Blake Shelton debuted on the country music scene in 2001 with his heartwarming song "Austin" and his long curly locks. From the beginning of his career, he made a statement with his mullet partly covered by a cowboy hat, and although he finally cut it in 2007, his hairstyle has lived on in the minds — and jokes — of country fans and artists. Lucky for fans of the Shelton mullet, the singer has revived it a couple of times. Here's a look back at the history of Shelton's most iconic look.
Fans can go back to any music video of Shelton's from the early 2000s — such "The Baby," "Some Beach" and more — to see his mane in its full glory. It's unclear exactly when the hairdo came into play, but photos from his youth — especially from his teen years — in Ada, Oklahoma show him sporting the style. The mullet reached peak popularity in the 1980s and early '90s, and bringing his hairstyle with him into his country career wasn't unusual, as other artists (Alan Jackson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Joe Diffie, etc.) had rocked it before him.
Blake Shelton's Mullet Through the Years
Portrait of American Country musician Blake Shelton as he poses at Magnum's nightclub, Chicago, Illinois, December 4, 2001. (Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images)
Photo by Justin Kahn/WireImage
Blake Shelton during CMT 2004 Flame Worthy Video Music Awards - Arrivals at Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. (Photo by Frank Mullen/WireImage)
Photo by Mark Sullivan/WireImage for Backstage Creations
Shelton may have ditched his cowboy hat and mullet hairstyle in the mid 2000s, but country fans and his fellow artists never forgot about it. Dierks Bentley shared a tweet in 2012 poking fun at Shelton's former hairstyle and Brett Eldredge dressed up like Blake Shelton "on spring break circa 2001" in a 2014 photo. Shelton takes all comments about his former haircut in good fun, and he has often defended the style. In 2022, he told People his decision to rid himself of the mullet had nothing to do with changing trends, but rather because it was "physically irritating."
Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
The "God's Country" singer couldn't keep his signature hairstyle gone forever, however, and he has brought it back on a couple of occasions. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown in 2020, Shelton tweeted to announce the official return of the mullet.
"I am growing my mullet back as a symbol of hope or some sh*t like that," Shelton wrote.
The tweet was followed by a video of Gwen Stefani cutting his grown out hair into a very short mullet. Although the style had nothing on his classic mullet of the early 2000s, it brought back a little nostalgia.
Quarantine mullet update 3/26/2020... @gwenstefani has decided to take it to the next level.. Stripes. pic.twitter.com/XZJzWOoAd5
— Blake Shelton (@blakeshelton) March 26, 2020
The mini-mullet of 2020 was all fans had to hold on to until this past year when he brought the full force of '90s and early 2000s country music to the forefront with his new single, "No Body." The song features a vintage country groove perfect for line dancing, and Shelton leaned into that feeling in the song's official music video, donning a full mullet wig and performing in a throwback, neon-clad honky tonk.
"I'm just realizing that something hasn't felt right over the last 15 or so years, and I'm starting to realize what's been missing," Shelton said in a video debuting the look. He also said the hairstyle felt "completely natural."
He further explained the dose of '90s nostalgia in another Instagram post, writing, "This song in particular takes me back to the '90s when I was in high school and first moved to Nashville because it feels like what the music sounded like at that time."
Although Shelton has yet to bring back his vintage mullet for real, there is always hope that it will make a return in the future.
