More Vintage Moustaches - Toothbrush to Walrus

The next, and last, group of moustaches are all very similar to me – the lampshade, painter’s brush, pyramidal and toothbrush – they just involve a little trimming at the sides, which is sometimes hard to see in photos.  Of course the toothbrush is more recognizable, it's quite thick and shaved to be about an inch wide.  The most famous toothbrush moustache is undoubtedly this one:

Adolph Hilter with toothbrush moustache

Around the same time were the comic duo of Laurel and Hardy,  one of the most popular  acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. Composed of thin Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and large American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957), they became well known during the late 1920s to the mid-1940s for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous Hardy, who sported a toothbrush moustache.

Laurel and Hardy c. 1930s

Before Hardy, of course, there was Charlie Chaplin. Although often referred to as a toothbrush moustache, his was actually more pyramidal:

Charlie Chaplin in The Circus, 1928

His moustache and 'Little Tramp" persona made him more recognisable and shot him to fame, but Chaplin was undoubtedly good looking without it.

Charlie Chaplin, sans moustache

Can you imagine Hitler with his moustache?

Hitler sans moustache, imagined by Tess Kincaid

During WWI Hilter actually had  a much larger moustache.  According to a soldier who served alongside Hitler in the trenches, he was instructed to trim his moustache so that it would fit under the respirator masks introduced in response to British mustard gas attacks.

Hitler, far right, with WWI comrades

Neither the toothbrush or pyramidal styles seem all that popular at present, probably because they are just so identifiable with the  men above, although here is a photo of George Clooney in the movie 'Men who stare at Goats" (2009) with a pyramidal moustache.  

The 'Painter’s brush' is a thick moustache covering the width of the mouth, usually worn short, with slightly rounded corners, and looks a bit like a short Chevron.  Here's a photo of a young Robert Deniro sporting a paintbrush moustache.

Deniro source

And George Orwell, with almost a straight edged paintbrush.

George Orwell

The Lampshade moustache is  similar to the “painter’s brush,” but with corners angled slightly, resembling the shape of a lampshade, and is very hard to find examples of, so excuse me!  The Pencil moustache, however, is a different story.  This thin, narrow, closely clipped moustache outlines the upper lip and is also sometimes called a “mouth-brow.”  It was very popular in the 1920s and 30s.  Here are some examples:

A young Vincent Price

Clark Gable c. 1939

You could also call the above moustache an 'English', with the gap in the middle.

Errol Flynn

and from the 1950s:

David Niven

Little Richard

The last moustache style is the Walrus, which lives up to its name - a large, bushy, droopy moustache that hangs down over the lips, often entirely covering the mouth.  Very hard to kiss, I would imagine.....

Nietzsche, Philosopher, 1844-1900

 William Wallace Denslow ( 1856-1915) American designer, illustrator & cartoonist 

Henry Lawson (1867 - 1922) Australian writer and poet, c. 1902.

So there you have it, the short guide to moustaches.  Of course there are many more, and new styles seem to be invented everyday - just look at the 'Batstache'.  I think my husband is going towards the paintbrush, but maybe a Chevron if he keeps growing it.  He is a little to shy to appear on my blog, but you can check out his Movember page here.

Enjoy the last few days of Movember everyone!

Deb  xxx

Moustache Styles –The Handlebar & Imperial

 Two more moustache styles today, both very vintage styles.

First the  handlebar moustache, which can be worn either large or small (“petit handlebar”); it is characterized by the fact that it is bushy and must be worn long enough to curl the ends upward, which is usually achieved with styling wax.  I would call  Hercule Poirot’s moustache (as portrayed by David Suchet) a petit handlebar.

For some reason Hercule always reminds me of Mr Monopoly, or Rich Uncle Pennnybags, maybe it the dapper suit, I’m not sure, but he also has a handle bar moustache, but not a petit one.

Other mascots with handle bar moustaches includes that of Pringles, and National Bohemian Beer, (you can click the links if you want to see them).  Other famous handle bar moustaches are these:

Wyatt Earp, American gambler, investor, and lawman at about age 33, c. 1880.

General George. A. Custer. This photo was taken between 1855 and 1865, (after the Civil War he had more of a walrus moustache, which I’ll look at later.)

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States, September 14, 1901 – March 4, 1909.

John L. Sullivan (1858-1918) world heavyweight champion in 1892.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose death in 1914 sparked WWI.
The handle bar moustache appears to have been popular from the mid 1800s to about the 1940s, as these few photos show.

Andrew Fisher (29 August 1862 – 22 October 1928) was Australia’s fifth Prime Minister , from 1910, on three separate occasions, and also seems to be the last Prime Minister who sported a moustache.

