# a mullet haircut



## LaureYates

Hello!
I wonder if you could help me translate this expression please!
It was such a long time ago the 80's! *feeling very old *
Thank you!


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## kertek

Hi Laure,

It's "un mullet" in French, and "a mullet" un English, as far as I know.


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## NYCPrincesse

Yeah, my French friends all say "un mullet" (pronounced the English way).  It is coming back you know?  I saw a number of them in Nimes last weekend! ;-)


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## LaureYates

Thank you all very much for your answers.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I can't believe some men would think of going back to it!
More fashion victims in perspective!


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## sapin

In Montreal (Canada), a mullet haircut is know as "une coupe Longueuil" (from the name of a suburban town south of Montreal). I also heard that in the Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean region they call it "une coupe Jonquière" (again a town in the area)...

By the way, this is a very popular hairstyle among native americans, I guess it may originate from them... ancient Iroquois fashion taking a different meaning in a different world...


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## deliadame

In the last Winterbottom movie "A cock and bull story" the French subtitle for "mullet haircut" was "*une coupe de blaireau*". I thought it was a very good find.
The word "*mullet*" is known in France by English speakers but I'm afraid most French speakers wouldn't know it is "une (superbe  ) coupe de footballeur des années 80, longue sur la nuque et rasée sur les côtés"


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## AlistairCookie

est-ce qu'on peut dire:

du business devant, la fête en arrière?


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## Icetrance

> "une (superbe  ) coupe de footballeur des années 80, longue sur la nuque et rasée sur les côtés"



In France, this seems to be the only solution.

Right on, deliadame!


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## maddief24

The mullet is THE haircut in Marseille -- for boys and girls. I'd say about a third of the young population have it! Maybe that's an exaggeration but I've never seen so many real life mullets in my life!!! Despite the fact that it was all the rage, no one I talked to about it ever seemed to know there was an actual name for it. Hmmmm....


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## mytwolangs

AlistairCookie said:
			
		

> est-ce qu'on peut dire:
> 
> du business devant, la fête en arrière?


 
Very funny...
Did you hear that on Sirius 8 (en anglais, en effet)?


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## AlistairCookie

mytwolangs said:
			
		

> Very funny...
> Did you hear that on Sirius 8 (en anglais, en effet)?


I think I first saw it on www.mullet.com


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## carolineR

Alistair 
sauf que pour que l'expression sonne mieux en français, je dirais 
_business devant, teuf derrière_


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## KaRiNe_Fr

maddief24 said:
			
		

> The mullet is THE haircut in Marseille -- for boys and girls. I'd say about a third of the young population have it! Maybe that's an exaggeration but I've never seen so many real life mullets in my life!!! Despite the fact that it was all the rage, no one I talked to about it ever seemed to know there was an actual name for it. Hmmmm....


Sorry Maddie but this is not true (but it's a good try of exaggeration like people from Marseille can say  ). This haircut is no longer up to date since the 80's here, i.e. before your birth date!
This haircut is "ringarde" up to the last degree (au dernier degré) made famous by soccer players, especially german ones (c'est donc une vieille "coupe footballeur" pour moi.).


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## maddief24

KaRiNe_Fr said:
			
		

> Sorry Maddie but this is not true (but it's a good try of exaggeration like people from Marseille can say  ). This haircut is no longer up to date since the 80's here, i.e. before your birth date!
> This haircut is "ringarde" up to the last degree (au dernier degré) made famous by soccer players, especially german ones (c'est donc une vieille "coupe footballeur" pour moi.).


 
I beg to differ. There might have been a slight exaggeration but all of my non-French friends all remarked on the amount of mullets too; I wasn't the only one to notice. Actually, we set out on a mullet hunt one day and took pictures of the dozens of mullets we saw (without being too obvious of course). And even my French friends (none of whom had a mullet) acknowledged that it was a trend.


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## jimreilly

I never heard of a "mullet" haricut before. Is this the same as what was called a Mohawk haircut seen occasionally in my youth in upstate New York? My mother would have died before she let me have one!

