Comments on: A Treatise on the Mustache

By: Dylan

Dylan — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:24:44 +0000

I have recently forgone the full berd in favor of a handlebar, and the resulting compliments have been great. Keeping the chin and cheeks smooth has also gone over quite well with my special lady friend.

By: JG

JG — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:20:08 +0000

You men are lucky. I can’t grow a stache. I have a bald spot between the nostrils of my nose. If I let my hair grow, then it looks ridiculous.

Oh well. Clean shaven I shall remain.

By: LMCA

LMCA — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:18:44 +0000

Sweet almond oil is supposed to be good for growing hair.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:47:52 +0000

I like being able to take the last sips of anything liquid in my diet straight from my mustache. Although there are foods I’ve had to give up for the sake of a manstache.

By: Allen

Allen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:05:04 +0000

I have a full handlebar. It will be one year old the day after Christmas. I love it. I teach middle school, and it is the envy of all the boys. Like others, I don’t care what other people think. Most women (including my wife) hate it, men love it. I do it in protest of modern mediocrity.

By: Mad Mike

Mad Mike — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:54:24 +0000

Ive done just the “stache”, the van dike (aka stache with a soup catcher) and the full Go-tee.. And I always seem to go back to the full Goat.. whether it personally fits my face / personality or not It just feels right.. I think the Go-tee shows the wisdom and experience of a man without the barbaric look of a full beard..

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:47:09 +0000

Sporting a mustache for at least a few months should be a right of passage.

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:32:15 +0000

I’m 40 and have an old fashioned handlebar moustache. I used to wax it, but it’s gotten trained now so that I just curl it to the desired diameter and hit it with a hair dryer in the morning for a minute and it stays put all day. I started growing it a few years back an homage to a gentleman here in town who passed away, a nice man I worked with for a short stint. Now I just keep it because I’m a bloody oddball and don’t give a fudge what anybody else thinks. Yeah, I wear suspenders and a Homburg hat, and am an inch away from wearing a bowtie. I’ve even pissed of one of the gals at work who accosted me at something-Mart saying my handlebars looked terrible. I simply told her “I’m not growing it for you to like”.

Like Brew said, if you’re going to grow anything, let it grow and resist the urge to trim it. You can trim away, but it takes time to grow back. So you want to start with “too much” then trim away everything that doesn’t look like a moustache. Also ditto on the pipe. Good pipe tobaccos don’t have additives in them, you don’t inhale, and they scent the moustache nicely. Don’t overwash your moustache with soap or you’ll wash away all of the follicular oils and have hair loss.

Remember it was Jack Kennedy who killed the dress hat and Mark McGuire who inspired the horrid looking goatee. If you like the look of the moustache, then wear it, and don’t give a fudge what the “norm” is.

By: Romeo Marafiote

Romeo Marafiote — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:16:49 +0000

At the tender age of 77 I’m once again growing a well trimmed (shaped, grey, beard). My wife likes it (looks sophisticated {her words, not mine}). I trim it and shape it with adjustable electric and safety razors. I’m retired. My job was as a U.S. and regional sales manager for an office machine manufacturer. I wore the beard through-out my working career. I’m 5′ 6″ tall (short?). By the way, I went to barbers school. and had a barbers liscense .

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:37:38 +0000

Yes, the fashion comes and goes, and it’s affected by what’s (and who’s) in the news. Villainous mobsters with facial hair leads to suspicion of those with facial hair.

As to “America not existing until after the fashion of shaving,” I’d encourage you to explore the expansive presence of Civil War facial hair. You’ll note that pretty much all of the great Civil War leaders sported impressive whiskers, and Burnsides lent his name.

Finally, on the “silly sounding” question of conditioning your whiskers, what’s silly about it? It’s hair. Try washing your hair for a week with Dial or Irish Spring, and see if your intimate friend finds the texture of it appealing. Likely not, because the drying effect of basic soap on your hair leaves it feeling like straw.

Even if you don’t expressly *condition* your hair or beard, consider washing your face with the soap you use on your body (if you use your bath soap on your face), then, when you shampoo your hair, shampoo your beard, too. You’ll find that even common, economical shampoos have enough conditioners to help, and they are designed to lay down your hair cuticles to soften and smooth the hairs. They’ll do likewise for your facial hair. It’ll tickle/itch you and your partner less.

And if you’re in the process of growing it out, you’ll find that facial moisturizers (you do moisturize, right?), even simple aloe vera gel, worked into your beard once or twice a day will make the interim stubble more bearable.

I generally keep my beard (whatever shape it’s in at the moment) trimmed to about a 3 guard (3/8″), which is enough to see the fullness, but I have, at times, let it grow out to full “Yukon Cornelius” proportions. It’s interesting to note how the growth time and exposure to sunlight will change the predominant color.