The mullet makes perfect sense — short on top, long in the back. It’s utilitarian and, at the same time, rebellious.

Why, then, does the mere mention of the mullet elicit such contorted expressions? Why do some hairstylists refuse to give mullets? And remember when Michael Bolton snipped off his long hind locks in ’98? He was awarded "best hair comeback" by Rogaine.

A new book — The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods (Bloomsbury), by Mark Larson and Barney Hoskyns — attempts to make sense of this follicular phenomenon.

The mullet is not a product of the ’80s, though that decade produced many fine specimens (see Limahl of Kajagoogoo, any member of Duran Duran, Lionel Richie). According to the authors, the curious hairstyle dates back to Neanderthal man.

The authors call attention to drawings of early man "as a scantily clad savage with an unmistakable short-on-top-but-long-and-scraggly-at-the-back ’do." The style was pragmatic, the authors note — short in the front keeps the hair out of the eyes, long in the back warms the neck.

The style took on many incarnations throughout history — Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Vikings wore mullets in varying degrees of curliness, neatness, messiness, whatever. But with the onset of the Victorian era, when high collars came into vogue, the mullet disappeared.

With the exception of David Bowie’s 1970s hot red Ziggy mullet, it wasn’t until the 1980s that the style resurfaced in large numbers. In fact, the authors note, the ’80s spawned a "mullet explosion" — every glam rocker, kraut rocker, new waver, soap star and athlete sported a mullet.

No one really knows how the style got its name. A mullet is actually a type of fish, but the authors guess that perhaps it stems from the French word mulet, which means "dim," or from the 19th-century slang term "mullethead," which meant "fool." The style is also known by many other names: the fe-mullet, mud flap, neck blanket, hockey head, ape drape — the list goes on.

Nowadays, the mullet is embraced somewhat ironically by "hipsters." The Beastie Boys penned an ode to the mullet in ’94, "Mullet Head." Web sites dedicated to the mullet abound. And some men, such as Space 1026 artists Andrew Jeffrey Wright and Ben Woodward, have intentionally cut their hair short on top and long in the back as a sociological/artistic study.

Wright, who has had about four intentional mullets (he had a few in junior high, but he says they were unconscious ’dos), enjoys seeing people’s varied reactions.

Wright and Woodward almost always take pictures of their mullets. Wright describes his most recent mullet as "super redneck."

Interestingly, some of his friends said nothing about his hair. They didn’t know if he was kidding or not.

Wright doesn’t see the mullet coming back in fashion any time soon — unless, of course, someone on Friends gets one.