The Fall of the Moustache

GoetzManor · Nov 8, 2016

As more of a social experiment, I decided to participate in Movember this year. I've never really worn just a mustache, but I wanted to see the reaction of my family and coworkers. Responses did not disappoint!

My mother, knowing nothing of Salvador Dalí other than "that weird mustache," remarked that I looked a little bit like him. I had to laugh at that one, because I assume she thinks that all mustaches are created equal! One coworker asked where my hard hat was. Another was unsure what to think because she didn't know "I had a chin." I usually keep a beard.

I personally don't dislike my mustache. I don't have the proper tools required to maintain it year round, but I wouldn't mind keeping a "thicker Vincent Price" if I did.

View media item 1068

jswindle2 · Nov 8, 2016

I've had no negative reaction to my moustache(to my knowledge) and I'd only give it a weak 8. As far as maintainance, I've only ever needed a blow dryer and a Kent moustache comb. I've had my mo since July 2015 and never trimmed it and only tried waxing once (rips out hairs). It's annoying on occasion,but I'd never shave it off unless it started falling out(I have mild Alopecia Barbara on my face). Shaving my face is no problem because I use a safety razor anyway and you have to take your time when using one. I've yet to screw up my lip. It's not hard to deal with. Not like the Van Dyke that I use to wear!

Edward · Nov 8, 2016

I've grown a tache twice. Once when I was nineteen (it lasted a month; I didn't like it), and again about three years ago, when I grew one in five days for a costume. I'm not a fan. My dad has always had a full bard; I think being clean-shaven, which I always assumed I would be when I "grew up", was in part my way of setting my own sensed of identity. Though little bro has a goatee now. I also find that a tache would interfere with a lot of costume stuff I do - and in any case, I suspect with a shaved head it would make me look "wannabe military", which is not a look for which I care.

Taches in London had a brief revival in the early days of the hipstrer thing - they're still popular among that crowd, though beards have become more common in the last few years. I'm sure facial hair will continue to go in and out of fashion as ever it did - the difference, of course, will be that it will never be quite so common again, imo, given that it is now very much a choice.

Inkstainedwretch · Nov 8, 2016

Question: Why are 1890s bartenders always burly, with hair on the top of their heads parted in the middle, shaved on the sides, with a handlebr mustache?

2jakes · Nov 8, 2016

Inkstainedwretch said:
Question: Why are 1890s bartenders always burly, with hair on the top of their heads parted in the middle, shaved on the sides, with a handlebr mustache?

Perhaps they were trying to pattern themselves like Mr. Hickock.

Nobert · Nov 8, 2016

One salient difference between the beard and the mustache: your ability to pull off a beard begins or ends with whether you can grow one. Following that, there are any number of sculptings and stylings that can work for you. Not every face can pull off a mustache. I happen to have a narrow face with a small, 'inverted vee' type mouth and an overall boyish look, except with male pattern baldness. All my attempts at stachery have met with nearly universal negative reviews. At best, I can manage a bristly, Thurber-esque toothbrush, but I may need for my face to age a bit more before that becomes viable.
Anyway, the mustache requires a lot of care, attention and maintenance, something that's hard to invest in unless you are a fussy, Belgian detective with borderline compulsive disorder.

LizzieMaine · Nov 8, 2016

Inkstainedwretch said:
Question: Why are 1890s bartenders always burly, with hair on the top of their heads parted in the middle, shaved on the sides, with a handlebr mustache?

"Hey, are you a bartender?"

"'Ja think I'm a cowboy?"

MisterCairo · Nov 9, 2016

Fading Fast said:
gay men (the Village People)

The Village People were gay?!?!?!

2jakes · Nov 9, 2016

MisterCairo said:
The Village People were gay?!?!?!

I had a great-aunt from Great Britain who would say it when referring to having a
joyous occasion.

2jakes · Nov 9, 2016

“Jake....are you a bartender ?"

" You see any saddle shoes on
my feet?"

KILO NOVEMBER · Nov 9, 2016

View attachment 59642

Trenchfriend said:
I would really wonder, if the mustache would come back in old Germany. The "US-motorpatrol cop with mustache-cliché" or Goose from TopGun comes to our mind, here and that probably killed the mustache more or less.

Hurricane Jack · Nov 9, 2016

LizzieMaine said:
"Hey, are you a bartender?"

"'Ja think I'm a cowboy?"

I always enjoy enlarging these old saloon pics & looking around at the fixtures & barware of the time.

Inkstainedwretch · Nov 9, 2016

Sitting on a shelf in my study I have a mustache mug from "Your Father's Mustache," a long-vanished pizza joint in New Orleans'French Quarter.

Hurricane Jack · Nov 9, 2016

Inkstainedwretch said:
Sitting on a shelf in my study I have a mustache mug from "Your Father's Mustache," a long-vanished pizza joint in New Orleans'French Quarter.

Nowadays the well groomed man just carries one of these in his pocket. Soft & flexible, one size fits most.

