Danes show off their manes in Denmarks national mullet championship

COPENHAGEN — Business in the front, party in the back.A packed Danish crowd celebrated on Saturday the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle, defined by very short hair at the front and longer hair at the back.Denmark’s raucous 2026 Mullet Championship, presented on an outdoor stage in central Copenhagen, attracted 12 well-coiffed competitors and more than a thousand spectators to the evening’s “mane” event.Organizer Steffen Stiw Weber, a 37-year-old electrician, said the championships, now in their fourth year, began after he had a hair transplant and chose to grow out a mullet.After realizing he couldn’t compete in a mullet competition in the United States because he wasn’t a US citizen, Stiw Weber started his own in Denmark.“I was like, OK, I have to do it on my own here in Denmark,” he said while smiling.Competitors in Saturday’s championships were evaluated on their cuts’ style, uniqueness, and overall performance and “mullet moves,” explained judge Bobby Agren.Contestants were given 60 seconds each to perform on stage to showcase their cuts.“I like the finesse, the twist, the nostalgia.I like it if it looks ridiculous or maybe ugly in a beautiful way,” said Agren, who owns two hair salons in Copenhagen.“I think in our culture, when everything must … be perfect on social media and everything like that, I think that’s why people have to stand out from the crowd,” said Stiw Weber.The event featured an array of over-the-top performances, including beer-swilling, body-popping, and a live saxophone show.

One competitor even wore a mullet haircut styled to resemble the Danish flag.The crowd screamed and chanted with their energy seemingly feeding directly into the various performers on stage.After every performance, judges held up scorecards to distribute points to the competitors.Forty-three-year-old construction worker Thomas Berg eventually took home the top prize after wowing judges by frantically jumping on a trampoli...