Several hundred mules are expected in Chéniers (Creuse), Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 September. By “mule,” do not mean, here, the crossing of the donkey and the mare, but the follower, all that is human, of an eponymous haircut, whose characteristic is to combine a long neck and shaved temples. Long considered a feature of bad taste, hairdressing has been enjoying a comeback in recent years, as evidenced by the growing media attention given to this festive event called the Euro Mulet, the highlight of which is the awarding of a title of European champion in the specialty. The event consists of a parade, with on-site registration and classification by applause meter. Fans of Rod Stewart (the pioneer), and of Paul and Linda McCartney (Wings period), worshipers of Chris Waddle and Andre Agassi, clones of Tony Vairelles and MacGyver, sharpen your locks!
In Chéniers, Quentin Thomas will return the trophy he won in 2022: a plastic virgin filled with holy water (from Lourdes) in which the tifs of the previous winners are bathed. No question, for him, of applying for his own succession. “I will just come to end my reign like Miss France, who cannot be elected twice in a row”, confides this 25-year-old waiter, currently seasonal in a guinguette in downtown Toulouse. As a child, Quentin Thomas never missed an episode, on Sunday afternoons, of Walker. Texas Ranger, a television series in which actor Chuck Norris sported a finely trimmed mullet cut, under a black Stetson. His choice for the improbable brushing does not come from there, however, but from the health crisis.
“The hairdressing salons being closed during the first confinement, I decided to let my hair grow, which was not very long until then. I wanted to try this at least once in my life”, he says. A year and a half later, on a trip to Porto, Portugal, a professional hairdresser winces when she hears him explain, in English, that he would like to have his ears clear while keeping locks falling over his shoulders. A nonsense for any aesthete in hair harmony. The mixture of fire and ice. The combination of rigor and fantasy.
Ambivalent cut
“I like the ambivalence of this haircut which, on the one hand, has a corny, virile, almost macho connotation, and which, on the other hand, appears hyper-fashionable, stylish and even a bit androgynous. Because it is radical, the mule manages to express the opposite of what it represents for some »explains the reigning champion, also an admirer of George Michael and David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust period), two other famous “mules”.
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