One sees them only rarely here in Minneapolis where I live now; there are more often similar things in a punkier version, with gel, colors, and other indeterminate (to me) substances added to the hair. The Native-American population here (an extensive urban population) favors more often what look like pony tails (there must be another name for them, though?), or sometimes very long versions of pony tails (which can be quite beautiful).


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## sapin

A mohawk haircut is completely shaved on the sides, while the mullet is just short on the sides and top. Many punks have indeed adopted the old iroquois hair style, adding some new colorations to it...

Le "mullet" est aussi connu par certains sous le nom de "coupe Stéphane"...

un sujet de discussion inépuisable...!


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## timpeac

LaureYates said:
			
		

> Hello!
> I wonder if you could help me translate this expression please!
> It was such a long time ago the 80's! *feeling very old *
> Thank you!


It was very much alive and well and having emigrated to Brisbane, last time I visited. (not that long ago) (I'm not joking, we played "spot the mullet" in the car - the one with the most "spots" won!)


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## geve

AlistairCookie said:
			
		

> I think I first saw it on www.mullet.com


Thank you for the link, I had no idea what a mullet was (pretty!), I thought it could be a _queue de rat_, but no, much more stylish! (une queue de rat = a rattail, says wikipedia) 
I can't think of a word in French for that  - we did have some though. I had never heard the term Coupe Longueuil that also appears on wiki. Are we really bad at naming cool haircuts in France?? This one is still on my mind.


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## MarionM

I use "la coupe mullet" (pronouced "mulè"), and so do people around me.


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## geve

MarionM said:
			
		

> I use "la coupe mullet" (pronouced "mulè"), and so do people around me.


Oh. Maybe it's just me then - I don't hang out with the right people!


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## Cath.S.

geve said:
			
		

> Oh. Maybe it's just me then - I don't hang out with the right people!


I don't either! Can't say I ever heard it.


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## PKTO

Yes those mullets are very 80s! The era with big hair, lots of hair spray and Duran Duran! Not many men are brave enough or just blissfully ignorant enough to sport a mullet from what I have seen locally in Toronto, and most major cities from what I have seen. I think it would be hard to get a date with a mullet! Hee, hee...


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## sapin

geve said:
			
		

> I can't think of a word in French for that  - we did have some though. I had never heard the term Coupe Longueuil that also appears on wiki. Are we really bad at naming cool haircuts in France?? This one is still on my mind.


En fait, le principe pour nommer cette coupe au Québec est de choisir une petite ville proche de la notre mais qu'on n'aime pas trop ou qu'on veut ridiculiser. Ainsi, les gens de Montréal et de Laval (banlieue nord de Montréal) disent coupe Longueuil, mais les gens de Longueuil (banlieue sud de Montréal) disent coupe Laval... Les gens de Drummondville (petite ville entre Montréal et Québec) disent une coupe Victo (pour Victoriaville...), les gens de Chicoutimi disent une coupe Jonquière, etc.

Donc c'est sûrement très facile d'appliquer le même principe en France !! À Paris ou à Lyons, ce pourrait être une coupe Marseille, par exemple...


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## geve

sapin said:
			
		

> Donc c'est sûrement très facile d'appliquer le même principe en France !! À Paris ou à Lyons, ce pourrait être une coupe Marseille, par exemple...


Mais j'aime tout le monde, moi !  
Bon, ok, _une coupe de provincial_ alors*  Le problème avec cette méthode de dénomination, c'est que ça pourrait désigner n'importe quelle coupe de cheveux jugée moche ou ringarde...


* c'est une blague, bien sûr !


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## timpeac

Une coupe de plouc ?


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## geve

timpeac said:
			
		

> Une coupe de plouc ?


Oui, ou de bouseux... mais là encore, ça n'est pas très spécifique.
_Une coupe de biker_ peut-être (sans vouloir offenser d'éventuels foreros à motos)


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## galoolg

It could also be translated as "nuque longue"


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## LesleyF23

Well, in Montreal Quebec a mullet is called 'coupe Longueuil'.


