From honouring a lost brother, to chopping off stereotypes and making mums cry, there's a lot more to the mullet than just shaved sides and wild locks.
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Summernats 35 was a festival of great cars and even greater hair.
Out of hundreds of competitors in the Dirty Mullet competition, a few majestic heads reigned supreme. Here are their stories.
Parting the hair hurdle
Tamyzn Dowell, 18, was the first female to win the mane event and was crowned grand mullet champion.
Cutting a mullet started as joke with her brother, who has been entering the competition for the last four years.
"So I got the mullet just as a joke, and ended up beating 109 people which was absolutely mind-blowing," she said.
"It was really exciting, because my brother's always been winning [with] his car racing, my sister used to win showgirl, and it just felt good to finally win something for myself."
Ms Dowell loves her mullet, and wants more women to embrace the haircut.
"It felt amazing being the first female winner at Summernats. I was not expecting it whatsoever. There was only one other girl, but we're hoping next year there's gonna be a lot of other girls," she said.
"It's such a normal thing for guys to have, and people never expect women to have it, but ever since I've had my mullet, I've had nothing but compliments.
"I'm gonna try to get as many girls as I know to get mullets, because I literally think they're amazing."
The Wangaratta teenager has become somewhat of a celebrity because of her win. She had hordes of people, mostly middle-aged women, ask for photos during Summernats.
She was on Channel 10's The Project, radio and news interviews, and even gets recognised around town.
"It really felt weird having so many people want photos with a complete stranger, but it was amazing," Ms Dowell said.
"It has for sure been an experience I'll cherish forever."
(Half) a life's work
Two-year-old Canberra boy Jaxx Rowe has been preparing for his mullet win for half his life.
During Summernats in 2022, he was received so many compliments for his bright blonde mullet, mum Samantha Hurley said.
"Everyone was commenting, 'oh my god, look at his little mullet, he's so cute, he's so small,' and to be honest it was just his hair, I'd never cut it," she laughed.
It was a sign the little one was hair apparent to the crown, and the next year was spent preparing.
Mullet winners
- 0-3: Jaxx Rowe
- 4-7:Hux Battenally
- 8-13: Ayden Stephens
- 14-17: Byron Mitchell
- Ranga - Super Majestic Mullet: Jake Wye
- Everyday: Daniel Watts
- Senior Mullet: Adam Bezzina
- Vintage: Andrew Blanda Snr
- Grubby - Game Changer Mullet: Lloyd Hickson-Burnett
- Rookie - Grand Mullet Champion: Tamzyn Dowell
"It was a whole year of getting that mullet ready," Ms Hurley said.
But all that preparation, including dedicated work from Phatheads Barbershop in Kambah, was nearly ruined just before the festival.
"[Jaxx] got to the slime, and he put a whole bucket of slime on his head, and I actually lost it," Ms Hurley said.
"I was like, 'not the hair!'"
Luckily, the winning golden locks were saved thanks to a lot of vinegar.
Jaxx won the 0-3 category, and has a luscious mullet to boot.
"He loves it, he shakes it in the wind," Ms Hurley said.
"[When he won], he was pretty excited, I think he got the vibe off us. He sort of knew when we were happy.
"He was knuckling everyone, and high-fiving everyone. He was smiling, it was cool. Everyone was give him attention, so he loved it."
Mother doesn't always know best
Not every mother is OK with their child having the controversial hairstyle, though.
Like Wagga Wagga resident Emma Battenally, a Canberra Girls Grammar alum and mother of six-year-old Hux.
"He was a little country boy from Wagga with long surfer curls," she said.
Hux's uncles wanted him to have a mullet for Summernats.
"I did not agree and begged him not to have one," Ms Battenally said.
But the mother made the fatal error of leaving for a family wedding in Bateman's Bay, returning to find her son without his trademark curls - at least at the front.
"[I] got a Snapchat of a dirty mullet and cried," she said.
"I am not a fan.
"[But] Hux has never looked back."
Hux was chuffed to win the four to seven category, and so was mum. Because now he is an official member of the Dirty Mullet crew, she can cut it off.
Remembering a brother
For Adam Blanda snr, winner of the Vintage category, his mullet is much more than just a haircut.
He has had it for about 30 years, since he was only 20.
'The reason I haven't cut [it], is because it's a tribute to my late brother who passed in a car accident when he cut his off," Mr Blanda said.
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Mr Blanda said he felt "over the moon" when he won, and thinks his brother would be "proud of his little brother" for winning.
Mr Blanda and his 18-year-old son Adam Blanda Jr compete in the Summernats mullet competition every year, an annual tradition to honour their lost loved-one.
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