Style trends always come back around, as we're seeing with updated takes on '70s shags and '80s mullets having a serious moment in the fashion spotlight.
Platform artist and educator Manda Ziegelman has been in demand worldwide to teach their contemporary shag cuts, which they enhance with an exaggerated mullet shape and modern color elements. Recently, they created the below version at The Redken Symposium in Berlin.
“A mullet exudes confidence and attitude. As a hairdresser, I love to enhance elements with relevant edge, adding pops of color, shaved designs, or subtle hidden features for extra personality," says Ziegelman, a Sam Villa Ambassador and Global Redken Artist in Finishing.
Their pro tips for cutting a shag-inspired mullet are:
- Think about total customization: where to remove weight to condense a shape, and where to build texture to enhance volume.
- Use the time at the shampoo bowl to assess head shape and hair density.
- Don’t be afraid to take a bigger fringe section!
- Use a horseshoe V section in the back to help create a lot of fullness at the crown. If hair is finer, make a smaller section; if coarse, a larger one.
- This type of cut lends itself to larger sections and condensed cutting.
Ziegelman's shag cutting tutorial is here:
Styling and finish bring the look home. “It starts with a great cut, but the magic of this look is created with styling," Ziegelman says. "It’s so important to get your hands in there and sculpt!”
Hand styling is the way to achieve that essential volume that gives the mullet shag its personality. Ziegelman uses two products to finish a shag-mullet hybrid:
- JELLY sea salt spray by Cult + King. Used on the roots only, it gives the organic, lived-in, perfectly imperfect messy fullness that’s on trend for this type of style. “When dry, it gives lush cushy volume that has just enough grit to sculpt. I prefer a salt spray for volume over mousses and gels because it never feels too heavy or sticky,” Ziegelman says.
- Brushable Hairspray by Redken. "It dries quickly, levitates hair, is workable, and can be layered to build up the shape to be wild or mild."
Schedule a class with Manda Ziegelman here.