MisterGrey · Nov 9, 2016

Somehow, at some point, popular perception of the mustache split into two groups: The Tom Selleck 'Stache, and what was known at least in Texas circa the early 2000s as "the molester mustache." (The latter is, apparently, not an isolated term; I won't create any links here but Googling the phrase will give you more results than you care to get). I had no idea about the latter connotation until I decided to grow one in college; the rest of my face was still too patchy for a full beard and it seemed like a good way to create a "new me" and look more "manly." This was 2005, and the only other time I'd had the 'stache was when it first grew in high school a few years before, when there was nothing more associated with a mustache than "oh, dude, you can grow a mustache!"

It didn't take me long before classmates either began saying unflattering things about me, or friends asked me-- confused, trying to be helpful, or both-- why I wanted to look like a pedophile. At first I wrote it off as a weird anomaly, until time and experience taught me that this was not a perception held by a narrow group of people at my college. Away went the mustache.

I don't know if it's because I was much heavier at the time, or if perception has begun to change, but earlier this year I found myself not shaving for about a month during a strenuous move and job relocation. As a joke, I shaved off the beard but kept the mustache and sent the picture to my friends as an example of "what Fort Worth has done to me." I got a slew of porn star and cowboy jokes but no child molester remarks.

Bushman · Nov 9, 2016

MisterGrey said:
Somehow, at some point, popular perception of the mustache split into two groups: The Tom Selleck 'Stache, and what was known at least in Texas circa the early 2000s as "the molester mustache." (The latter is, apparently, not an isolated term; I won't create any links here but Googling the phrase will give you more results than you care to get). I had no idea about the latter connotation until I decided to grow one in college; the rest of my face was still too patchy for a full beard and it seemed like a good way to create a "new me" and look more "manly." This was 2005, and the only other time I'd had the 'stache was when it first grew in high school a few years before, when there was nothing more associated with a mustache than "oh, dude, you can grow a mustache!"

It didn't take me long before classmates either began saying unflattering things about me, or friends asked me-- confused, trying to be helpful, or both-- why I wanted to look like a pedophile. At first I wrote it off as a weird anomaly, until time and experience taught me that this was not a perception held by a narrow group of people at my college. Away went the mustache.

I don't know if it's because I was much heavier at the time, or if perception has begun to change, but earlier this year I found myself not shaving for about a month during a strenuous move and job relocation. As a joke, I shaved off the beard but kept the mustache and sent the picture to my friends as an example of "what Fort Worth has done to me." I got a slew of porn star and cowboy jokes but no child molester remarks.

In some ways, I've always somewhat placed blame on John Wayne Gacy for this mindset. He was a heavyset, small mustachioed man, and of course, an infamous child molester and murderer.

MisterGrey · Nov 10, 2016

Bushman said:
In some ways, I've always somewhat placed blame on John Wayne Gacy for this mindset. He was a heavyset, small mustachioed man, and of course, an infamous child molester and murderer.

Now that I think of it, you may be right. Even though he was arrested at a time when mustaches were somewhat of a cultural norm, he received the greatest amount of publicity in the late 80s and early 90s, a good decade after they'd been supplanted by Riker beards and clean-shaven faces. I can see older millennials latching onto exactly that image as their schema for "mustacheoid man."

On a slightly related topic, I once had an article published on my theory that Jeffrey Dahmer was ground-zero for aviator glasses being stigmatized as "serial killer glasses" for an entire generation... It would seem that when it comes to vintage acouttrements (as well as safe lives), serial killers are why we can't have nice things.

2jakes · Nov 10, 2016

“Aviator glasses”

I always think of this image.

I added the “stache”.
Looks good, makes him look a little like Gregory Peck.

MisterGrey · Nov 10, 2016

2jakes said:
“Aviator glasses”

I always think of this image.

I added the “stache”.
Looks good, makes him look a little like Gregory Peck.

Unfortunately I learned the hard way that most people see this:

Growing up in Oklahoma there were really only two optometrists in our part of town, and my family's happened to cater to an elderly clientele. It never seemed to click with anyone there that middle-aged adults had teenage children, and they only stocked frames considered fashionable for older folks. So I spent my high school years wearing a pair of frames just like Mr. Dahmer's. (It seemed, for a period, I couldn't win: If I had a mustache, people told me I looked like a pedophile. If I had no mustache, people told me I looked like a serial killer). What you have pictured, I discovered from my career in optics, are known by most people as "cop glasses" or "Top Gun Glasses."

Fortunately, it seems that the stigma against aviator eyeglasses is fading with their adoption by the hipster subculture. Everyone does something right at least once, I suppose. Though it seems I'm seeing many more 70s/80s style plastics selling than the Dahmer style metals.

2jakes · Nov 10, 2016

^^^^
By age 6 & starting school, it was evident I required eyewear.
In my area, what was only available was the plastic thick style like “Clark Kent”.

(Buddy Holly, who grew up in my neck of the woods.)
The photo on the far right is typical of my frustration for the fact that I wasn’t
able to grow a mustache.

The Fall of the Moustache

Familiar Face

One of the Regulars

One Too Many

I'll Lock Up

Practically Family

I'll Lock Up

I'll Lock Up

I'll Lock Up

One Too Many

One Too Many

Practically Family

I'll Lock Up

Practically Family

I'll Lock Up

Practically Family

I'll Lock Up

Similar threads

Log in

Forum statistics