look that is "business in the front, party in the back".



There are some powerful backers of this hirsute challenge. It's high times again for US musical icon ("Achy Breaky Heart") Billy Ray Cyrus, a.k.a. Hannah Montana's Dad:

Proving that England footballers still have some purpose in life, Mr Chris Waddle is on-board:


But the heartbeat (hair-pulse?) of this movement is, of course, Mr and Mrs America (joined by Little Androgynous Child America):

Comments

[Catherine]

Whence the Mullet?
The history of Iran's forbidden haircut.

The Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance banned "un-Islamic" Western hairstyles for men earlier this week—including the infamous mullet. When did Westerners start wearing mullets?

Alan Henderson, author of Mullet Madness!: The Haircut That's Business Up Front and a Party in the Back, wonders whether prehistoric peoples wouldn't have discovered the benefit of trimming hair short in the front to keep it out of their eyes while letting it grow long in the back to insulate the neck from rain and cold.

Archaeological evidence confirms the existence of ur-mullets in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Asia Minor, writes Henderson. Hittite warriors from the 16th century BCE sported mulletlike cuts, as did the Assyrians and Egyptians. Finally, Greek statues and etchings dating back to the 6th century BCE reveal that mulletlike cuts were present in Western culture from the very start. (Roman men eschewed the mullet in favor of a more closely cropped look.)
More: http://www.slate.com/id/2259939" rel="nofollow">http://www.slate.com/id/2259939

[Mickey]

Hairstyles for men were introduced at the Veil and Chastity Festival in Tehran ; hairstyle journal for women - soon secretary of the festival, Ali Abedi, said: "The festival was a good opportunity for prevention of Western culture, because hairdressers were offered hairstyle journals approved by the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance to use them for their customers." Abedi said that the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance "have published 5,000 copies of Iranian hairstyle journals approved by the Ministry. We are trying to increase the number of these hairstyles and choose names for them... We aim to choose names for hairstyles based on the Iranian noble culture or names of provinces. For example, we can call a hairstyle as Hope or another one as Shirazi hairstyle." Zhaleh Khodayar, the head of the festival said that "So far, we have been able to publish a hairstyle journal for men …I hope that we will be able to publish a hairstyle journal for women as well that can be approved by the ministry."

http://ilna.ir/newsText.aspx?id=134588" rel="nofollow">http://ilna.ir/newsText.aspx?id=134588

[Catherine]

'Hejab and Chastity Conference' Passes Quietly
While the announcement of the Hejab and Chastity Conference has apparently created quite a stir internationally, here in Iran the event seems to have passed unnoticed, which may be by design. ........

As one Tehran hairdresser told Tehran Bureau when asked about the conference and what effect it might have on her salon, "I have no idea what you're talking about. And I definitely don't plan to anything differently than I am now."
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2010/07/hejab-and-chastity-conference-passes-quietly.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranb...

[Arshama]

I beg to differ!

The Boston Globe editorial: "If there’s a fashion statement that deserves to be banned internationally, it’s the mullet." Right so ;-)
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2010/07/13/iran_ahmadinejads_fashion_police/" rel="nofollow">http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opi...