Simple beard styles. How to grow a mustache,

I’d Lather Be Shaving is the latest from Douglas Smythe and Matt Pisarcick (Razor Emporium). For those who can’t seem to get enough wet shaving content this is for you! Now you can poor a cup of coffee and do breakfast with the boys every Friday morning with each new weekly episode…a highly entertaining/educational way […] How to grow a curly mustache.

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November, a time for turkey, pilgrims, maize, football, parades and moustaches. Moustaches? Absolutely, and we are not talking about the stache worn by crazy, manboy uncle Steve at Thanksgiving Dinner. We speak of cultivating your own flavor savor and using it for something good and honorable…like creating awareness around men’s health issues and collecting […]

Greeting Folks! It’s that time of year again and we need your help once more…all of you! Movember has made it even easier for those that want to participate but can’t grow a tache…yeah, that’s right! So please take a moment and check out our HTGAM Movember Team Site to see how you can help […]

Welcome to Episode 17! Hey folks, well the boys are back and just in time! There has been a lot of things going on in our little corner of the internet, affectionately called by most, Shavedom. As of recently Shave Revolution just closed after almost 2 years in business, saddening and confusing most of us. […]

Ahh, sweet vanity, how we all at some level, succumb to thee. I love my facial hair and I am assuming you do as well since you are reading this article…that is, your own facial hair and not mine. Unless this is Troy – If this is Troy, BACK OFF ALREADY! Is a restraining […]

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This week on Moustache & Blade Episode 34 we are finally getting to chat with Leisureguy Michael Ham. When it comes to wet shaving proper, Michael Ham practically wrote the book on it…oh wait, he did!In this interview Michael Ham, author of “Leisureguy’s Guide to Gourmet Shaving” breaks down many of the do’s and don’ts, dispels myths that have […]

Why Grow A Moustache?

Until recently, the moustache was a relic of its time. A trend started by King Charles in the early 1600s, rakish whiskers once adorned the faces of men across the globe, reaching their heyday in the 1930s and ‘40s, with leading men such as Clark Gable and Errol Flynn opting for one both on-screen and off. Spurred by Hollywood and the appeal of the armed forces — British troops were at one point all required to sport one as part of their uniform — the look filtered down to the general public, coming to represent hardy masculinity and a certain suavity.

But along with the monocle, bowler hat and cane — items that were immensely popular in their own right once upon a time — the moustache fell out of favour in the 1980s, having been hijacked by the adult film industry. Soon enough it was seen as quaint, unnecessary and at best creepy, which begs the question as to why you’d want to grow one today. Well, like with fashion trends such as the cross body bag and bucket hat, the moustache is trending unexplainably.

Perhaps it’s down to stylised films such as The Nice Guys or Netflix’s Narcos, or maybe because of the new wave of actors who’ve adopted them – Henry Cavill, James Franco; we blame you. Either way, it’s won over the style set and is now creeping down the high street, one wisp of hair at a time. So don’t let your lip get left behind.

What is the Handlebar Mustache

This mustache type is one of the most easily recognized facial hair styles on the planet.

The ends of the mustache are twisted and styled far past the outer edges of the lips, resembling the handlebars of a motorcycle or a bicycle.

If the ends of the mustache are not styled and groomed properly, they tend to drop down and give the appearance of the Fu Manchu style.

By stiffening the mustache with a variety of grooming products and accessories like mustache combs, you can sculpt, twist, and curl your mustache in the desired way.

Our choice for a mustache comb:Kent 81T Handmade Moustache Comb

Depending on your genes and commitment to growing the mustache, you can even grow them several inches past the edges of the mouth.

The longer the hair is allowed to grow, the more robust and curvy the end of the handlebar will appear.

The History of the Handlebar Mustache and Beard

This particular mustache style has in fact been very popular for many centuries.

It was during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries that the handlebar mustache drew the widest public acceptance.

During Edwardian and Victorian eras, many men would ask the local barbers to use a stiffening agent to help them make their mustache look like a handlebar.

Fast-forward to modern times, the handlebar ‘stache is often associated with the barbershop quartet or barkers at a traveling circus.

This facial hair style has seemed many resurgences in popularity, especially in the 1970s when several well-known athletes sported it.

Handlebar moustache and beard styles

Rollie Fingers was notably the most widely recognized baseball pitcher of that decade who wore his mustache in the handlebar style.

Mustache Styles and Types

Now that you have all the information you need to begin your journey to epic mustache mastery, there is something you need to understand.

Men who come in contact with you now will find your mustache awe-inducing. Not only will these guys comment on your mustache, they will also stand back in amazement.

Good To Know: Beards From a Woman’s Perspective

Women over sixty will reminisce about how you remind them of their old boyfriends.

Teen girls will treat you like a celebrity and will want to post pictures of your mustache on their Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram pages.

