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HARRISBURG, Pa. — <\/span>A contest that celebrates the much-maligned but enduring mullet hairstyle will get underway Monday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.<\/p>\n The short-in-the-front, long-in-the-back coiffure, once the province of Canadian hockey players and hair metal bands, was expected to attract dozens of competitors for the day’s \u201cmane\u201d attraction. Categories included children under 5, throwback mullets and the patriotic Flow of Freedom Award.<\/p>\n Ben Barley, 7, of Red Lion, Pennsylvania, arrived at the event with his parents two hours ahead of the event wearing a T-shirt featuring his name and the words \u201cMULLET LIFE 6-7,\u201d a nod to both his hairstyle and the bafflingly popular youth catchphrase.<\/a> He said he’d been working on his mullet for two years.<\/p>\n Though mullets likely have 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 \u201cMullet Head\u201d on their 1994 recording, \u201cIll Communication.\u201d As the venerable dictionary notes, it’s a term that is slang, humorous \u201cand frequently derogatory.\u201d<\/p>\n The contest, in its third year, is one of the few at the fair open to people who live outside Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n