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## sapin

geve said:
			
		

> Mais j'aime tout le monde, moi !
> Bon, ok, _une coupe de provincial_ alors*  Le problème avec cette méthode de dénomination, c'est que ça pourrait désigner n'importe quelle coupe de cheveux jugée moche ou ringarde...
> 
> 
> * c'est une blague, bien sûr !


Ah non, une coupe de provincial, c'est trop général, comme tu dis, ça peut être n'importe quelle coupe. Il faut que ce soit spécifique, mais une spécificité régionale


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## panzemeyer

Une coupe de supporter de foot allemand ? 

(no offense to our German friends around ).


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## geve

sapin said:
			
		

> Ah non, une coupe de provincial, c'est trop général, comme tu dis, ça peut être n'importe quelle coupe. Il faut que ce soit spécifique, mais une spécificité régionale


Ben oui, mais... tous les provinciaux sont pareils par chez nous ! C'est des non-parisiens, quoi.  


			
				panzemeyer said:
			
		

> Une coupe de supporter de foot allemand ?
> 
> (no offense to our German friends around ).


  ...et qui roule en Harley !!

Il semblerait qu'on ait tendance à catégoriser les gens selon leurs loisirs ou occupations, plutôt que par ville...


* * Je tiens à re-préciser que je n'ai absolument rien contre les motards, les supporters de foot, les Allemands ou les français de toute la France. * *​


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## magali30604

My friend posted a music video of a french band from the 80's (Indochine) in my french class's blog, and in my comment I'm trying to say this: "I like the guy's mullet in the '3e sexe' video." The only thing I could come up with was this: "J'aime les cheveux du mec dans la clip de '3e sexe', longue sur la nuque et rasée sur l'haut de la tête."  (c'est un sujet très drôle, je sais)

Please let me know if this is correct or if there is a better translation. Is there really even a true translation in French for the English word "mullet"?


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## Already-Seen

D'autres synonymes (article wiki) : 





> Une *nuque longue* (en anglais _mullet_), également appelée _mulette_, _coupe Vanier_, _coupe Longueuil_, "coupe du matelot letton", _nuquette_, _coupe Flémalle_, _padde_ et _nuque à l'allemande_, est une coiffure qui consiste à porter les cheveux longs, notamment sur la nuque, de manière assez désordonnée, mais pas sur les tempes, où ils sont beaucoup plus courts.


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## magali30604

Merci Already-Seen!  

I got part of what I said from this other blog, but I wanted to say "on the top" instead of "on the sides" ("sur les côtés").

Another way I wanted to say it was this: "I like the guy's hair in the '3e sexe' video, business in the front but party in the back".  Ideas anybody?


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## Already-Seen

See post #12: 


carolineR said:


> [...]_business devant, teuf derrière_


teuf is slang for fête (=party)
Edit: "J'aime les cheveux du mec dans l*e* clip de '3e sexe', [...]"


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## magali30604

Thanks for your help again!

I actually did see this in the other blog, I guess it didn't click that that's what it means (even though I knew it).  Dans ma classe de français, nous apprenons le verlan.  Je l'adore!


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## AntonioZ

On peut dire "coupe mulet" pour "mullet haircut".

Il y a en France un "renouveau" de la "coupe mulet" (en français, on dit mulet avec un seul "l" !!!). Ce n'est pas une épidémie non plus... (et ce n'est pas non plus un tiers de la population de Marseille, je peux vous l'assurer). 

Cependant, il ne s'agit pas de la même coupe que dans les années 80 (elle se porte un peu moins longue sur la nuque et plus courte et moins désordonnée sur le dessus du crane).

De l'avis de nombreux coiffeurs, le renouveau du phénomène viendrait d'Espagne (non vérifié...).


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## srenee

C'est un nuque longue... the term official


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## Mag38

Personnellement, j'aurais dit "_une coupe à la Chris Waddle_"...  (mais c'est vrai qu'il y a un critère de génération...)


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## titekrolyn

In the North of France, we just say "une mulette".
For example: "Oh, la belle mulette !"  Everyone knows what it means...


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