Luke Munn won an international men’s hair grooming competition by styling the most Australian haircut ever: the mullet. The barber explains to CityMag why the larrikin look is popular once again and offers tips on keeping it luscious during lockdown.

SPECIAL REPORT: COVID-19 ADELAIDE

Last week global hair brand American Crew revealed the winners of their annual All Star Challenge, and Luke Munn from Attaboy Barbers – a hair salon located in Karma and Crow’s studio collective – took out the country’s Best Emerging Barber title as one of five global winners.

Luke’s showstopping look was none other than Joe Dirt’s “business in the front, party in the back” mullet.

“I wanted to do something a little bit away from your general sort of style that you would see, not only in this competition, but in classic men’s haircutting,” Luke says of his award-winning cut.

“I kind of just threw a massive curveball at it and went, ‘Well, we’ll see what happens’ and it worked out in my favour.”

The haircut that we’re sure will launch a thousand knock-offs. Picture: supplied

Once the coronavirus pandemic has settled down, Luke will travel to Los Angeles to do a photoshoot with the American Crew team, however, while he waits in isolation and his salon is temporarily closed, he will be working on maintaining his own mullet.

Luckily the style lends itself to a hands-off approach.

“If you get a good hair stylist the mullet should kind of grow out and still look good with a bit of length, but I think the best thing about mullets is that they’re uncontrolled.”

Luke says he’s seeing more and more men growing their hair longer, and there’s no better time to experiment with long tresses while in lock-up. He recommends strongly against shaving off all your hair and instead experimenting with a bit of length.

That could also mean looking at another alternative hairstyle for men: the mod. It’s a “bit more length on the side and a bit longer at the back, with quite short fringes,” Luke says. The ‘mod’ look is a style that’s resurfacing in the UK right now.

“I think people just want to try something different,” Luke says.

“It’s also a simple haircut that doesn’t take much to style – it doesn’t take a lot of maintenance or upkeep.

“If you let your hair grow an extra two weeks, it’s not going to make the biggest difference – whereas if you’ve got something like a skin fade, you get to the two-week mark and start looking a little bit ‘How you doing?’”

Luke extends this haircare ethos to women, too.

Ladies should definitely not colour their hair themselves as “it’s going to cost you more in the long run when you go back to the salon and try to get it fixed,” says Luke.

This applies to cuts, too.

And while CityMag hunkers down with the rest of you (shopping for congee aside), waiting for the restrictions to lift, we’ll be growing out our locks with the immortal words of the Beastie Boys in our ears: “number one on the side and don’t touch the back / number six on the top and don’t cut it wack”.