Waverley College mullet ban: Students charged $20 for on-site haircuts

An all-boys school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has doubled down in its vendetta against Australia’s most iconic haircut.

An all-boys school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has doubled down in its vendetta against Australia’s most iconic haircut.

Per The Sydney Morning Herald, when term begins at Waverley College next week, students sporting “non-compliant” haircuts – namely, a mullet – will be invoiced for a trim on site.

Teens with mohawks, mullets, dreadlocks, buns or braids will be billed $20 and sent to a hairdresser stationed at the school. If they don’t like it, they’ll be sent home.

“If your son arrives at the college at the commencement of term 2 with a haircut that is not in line with college policy, he will either be sent home on his first day or we will have a hairdresser on site where he can receive a haircut at the cost of $20, charged to his school fees account,” deputy principal Gabby Smith told parents last week.

“Your son will be given a choice on this day and a note will be logged on his file. There will be no phone calls home.”

Students with ‘non-compliant’ haircuts at Sydney’s Waverley College will be invoiced for a trim on site. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The $22,555-a-year school’s long-running battle to get kids to comply with its uniform policy first made headlines in 2021, when it told students the mullet was banned.

“Waverley College has a uniform policy, which includes presentation standards such as appropriate hairstyles,” it said in a statement at the time.

“Just as many workplaces have expectations of presentation, the College expects its students to adhere to a dress code that includes neat hair.

“Part of maturing in life is to know that rules, guidelines, and expectations are necessary for growth – even when these might not align with our personal preferences.

“So while personal expression, fun and creativity are important parts of who we all are, it needs to fit within the bounds of what is acceptable and required of us. Student hairstyles fit within this principle.”

The school first banned the iconic hairstyle in 2021.

Other offending hairstyles subject to the policy include undercuts, dramatic layering, overuse of product, tinting, colouring, braids, tracks (shapes cut into the hair), lines or strands of hair (presumably rat tails).

Owner of nearby Coogee Saint Barbershop, Andres Munoz, told the Herald he doesn’t agree with the mullet ban. “I think if you have one, it should be maintained and well groomed, as it was [with] any other cut,” he said.

Child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, meanwhile, praised the school for actually bringing in a hairdresser – saying it showed it did not shy away from setting clear boundaries.

“Congratulations to Waverley for giving the students warning, and enforcing the rules in policy,” he said.

“The position they’re presenting to the customers, who are the parents, is that we have values, traditions and customs which distinguish ourselves from other schools.”