A local hair salon’s offer to rid anyone of a mullet free of charge is attracting plenty of attention lately, but has yet to reel in even one client willing to lose the distinctive ’do.
Julea Penland, owner of Julea’s Progressive Salon, first offered the free snips five years ago. And while nearly everyone that saw her readerboard offering “Free Mullet Removal” either laughed or snapped a picture, no one is ready to say goodbye to their long locks.
Could that be because there’s simply no mullets around?
“Oh, no, there’s plenty of mullets left,” said Penland, explaining that she sees the hairstyle everywhere, though she never approaches anyone and offers to cut their hair.
“I try not to, though I do have a shirt I wear that says, ‘Your hair sucks,’ and on the back it says, ‘I can fix it,’” she said, adding that she’ll put on the shirt when heading out to the mall or to large events.
She needed no such advertising for her free mullet removal, as when a Seattle reporter caught wind of the promotion, the resulting story soon became the most read on the newspaper’s Web site.
And next thing she knew, Penland was doing interviews with three radio stations, including one in Phoenix, Ariz.
“And I just got a call from somebody else to do their morning TV show,” she said.
So does all this attention mean that Penland is the only one who hates mullets?
“No, I’m sure there’s others,” she said. “Maybe I’m just the bravest — or the dumbest,” she added with a laugh.
Because not all the attention has been good, of course, since Penland said her salon did get a voicemail message from a man proclaiming that he didn’t even have a mullet, but he was still very offended by her campaign.
And what, exactly, does Penland find so offensive about mullets?
“They’re just so 80s,” she said. “They’re very outdated. It’s like, move on!”
As to what inspired her to offer the free cuts, Penland said the idea came about when she and some co-workers were sharing cocktails and talking about a man they all knew who sported a “raging mullet,” which she said was a particularly long version of the “business in the front, party in the back” style.
Soon, Penland was offering “free mullet removal” on her salon’s readerboard that first August, and for the next four years. It has become such a tradition, in fact, that even though Penland’s salon has moved to another location on Piperberry Way this month that no longer has a readerboard, she will put up new signs for the promotion.
“I guess I’ll have get some banners made next August,” she said, adding that even though August is now over, her offer still stands. “I am willing to (cut off someone’s mullet) any time. They just need to come in.”
