Love it or hate it, there is something distinctively Australian about the mullet.

Short on top and long out back, the hairstyle – generally sported by males – is a frequent head-turner.

Horsham’s Jonty Blair, who has been growing about a 30-centimetre version of his own for the past two years, is fully aware of the type of attention a well-grown mullet can receive.

Come February 29, however, and he might be struggling to stand out from the crowd.

The 10-year-old is preparing to meet up with hundreds of mullet growers and lovers from across the country at an annual Mulletfest in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales.

The competition event, established in 2018, features a range of categories from junior mullets to ‘grubby’, ‘extreme’ and ‘vintage’, all in a celebration of the unique hairstyle, while simultaneously raising money for charity. Jonty will be entering the eight to 13-year-old junior category.

His father, Darryl Blair, said this would be the first time Jonty joined Mulletfest, after hearing about it on the Today Show television program.

He said Jonty planned to cut his mullet last year to raise money for brain cancer, but after he heard about the event, decided to grow it out a bit more, attend Mulletfest, and lob it off some time later this year.

“We saw it on the Today Show a couple of times and we thought it would be a bit of fun to enter,” he said.

“He’ll cut it when we come back and raise some money. We’ve not decided on a charity yet, but we might work out something with the school.”

Despite the time dedicated to growing out his mullet, Jonty said he would be glad to eventually chop it off.

“It gets a bit itchy,” he admitted.

Mr Blair said there were still a few finishing touches for Jonty’s mullet and outfit before the family headed off to the event.

“We need to give it a final trim,” he said.

“We don’t know about a mohawk yet – Jonty hasn’t decided on that. But he’s going to wear a high-vis shirt, and his board shorts and thongs. 

“We were going to go with the blue singlet, but we thought that everyone would have that, so we thought we’d try something a bit different. It should be a good bit of fun.”

– Lotte Reiter 

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