Enjoy all the attention guys, but don’t forget to oil your facial hair regularly with some premium quality beard oil or trim it occasionally with a high-end trimmer to keep it look neat and tidy at all times.

Photos from: khosrork / depositphotos.com, Martin Haas © 123RF.com, Igor Stepovik © 123RF.com, Gleb TV © and wernerimages © 123RF.com.

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What Famous People Wear the Chevron?

We’ve mentioned Tom Selleck and his unforgettable Chevron. But the late rock star Freddie Mercury also had an excellent Chevron, as have many others.

Freddie MercurySource: http://www.vulture.com

Back to:

Robert Baden-Powell

The founder of the world Scouting movement wore a dashingly bushy mustache for much of his life. It might take you more than the month of November to achieve a thick ‘stache like Baden-Powell’s. And while it could be tempting not to touch your facial hair while it grows out, it is important to keep your hair well kept.

Staff at Boy Scout high adventure camps are reminded to make sure their hair is “clean, neatly trimmed and shows evidence of good grooming.”

A Scout is clean in all aspects of life. To quote Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys handbook: “Scouts are always tidy, whether in camp or not, as a matter of habit. If you are not tidy at home, you won’t be tidy in camp; and if you’re not tidy in camp, you will only be a tenderfoot and no scout.”

Daniel Carter Beard

Technically, the rules of Movember call for men to only grow mustaches. However, another similar awareness campaign this month accommodates those who would like to grow beards, too: No Shave November. And if you’d like to sprout some hair around your cheeks and chin, why not style your beard after a Scouting founder named Beard?

“Uncle Dan,” as he was known to boys and leaders, helped form Scouting in the U.S., designing the original Scout uniform and introducing elements of the First Class badge.

Like Baden-Powell, Beard maintained a similar look during his Scouting days, sporting a white goatee. The bearded look can appear a little more rugged than just a mustache, fitting in well with the pioneering spirit Beard instilled into Scouting.

William Howard Taft

America’s 27th President served as the BSA’s first honorary president, a tradition still practiced today. One tradition that didn’t continue though was presidential facial hair. Taft was our last U.S. President to sport facial hair, and while it is true President Harry S. Truman did grow a few whiskers while on vacation, the look didn’t compare to Taft’s magnificent handlebar.

Taft’s presidency lasted from 1909 to 1913 during Scouting’s infancy in the U.S.

“I am very glad to give my sympathy and support to such a movement as this,” Taft said of Scouting. “Anything that directs the boy’s spirit in the right channel for usefulness and for the making of manly men should be encouraged.”

Taft wasn’t the only mustachioed U.S. president that was involved in Scouting. His predecessor, Theodore Roosevelt, served as BSA’s honorary vice president and Chief Scout Citizen. Roosevelt served as a troop committee member and council commissioner in New York.

Ernest Thompson Seton

The Boy Scout Handbook‘s first author wore an impressive mustache. Seton sometimes had a full-bodied ‘stache that appeared similar to actor Sam Elliott’s look in the movie Tombstone. Other times, it was quite neat and fashioned into a perfect handlebar.

Growing mustache over lip

Seton had a strong interest in the outdoors and established youth organizations in 1902 and in 1921 to share that interest with boys and girls. He served as Chief Scout of the BSA and incorporated many of Scouting’s traditions.

In addition to the Boy Scout Handbook, Seton penned dozens of books and stories. His personal collection is housed at the Seton Memorial Library at Philmont Scout Ranch.

Charles L. Sommers

You might recognize the name from the BSA’s canoe base in Minnesota. Sommers, who often wore what’s called a Chevron mustache, was a Silver Buffalo recipient in 1930.

A business executive, Sommers was also a member of the BSA’s National Executive Board, a Board of Regents member at the University of Minnesota and was instrumental in bringing Scouting opportunities to boys in his area.

The canoe base in Ely, Minnesota, bore his name after a lodge was built in the 1940s. Sommers was an avid canoe trip organizer and participant and was the first chairman of Region X Canoe Trails. The base welcomes more than 4,000 Scouts each year for wilderness treks in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

William D. Boyce

The founder of the Boy Scouts of America also wore a Chevron-style mustache. A Chevron mustache is described as a basic mustache that grows above one’s upper lip, stopping at the edge of the mouth.

Other styles of mustaches include the handlebar, which curls at the ends; the horseshoe, that grows around the mouth and down; the pencil, which is very thin; and the walrus, a very thick mustache that covers the upper lip (and maybe the lower lip depending on how ambitious its wearer is).

Boyce incorporated the BSA in 1910 after a trip to London, where he was helped by a Scout who refused a tip for doing a Good Turn. The gesture inspired Boyce to bring Scouting to America.

Edward Urner Goodman

Another classic Chevron mustache, here worn by the co-creator of the Order of the Arrow.

