A raucous Copenhagen crowd cheers Denmark’s 2026 Mullet Championship

COPENHAGEN (AP) — Business in the front, party in the back.

A packed Danish crowd celebrated on Saturday the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle, defined by very short hair at the front and longer hair at the back.

Denmark’s raucous 2026 Mullet Championship, presented on an outdoor stage in central Copenhagen, attracted 12 well-coiffed competitors and more than a thousand spectators to the evening’s “mane” event.

Organizer Steffen Stiw Weber, a 37-year-old electrician, said the championships, now in their fourth year, began after he had a hair transplant and chose to grow out a mullet.

After realizing he couldn’t compete in a mullet competition in the United States because he wasn’t a U.S. citizen, Stiw Weber started his own in Denmark.

“I was like, OK, I have to do it on my own here in Denmark,” he said while smiling.

Competitors in Saturday’s championships were evaluated on their cuts’ style, uniqueness, and overall performance and “mullet moves,” explained judge Bobby Agren.

Contestants were given 60 seconds each to perform on stage to showcase their cuts.

“I like the finesse, the twist, the nostalgia. I like it if it looks ridiculous or maybe ugly in a beautiful way,” said Agren, who owns two hair salons in Copenhagen.

“I think in our culture, when everything must … be perfect on social media and everything like that, I think that’s why people have to stand out from the crowd,” said Stiw Weber.

The event featured an array of over-the-top performances, including beer-swilling, body-popping, and a live saxophone show. One competitor even wore a mullet haircut styled to resemble the Danish flag.

The crowd screamed and chanted with their energy seemingly feeding directly into the various performers on stage.

After every performance, judges held up scorecards to distribute points to the competitors.

Forty-three-year-old construction worker Thomas Berg eventually took home the top prize after wowing judges by frantically jumping on a trampoline while clad in neon green gym wear. He completed his mullet haircut with an orange headband. “I think it’s just funny. It’s just a big party,” said a smiling Berg after collecting his prize. “It’s just nice to be a bit outside the box.”

Though mullets have likely been around longer than there have been barbers, the Oxford English Dictionary cites hip-hop legends the Beastie Boys for helping popularize the term mullet with the song “Mullet Head” on their 1994 recording “Ill Communication.”

The short-in-the-front, long-in-the-back coiffure was popularized by ice hockey players and ’80s musicians, but later fell out of favor.

Fashion magazine Vogue reportedly once described the mullet as “history’s most divisive hairstyle.”

But in recent years, the mullet has seen a global resurgence — British magazine i-D declared 2020 “the year of the mullet” as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered hair salons and lockdown-weary citizens let their locks flow.

Numerous mullet competitions are now staged around the world. Belgium hosted the European Mullet Cup last month.

“It comes back every 20-30 years. There’s always a circular motion in fashion,” said Agren, the Denmark mullet competition judge.

Competitor Aksel Toft points to his mullet, styled to resemble the Danish flag, at Denmark's Mullet Championship in central Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Competitor Martin Sedolf performs as character pro wrestler "Benny Bacchus", at Denmark's Mullet Championship in central Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Competitors at Denmark's Mullet Championship in Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Judges hold scorecards at Denmark's Mullet Championship in central Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

A competitor looks on during Denmark's Mullet Championship, in Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

An attendee at Denmark's Mullet Championship looks on in Copenhagen, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/James Brooks)

Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of the Northern Hemisphere as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the human body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show.

It attacks the body immediately, spiking asthma cases with increased ambulance runs within hours, swamps emergency rooms in a day or so with people suffering from heart attacks and other cardiovascular and lung issues, as well as mental health issues, doctors and scientists told The Associated Press.

Smoke also harms pregnant women, increasing the risk of premature births and low-weight babies who could have breathing problems the rest of their lives, doctors and studies say. And then there are long-term risks connecting prolonged smoke and other air pollution exposure to some cancers and dementia.

After huge global fires in 2018 and 2019, the medical and science communities started looking at the health effects from the smoke with “more and more studies coming out finding that there’s all types of impacts that may not have been so obvious before,” said Dr. Mary Johnson, a Harvard School of Public Health environmental health scientist.

Smoke causes inflammation by triggering the body's immune system to go into overtime to fight the irritant. Scientists have found it can harm the brain, the skin and men's sperm, with almost no system of the body spared, Johnson said. People over 60 become more prone to stroke in wildfire smoke, she said.

“Wildfire smoke is the toxic product of combustion of whatever burned,” which could include houses and cars, said Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency room physician, chair of the Global Climate and Health Alliance and president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association.

“So really it's a big giant toxic soup of particles and gases.”

