Mullet Fade: 14 Looks and the One Line That Makes It Work

A mullet fade is a mullet with the sides faded short around the ear while the back stays long. The fade height matters less than you think. What decides whether it looks sharp or looks like a mistake is where the fade stops behind the ear.

Stop it at the back corner of the ear and the long back reads as one connected shape. Carry it round the back of the head like a normal fade and you get a short haircut with a tail stuck on. Everything below builds on that one line.

What is a mullet fade?

A mullet fade combines two haircuts. The sides get a fade, short at the bottom and blending longer as it climbs. The top keeps 2 to 3 inches of texture. The back keeps 3 to 5 inches that falls past the nape and touches the collar.

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The fade is on the sides only. That is the part people miss. A normal fade haircut wraps all the way around the head at the same height. A mullet fade curves down behind the ear and hands over to the long back, so from behind you see a full curtain of hair, not a shaved nape.

The contrast is the point. Tight sides make the back look longer and more deliberate than the same length on an unfaded mullet, which is why this version took over from the 1980s shape. If you want the full story of how the mullet itself changed, read our guide to the modern mullet. This page is about the fade.

Mullet fade vs modern mullet vs taper mullet

These three names get used for the same haircut, and they are not the same.

So a taper mullet is a mullet fade with the volume turned down. If you work somewhere conservative or you only see a barber once a month, start there. The difference between a taper and a fade is exactly the difference here: a taper leaves weight at the bottom, a fade removes it.

14 mullet fades, from barely there to bare skin

Every look below is the same mullet: textured top, fringe forward, long back past the collar. The only thing that changes is the fade on the side, from a low taper that barely shows to a high skin fade that takes almost the whole side. Scan it for the height you would actually wear on a Monday.

Gallery14 photos · tap to enlarge

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Which fade height should you get?

Pick the height by how often you will go back to the barber and how much contrast you want between the sides and the back. Face shape comes second.

Low taper mullet

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The low taper only cleans up the hairline around the ear and the sideburn. No skin shows above the ear, so from the front it looks like a tidy medium cut, and the mullet only reveals itself from the side.

This is the version to start with. It grows out gracefully, it survives a missed appointment, and if you hate the back you can cut it off and walk away with a normal haircut. The same logic drives the low taper fade on shorter styles.

Low fade and mid fade mullet

A low fade takes the bottom band above the ear to skin and blends up to about the top of the ear. A mid fade climbs to the temple. The mid is the one most barbers do by default when you say "mullet fade" with no other detail, so if you want low, say low.

Mid is where the look gets its punch. It is also where upkeep starts to bite: the skin section fills in within about a week and the contrast is visibly softer by week three. Our mid fade guide covers that height in more depth.

High fade mullet

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A high fade takes the side to skin up past the temple, nearly to where the head curves into the top. With almost nothing on the side, the back looks dramatically longer than it is.

It is the loudest mullet fade and the least forgiving. It needs a cut every two weeks to stay crisp, and taking skin that high means clippers and shavers work the same patch of scalp often. If you get bumps after a cut, the American Academy of Dermatology describes how folliculitis shows up in exactly those areas. For the full breakdown of skin-level fades, see our bald fade guide.

Drop fade and burst fade mullet

A drop fade dips down behind the ear in an arc before it stops. That curve makes the back look heavier and lower, which suits a longer mullet. A burst fade goes the other way: skin in a semicircle around the ear only, with full hair kept above the temple and behind the ear. The burst is the fade you see most on mullets in barber videos right now, and it gets its own section in the modern mullet guide.

Both depend on the barber reading your head shape, so show a picture rather than trusting the name.

Which mullet fade suits your hair type?

Hair type changes how the back behaves far more than it changes the fade.

Straight hair

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Straight hair makes the cleanest fade line and the flattest back. Ask for the back to be point cut or texturized so it has movement, and use a sea salt spray or light paste on the top. Our guide to haircuts for straight hair covers the products.

Wavy hair

Waves are the easiest texture for a mullet fade. The back flicks out on its own, the top holds shape without much product, and every height from low taper to high fade works. Most of the gallery above is wavy for that reason.

Curly hair

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Curls shrink as they dry, so the back has to be cut longer than it will sit. Ask for length measured wet, and keep the fade at mid or burst so the sides do not look disconnected from a round, full top. More options in haircuts for curly hair.

Mistakes that ruin a mullet fade

• The fade wraps around the back. The barber runs it round the head like a normal fade, the nape gets taken short, and the back turns into a thin strip. That is a rat tail, not a mullet. Say "stop the fade behind the ear" out loud.
• Too much fade, not enough back. A high skin fade on a back that only reaches the nape looks like a regular cut that is overdue. The higher the fade, the more length the back needs.
• Blunt back. Cut straight across, the back looks like a helmet edge. It should be point cut so it breaks up.
• Booking a high fade on a monthly schedule. You will spend two of every four weeks wearing a blurry version of what you asked for.
• Asking for "a mullet fade" and nothing else. That phrase covers everything in the gallery. The result depends on what your barber thinks it means. Plenty of bad haircuts start with an instruction that vague.

Can you see a mullet fade on yourself before the cut?

Pictures of other people only tell you so much. The questions that matter are about your head: whether a high fade makes your face look longer, whether your back grows long enough, whether the contrast suits you or just looks loud. A barber cannot answer that until the clippers are already moving. You can try the fade heights on a simulator or put the mullet itself on your own photo.

So which mullet fade should you get?

If it is your first one, get a low taper and stop it behind the ear. You keep a haircut you can wear anywhere and you learn how your back grows. If you already know you like it, move up to a mid or burst fade and book every two to three weeks. Whatever the height, the line behind the ear is the line that makes it a mullet fade.