A little bit of hair grow out isn’t a bad thing, and can give you that all appealing surfer brah look that harks back to the golden age of the 1970’s.
But, if you decide to leave your hair for too long without trimming it at all, it can begin to look like a mullet, which let’s face it dude, just isn’t cool unless you’re trying to look like your dad from highschool.
Don’t worry though, because there are some steps that you can take to avoid the disaster mullet whilst growing your hair out. Simply keep reading, as we’ve compiled a short guide for you to follow whilst growing your hair out.
What Is A Mullet Haircut?
Before we move on to discuss how you can best maintain your luscious locks without sporting an outdated hairstyle, let’s take a closer look at what we’re trying to avoid.
Essentially, a mullet consists of a hairstyle that has hair which is shorter on the front of your head, and longer on the back. It was popularized in the 1970’s, with many pop stars sporting it, including David Bowie.
The etymology of the name ‘mullet’, is quite interesting, and some of you may be surprised to find that it actually came from the Beastie Boys.
A popular band of the time, they released a song which described the hairstyle, claiming that it was a ‘way of life’.
What’s even funnier is that the Oxford English Dictionary actually credits the band for the word.
The fact that it appears in such a prestigious dictionary in and of itself shows how popular the hairstyle is, but not necessarily for the right reasons.
To find out how you can avoid sporting a mullet hairstyle, keep reading as we take a look at the different growth stages below.
How To Avoid Sporting A Mullet
Now that we’ve taken a look at where the famous mullet originated from, we can move on to take a look at how you can avoid wearing one whilst growing out your hair.
There are several different stages within the growth cycle of your hair, so the steps that you take in each of these phases will be important in maintaining the appearance of your hair. To find out more, keep reading below.
1 – 3 Months
This will be the first stage in the process of growing out your hair, and is often the most easy to maintain. You won’t likely have any kind of mullet-type look going on, as it won’t have grown out enough to be an issue.
Within two months, your hair should have grown around two centimeters, but this can vary from person to person depending on how fast their hair grows.
You can maintain your hair in this stage simply by using some pomade or gel to secure it in place.
You can also use mousses or waxes, depending on how thick your hair is. It’s good to comb it in the direction you want it to fall before allowing it to dry.
Other than this, this phase of the growth cycle is super easy to maintain.
4 – 6 Months
This is the phase in which you’ll probably start to notice some bigger changes in your hair maintenance. Because it will have likely grown at least 4 centimeters, the mass of hair that you’re accumulating will start to become noticeable.
You’ll probably see hair sprouting out sporadically in all sorts of different directions, and or varying lengths. If you haven’t been using gel in your hair already, then you’ll have to begin employing it in this phase.
You’ll probably have a mass of hair towards the front of your head that needs to be pushed backwards.
You can do this by spraying sea salt spray on it whilst it’s wet, then combing it backwards before hair drying it in the correct direction. After this, you can go ahead and apply the gel to make sure that it’s secured throughout the day.
7 – 9 Months
Here it is, the phase that we’ve all been dreading. This is the period of time in which you’ll probably begin to notice if you’re developing a mullet.
The shape of your hair when it was short will be completely lost, as it will have all grown out.
You might be able to avoid this phase if you have very curly hair, as the denser curls will help to cover up any mullet-like appearance. If your hair is straight, however, it will begin to look long in the back.
Sadly, you can’t just splash some product on it like you did in previous months, so you’ll need to take a trip to your local barbershop.
They will need to make some modifications to keep your hair looking cool whilst it’s in this transitional phase.
They will need to shear the back for you, so that it doesn’t have a weird length.
Make sure however, that they’re not touching the front of your hair, because if they do, you could end up keeping the mullet look for longer than you intended.
After you’ve passed this phase, and cut the back of your hair, visit your barbershop in another two months to keep on top of the length in the back. Do this, and you’ll avoid the dreaded mullet look with no issues my dude.
Final Thoughts
Although the idea of growing out your hair can be intimidating, because you won’t want to be rocking that dreaded mullet look, there are things you can do to avoid it.
Keep gelling and shaping it for the first 4 months, then take a trip to your barber so that they can trim the back for you.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look good, but there is such a lack of resources out there for men!
This website is for people like past me, who would have loved some guidance when first starting out.
Please enjoy my content. Trust me, bro - we’ll find you the perfect regime within no time.
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