Scientists have counted at least 1,000 toxins in wildfire smoke, according to Colorado State University environmental toxicologist Luke Montrose.

“If I gave you a list, you would recognize some of these as being very bad, oftentimes associated with the burning of diesel fuel or cigarette smoke, things like formaldehyde or volatile organic compounds,” Montrose said. “So just the smoke itself can be bad.”

So far this year, more than 5,740 square miles (more than 14,860 square kilometers) of the United States has burned from wildfires, which is 31% more than the average of the previous 10 years on this date, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The amount of U.S. land burned each year in the 2020s — averaged out over a decade — is now more than twice what it was 30 years ago.

Europe saw a record high amount of land burned in 2025, Canada has had several record or near-record fire years in the 2020s and the Arctic recently has had unprecedented levels of burning.

“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense because of climate change, and when a fire happens, you have smoke,” said Colleen Reid, a University of Colorado geographic health professor.

Most of the biggest particles in wildfire smoke fall close to where a blaze is burning, while the smallest particles — the ones that scientists say do the most damage — travel the farthest. In a typical wildfire, the nasty particles that harm human health are about the size of one micron, Reid said.

First those particles have to get by your body's protection, mainly nose hairs and mucus, then they get into your lungs and from there the bloodstream.

Montrose said the particles can be coated in lots of chemicals and have large surface areas. That triggers the body's defense system to “send signals to other cells that say, ‘We have a problem. We need to mount an immune response to this.’ And that’s where you get your acute effect or your effect within minutes, hours or even that day.” It's mostly happening in the hearts and lungs, he said.

And many people die.

On average 24,100 people died each year in the Lower 48 states between 2006 and 2020 due to long-term exposure to tiny particles from wildfire smoke, according to a study this year in the journal Science Advances. A Stanford study projects that U.S. wildfire smoke deaths will increase with climate change and by midcentury hit an annual cost of $244 billion in terms of the economic value the government puts on each life.

On a global scale, wildfire smoke particles cause 677,745 deaths annually, with almost 39% of them children under age 5, according to a 2021 study that combined observations, studies on how the body responds to the particles and computer models to calculate the toll.

The biggest nonlethal effects have to do with the way people breathe, especially those with asthma.

“We did a study here in 2014 after we had about two-and-a-half months of smoke off and on, because we’re in the subarctic so we’re warming at triple the global rate, so in a way we’re kind of canaries in the coal mine of the health impacts of climate change,” Howard said on a clear day from Yellowknife, Canada. “We found a full doubling of emergency department visits for asthma and about 50% increase in pneumonia.”

“Even in individuals that don’t have asthma, the air can be so irritating that you could have difficulty with your respiratory system regardless,” Johnson said, “whether it’s coughing, whether it's chest tightness, whether it’s sore throat, headache.”

Studies have linked smoke to people having more trouble with decision making and other cognitive issues. People come to the emergency room depressed, Howard said. That's why it's important to find a place with clean air — including designated shelters or libraries — to get a break from the smoke and possibly exercise, she said.

Experts suggest people wear high-quality masks when outdoors, even though they don't provide perfect protection. Inside, check windows and doors for seals, invest in a good ventilation system and check air filters, they say.

“Staying away from the smoke is No. 1 if you can,” Johnson said.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

A child looks out from the observation deck of the CN Tower as smoke from wildfires in Northwestern Ontario blankets the city of Toronto, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (Cole Burston/The Canadian Press via AP)

Michael Lesperance weeds his driveway wearing a mask during poor air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Grosse Pointe Park, Mich.. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The New York City skyline is seen through a cover of wildfire smoke, in Jersey City, N.J., Friday, July 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

The sun is obscured by wildfire smoke as it rises behind the Marine Corps War Memorial, Friday, July 17, 2026, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The sun is obscured by wildfire smoke as people run in front of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Friday, July 17, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

The Statue of Liberty stands during sunset as smoke from wildfires blankets the sky, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

National Guardsmen patrol the Lincoln Memorial as the sun, obscured by wildfire smoke, rises above the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool, Friday, July 17, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Jimmy Tyner walks along the Detroit River during poor air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

A person wearing a mask walks in Times Square as smoke from wildfires blankets the sky, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Hazy skies from Canadian wildfires cover Silver Beach and Lake Michigan, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in St. Joseph, Mich. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

Pedestians cross Borden Avenue as the New York City skyline is obscured during poor air quality due to smoke from Canadian wildfires Thursday, July 16, 2026, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

A person looks out a window at the Top of the Rock Observation Deck as wildfire smoke hangs over New York, Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

People look over the New York City skyline shrouded in smoke in Weehawken, N.J., Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)