The sad and curious exile of the American mustache

Boston Globe ^ | October 11, 2009 | Wesley Morris

[GQuagmire]

...What happened? For the past 20 years, a parade of facial hair has taken root on the faces of movie stars and American men - sideburns, the three-day beard, the chinstrap, the soul patch. The goatee returned from the 19th century and seemingly brought eight cousins with it. But the mustache? As far as pop culture is concerned, the mustache remains trapped in the land of porn and irony.

[SuziQ]

SirKit got a bad sunburn on his face about a month before our second child was born, 27 years ago. He couldn’t shave for a week or two, then just decided to let it grow, and has had it ever since. I like his mustache and beard!

[Tribune7]

[Jagdgewehr]

Proudly sporting mine since 1977.

[Glenn]

the soul patch

Back in the day, we called it a "jazz dot".

[altair]

I’ve tried growing facial hair. It looks bad on me. It also interferes with kissing people with sensitive skin like Mrs. Altair. Given a choice between Mrs. Altair or a mustache, I’ll take Mrs. Altair, thanks.

[In The Defense of Liberty]

Thanks, love. My wife likes it, so it stays.

[In The Defense of Liberty]

Umm... you're kidding, I hope?

[grey_whiskers]

NO, it's the twinkle in the eyes -- you needed to have seen him in the 70's, his moustache was bigger then...

No offense intended, I meant it as a complement.

Cheers!

[Don W]

The way Hitler wore his retardostache did not survive.

Not true! *I* trimmed my mustache to the exact dimensions of a "hitler" 'stache when the "fitment" officer at my hospital refused to even attempt a seal test on my respirator unless I "trimmed" my 'stache to his standards.

I did so, and every time he asked me to do anything before, during and after the fit testing, I clicked my heels and said "JAWOHL!!"

He hasn't even asked for me to be fit tested in the 7 years since.

[smokingfrog]

[smokingfrog]

Austin Texas is a hipster ghetto? Ha!
You can’t believe anything this guy says.

[Genflag]

I was actually in a civil war play this summer, and next semester I'm going to be in a college film of Beowulf but set in a small southern town after the Spanish-American War. Here's what I looked like back in May