Nine NetworkHands up if you’ve ever been refused entry to a bar/club.
Yep, pretty much everyone reading this article. ‘You’re too drunk,’ ‘You’re not wearing the right footwear,’ and ‘We’ve already closed, go home you loser,’ tend to be the favourites.
One I haven’t heard though is ‘You’ve got the wrong kind of haircut,’ which is exactly what one man in Australia claims to have been told recently by bouncers from multiple nightclubs. Why? Because he was sporting a rather fetching mullet.
Nine NetworkJed Gadsby has had his mullet for more than five years, after initially cutting his hair into that style as a joke with his friends, and said he’s never experienced anything like this before.
Gadsby, from Queensland, told A Current Affair he’d travelled to Brisbane last weekend for birthday celebrations with friends, and was shocked when he was shunned from multiple venues.
He claimed that after he and a group of friends had been bowling earlier in the night, his night came to an abrupt end in the Valley precinct in the city.
The mullet-wearer explained:
They took my ID off me, scanned me and then security guard leaned over and said, ‘Oh I’m not allowed to let you in because of your mullet, it’s against the dress code’.
Nine NetworkGadsby explained how Retro’s Cocktail Lounge was the first to turn him away, followed by the RG, with staff from Retro’s failing to clarify their policy on hair while speaking to A Current Affair.
Initially they said they did have a strict dress code that included a hair policy, before going back on that and saying they didn’t have a hair policy and that it was at management’s discretion to ban anyone they wanted.
The man believes he was discriminated against because of his hair, claiming he wasn’t drunk and was well dressed at the time.
Lawyer Bill Potts said he’s never heard of a case like it, and urged venues not to go too far. ‘I can understand it if somebody is drunk or disorderly or violent but when we start entering into hair taste this is a whole new world,’ he said.
Nine NetworkRegardless, Gadsby said he won’t be cutting his mullet anytime soon – even if it means he won’t be able to go out with his mates for a while.
And if that isn’t dedication to the mullet cause, I don’t know what is.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).