Cambridge Middle School Mullet of the Month winner Fenix Clifton right and second place getter Micheal Tipene celebrate with judges (from left) Matt Cameron, Camille Guzzwell and Luke Gibbs. Photo: Steph Bell-Jenkins.
After coming tantalisingly close to winning Cambridge Middle School’s Mullet of the Month competition in 2022, Fenix Clifton was desperate to take out this year’s title.
So, last Wednesday, as screaming spectators crowded around a makeshift runway on the school cricket pitch, last year’s third-place getter injected extra pizzazz into his catwalk moves.
His wavy brown mane cropped close in the front, shaved above his ears and stretching halfway down his back, he made sure to give the rowdy mob what it wanted as he strutted down the green turf.
“I just did whatever people liked,” said the year 8 student, who has been growing his hair for five years.
The brilliant strategy paid off. Clifton was announced Mullet of the Month winner by judges Matt Cameron and Luke Gibbs from Barbershop Co Cambridge and Breeze Waikato breakfast host Camille Guzzwell. Micheal Tipene came second and Mason Murphy was third.
Cameron said the mullet – where hair is cut short at the front, top and sides and left longer at the back – had undergone a resurgence two years ago.
“For us in the barbershop, rugby players set the trend, so if they start something, and they run out on the field in front of x amount of thousand viewers, boom, kids are going to follow it and we have to cut it.”
For him, mullets were about “business up front, party at the back”.
Gibbs, a senior barber, estimated about 50 per cent of children’s haircuts he did were mullets.
Mullet of the Month organiser Joe Kingston, a youth worker with 24-7 who works at Cambridge Middle School supporting students, invited Guzzwell to judge after discovering she had been growing her own mullet in March to promote the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand’s fundraising campaign, The Mullet Matters.
She thought the competition was fantastic.
“I’m so stoked that Joe was doing it,” she said. “I love it when social workers get out to spread positive messages for kids and this is a really positive competition.”
Cambridge Middle School principal Daryl Gibbs said Mullet of the Month was a great example of how 24-7 youth workers helped to create a positive culture at the school.
“Particularly since Covid, it’s just an opportunity for everyone to do a thing together,” he said.
“It’s a bit different and it’s fun.”
