Movember: A hairy situation
Men’s health charity celebrates mustaches in annual event to raise money, awareness
It’s the time of year when things get hairy.
Specifically, woolly caterpillars are about to bloom above the lips of millennial men participating in the annual Movember charity movement: They grow facial hair to raise funds for men’s health. And that’s cool. Charity is cool. But mustaches? I’m sorry, I don’t get it. I never had a thing for ’80s-era cops, and Hulk Hogan gives me the willies. Plus, am I the only one who can’t help seeing ’staches as furry magnets for crushed-up-Doritos?
Apparently, I’m in the minority on this. According to the folks over at the dating app and website PlentyOfFish, only 17.4 percent of single women think a mustache makes a man less attractive.
Another 20 percent say the mustache makes them more attractive, while others are either neutral or would have to know whether it’s a good or bad mustache before answering that question. (A fair point: There’s a big difference between Charlie Chaplin and Yosemite Sam.)
But if a single guy tells a lady he’s growing out his lip-warmer for Movember, his stock goes up, much like the ends of Salvador Dali’s U-shaped example. Specifically, POF says that 64 percent of single women over the age of 21 “consider a man more attractive if he is participating in Movember.”
The charity factor is clearly helping. But the uptick also has to do with a man’s perceived maturity. About 34 percent of women say the best thing about a man who can grow ’stache is that it makes him look mature, beating out the No. 2 response of “it’s sexy” at 25 percent, and No. 3’s “it’s masculine” at 22 percent.
Movember has become a charity adventure for men across social spectra, making mustaches cool not just for hipsters and lumbersexuals but for the not-so-fashion-forward dudes who see no issue wearing tube socks with boat shoes. Since its launch in 2003, Movember has grown to more than 20 countries, with hundreds of thousands of participants raising more than $650 million.
Its success surely has something to do with the fact that the baby-soft skin of the ’90s and early 2000s has lost its luster as fuzzy faces come in vogue (See: Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic” vs. Leonardi DiCaprio in “The Revenant”).
And while some are speculating that bearded bros may bring Movember’s downfall, POF doesn’t think so. The dating app says the mustache-beard combo will be one of the “sexiest trends in men’s facial hair for 2017,” along with goatees and the 5 o’clock shadow.
You win, mustaches. You win.
maggie.gordon@chron.com twitter.com/MagEGordon