MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WTVF) — A local eight-year-old is obviously a competitor. He competes in baseball, basketball, football. You name it! Don't brush off his chances of doing well in his latest competition, a national challenge.
On Tuesday, there was a work of art underway in Crystal Hake's Hair:30 salon in Mt. Juliet. Eight-year-old Owen Escoto was the subject.
"So, Owen, what is it you're getting?" we asked.
"A mullet!" he smiled.
You heard the man. Owen's been rockin' the mullet for the past year and a half.
"It was cool, and it felt crazy," Owen said, referring to when he first got the style.
When Owen first approached Crystal about the mullet, she had to be won over.
"At first, I didn't like mullets, but Owen could definitely pull it off," she laughed.
Mom, Stevie, agreed.
"I was surprised how much I liked it!" she said.
"It's business in the front, but there's a party in the back," Owen chimed in.
Owen's mullet is becoming famous. He's entered in the USA Mullet Championships, the Kids Mullet Showdown. Round 2 online voting begins on Thursday. Owen's part of a new generation bringing back the mullet.
There have been many great mullets throughout history, but many tend to think of someone in particular. It's someone who broke onto the country music scene in 1992, Billy Ray Cyrus.
"I think I heard about him," Owen smiled.
"We're getting lots of mullet requests," Crystal continued. "We get pictures in. Sometimes they're of Owen, and they don't even know that we we did it."
There's something about the mullet. People loved it on Billy Ray, and Owen's is bringing nothing but smiles too.
"People ask, 'Owen, how do you do that?' I just say let it grow!" Owen said.
With a few more finishing touches, Owen showed us his new cut, complete with lightning bolts shaved into the sides of his hair. It's a new entry into mullet-dom, one that Owen calls the O-nado.
"It's so fun," Stevie said. "Seeing the community rallying around a little eight-year-old's just been really amazing and fun and silly and kinda what we need in the world right now. God bless the mullet."
Donations to the USA Mullet Championships go to the non-profit, Jared Allen's Homes for Wounded Warriors. To check out the competition, visit here
