It’s a guy thing: To mo or not to mo?

I am writing this article with a little green-eyed monster sitting on my shoulder.

I am one of those guys in his late twenties who can’t grow decent facial hair. I grow rabbit fluff, a soft, sparsely spread of hair which looks more like a Nesquick chocolate spread across my lips than anything else – and the thought of that on my face for a month just offends me and possibly many others who look at me on a daily basis.

Because of this I feel rather left out, like the kid who never gets picked for one of the teams on the school playground.

I have had to come to terms with the fact that Elvis type sideburns, a Hercule Poirot moustache or a Grizzly Adams beard will never be something I can sport, which saddens me deeply!

In actual fact I have dated women who would be better candidates for Movember than I will ever be.

Nevertheless, if I could, I would and I do support the fantastic cause that ‘Movemberists’ are taking part in.

The question that has been running around in my mind is what happened to the moustache over the years.

During the Victorian and Edwardian periods most males had either a beard or a moustache, or both, and it was usually culturally associated with wisdom and virility.

When the First World war began it was compulsory for all British officers to sport a moustache. However that was revoked in 1916 because the new recruits were so young that some could not rustle up more than a thin, mousy streak.

In the years between the wars the respectability of the moustache went out the window and the wearer was seen as the type of person you would not leave your girlfriend alone with. Surprisingly, after WW2 it enjoyed a resurgence and was seen as a symbol of calm responsibility.

Then the flower power era saw the hippie guys hijacking the mo temporarily to latch it onto their sixties ‘sidies’ (sideburns).

Today most of us prefer to stay smooth, although teenage boys will attempt a wispy beard as a rite of passage, but the resulting peachy fluff barely warrants shaving into a moustache. Young men prefer full beards or stylised stubble that suggest they have gone straight into work from a night out partying and clubbing.

But like most trends in fashion the moustache has had its time and its unlikely that it will make a comeback anytime soon – not that many of us will miss it terribly.

So gentleman enjoy this month. For many of us, excluding me obviously, its the only time we can exhibit our wisdom and virility.