Goodman not only helped create the OA along with Carroll Edson in 1915, but he served as the BSA national program director for two decades during the 1930s and 1940s. He expanded Scouting training programs, writing the Leaders Handbook. He also oversaw the publication of Boy Scout handbooks and the first Field Book.

The Order of the Arrow has more than 170,000 members nationwide.

Related

Follicle the Cycle*

If mustaches are so powerful, why are they maligned as an unwelcome throwback to the 80s? Or dismissed as a frivolous side effect of ‘No Shave November’ and ‘Movember’ (depends on where in the world you’re not shaving)?

Face fashions – the 50s, 70s, 90s and finally: Peak Beard

Fashion cycles affect facial hair as much as anything else – at Time magazine Dan Stewart considers the rise and fall of facial hair and contemplates with sadness the arrival of ‘peak beard’: the point at which more men have beards than don’t.

With Tim Ford producing a grooming comb for facial hair and predictions of the fall of the beard being accompanied by the rise of the mustache, it’s time to take a hard look at what the mustache has to offer.

How to Choose a Mustache

As a beard can do wonders to redefine your face, so too a moustache can add amazing character and balance to your features.

The proper mustache style can minimize large features, or accentuate and extend smaller ones.

Weight

The bushiness and vertical height of the mustache. A weighty mustache will add volume to the top lip: great for adding proportion to your face, or minimizing a large nose.

Direction

Is the mustache generally horizontal or vertical? Narrow faces won’t be helped by a Horseshoe mustache (think Hulk Hogan), but can benefit tremendously from Handlebar or English mustaches that break up the vertical lines of the face with some horizontal action.

A wide mustache will broaden the mouth and nose, and a narrow mustache will do the opposite. Take a look in the mirror and imagine what will work best for you.

Let’s take a look at a few examples to illustrate these points.

Superpower Mustaches In Action

Now that we’ve been over the basics of choosing a mustache style for your face, here are some excellent examples you may be familiar with.

Goatee and mustache name

The Mustache Master – Naked

The most famous mustache man of all – Tom Selleck. We see here that without his legendary whiskers he once again looks just like an ordinary guy. How does the famous ‘stache work its magic?

In our first picture, notice the distance between the bottom of his chin and his bottom lip. Now look at the distance between his nose and his top lip – the difference is huge!

Let’s look at the second picture. The mustache adds weight to his top lip and makes the distance between his nose and top lip similar to that of his chin and bottom lip. It adds balance and harmony to his face, and more imortantly, made Magnum P.I. possible.

The Longest Face in Tinsel Town

Whatever you think of him, the gleefully wicked Sacha Baron Cohen (Aka Borat, Bruno, etc.) has consistently used facial hair to his advantage. It’d be easy to focus on the Borat persona with the legendary mustache, but instead let’s take a look at some of his lesser known roles.

Baron-Cohen is not by any means a conventionally handsome fellow. He has large lips, a big nose and a very long face. The perfect antidote to all this is the handsome mustache he wore in Hugo, as the Station Inspector.

The Station Inspector’s mustache breaks up Baron-Cohen’s long face, balances his nose making it look less obtrusive, and draws attention away from his narrow but full-lipped mouth.

Now take Baron-Cohen’s role in Sweeny Todd – that tiny little pencil mustache makes him look ridiculous, which is OK, since his character is supposed to be ridiculous as well.

The Pirate Goes Overboard With a Handlebar

Hugh Jackman, being an Aussie, would refer to this as a Mo, although an appendage as sinister as this deserves a better name than that.

Jackman’s features are fairly regular, so we can see the effect an over-sized mustache can have.

This monster of a Handlebar he’s sporting for his pirate flick broadens his mouth and gives the impression that he’s wearing an eternal leer. With the shaved head, there’s nothing to look at other than the mustache, sending it into the realm of caricature. This is great for filming, but a bit much for everyday wear.

Just a Regular Guy

But we don’t have to confine ourselves to Holloywood.

Meet Rand Fishkin – famous among online marketers, but most folk won’t know him. He’s an interesting example to follow after Hugh Jackman, because he has basically the same mustache and beard style, but wears it in a way that adds fantastic character to his face without going overboard.

Here we can see a beard and Handlebar mustache filling out his face and adding a load of dapper character. The Handlebar mustache makes his mouth appear wider and the beard adds volume to his jaw. The whole ensemble is balanced nicely with a classic short back & sides.

Let’s take a look at some mustache styles and see if you can find something you like.

Final Thoughts

That just about wraps up our mustache extravaganza.

As we’ve seen a mustache can add a ton of style when the right style is added to the right face, and we think that it has a lot to offer outside of Movember.

Do you see yourself growing a mustache anytime soon? Why? Or why not? Let us know in the comments below.