A Great War studio portrait of a British private and his wife, c. 1915. source

Wincenty Witos, Polish Prime Minister 1920, 1923,1926.
More information about handlebar moustaches, including how to apply wax, can be found at the Handlebar Club.
Rather than waxing the moustache upwards, some decided to let it grown upwards, and so the Imperial.

A large moustache growing from both the upper lip and cheeks, whiskers from the cheeks are styled pointing upward.  A style favoured by British Imperialists of the 18th and late 19th centuries in particular.

A Scottish soldier, General George Campbell of Inverneill, with a large imperial moustache c.1790.

Ambrose Burnside was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, politician from Rhode Island, and a Union Army general. He took the imperial moustache to a whole new level, and not surprisingly, the sideburn is named after him.
It’s not my favourite style, I must admit, although this prize winning moustache from  Otto  Schmidt of Germany is quite spectacular!

More moustaches next time.
Deb xxx

November is Moustache Month

I had a birthday last Sunday, and I seem to have been recovering ever since, so excuse my blog slackness.  My husband call November my birthday month, as it seems to go on as we catch up with everyone over a few weeks.

It’s also Movember, a time for men from all walks of life to grow facial hair to promote and raise money for men’s health. If you haven’t’ heard of Movember, head off to the website for more information.  My husband is growing a mo in Movemeber for the first time. Let me tell you, there’s more to growing a moustache than either of us realised.  Apparently the first step is picking a moustache style. I thought the first step was just not shaving!  But of course you have to shave certain areas, and avoid others  which is more work than shaving the whole face, apparently.  My husband has gone with just not shaving above his whole lip, which will probably just give him a chevron style moustache.  This will take longer than the month of November to grow fully, but we'll see how he goes.

The word "moustache", according to Wikipedia,
" is French, and is derived from the Italian moustacio (14th century), dialectal mostaccio (16th century), from Medieval Latin moustaccium (8th century),Medieval Greek μοστάκιον (moustakion), attested in the 9th century, which ultimately originates as a diminutive of Hellenistic Greek μύσταξ (mustax, mustak-), meaning "upper lip" or "facial hair",probably derived from Hellenistic Greek μύλλον (mullon), "lip"."

According to The American Mustache Institute. which has distinguished itself as the leading authority on moustaches (they just spell it differently), there are 13 different types of moustache.

The chevron, which I have mentioned  a thick and wide moustache, usually worn long to cover the top border of the upper lip, as per  Tom Selleck in full Magnum P.I. mode.  You know what he looks like, and as this a vintage blog, here is photo of a gentleman from around 1900 with a nice chevron moustache. And bowler hat. and maybe a bandage.

chevron moustache source

A fireman from 1900 with a large chevron moustache.

 

The Dali is a narrow moustache with long points bent or curved steeply upward, named for artist Salvador Dali.  I really don't know how he was able to shave above and below the line of growth.  Maybe it grew that way naturally?  Here is the man in the flesh.

He did quite crazy things with his.

The English is a narrow divided moustache that begins at the middle of the upper lip, with long whiskers pulled to either side of the centre, almost like piggy tails on a girl. The areas beyond the corners of the mouth are typically shaved. The trademark moustache of English villains, such as Terry Thomas.

And also dashing hero's like Errol Flynn, Clark Gable (below) and David Niven.

  

Colonel Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald (1852 – 1915)  British diplomat, best known for his service in China and Japan.

Sir Claude's moustache is almost an English crossed with a Fu-Manchu - waxed upwards instead of hanging down.

A true fu manchu has whiskers grown very long to extend down each side of the mouth down to the to jaw. The areas just past the corners of the mouth are shaven, (thus differentiating this style from the “horseshoe”). A mainstay of karate movie masters and bad guys. Fu Manchu was a series of novels from the 1920s about an evil genius, and has appeared in virtually every form of media.  The early moves didn''t actually feature the long moustache - it was Christopher Lee in the 1960s that sported what we know thing of the classic fu manchu.

Christopher Lee as Fu Manchu around 1965

Henry Brandon in the 1940s 'Drums of Fu Manchu' TV series

  

Warner Oland as Fu Manchu around 1930

The horseshoe is a full moustache with vertical extensions grown on the corners of the lips and down the sides of the mouth to the jawline, resembling an upside-down horseshoe, and therefore popular with modern cowboys, and now also bikers (and wrestlers like Hulk Hogan). The whiskers grown along the sides of the mouth in the horseshoe are sometimes referred to as “pipes.” Not to be confused with the “fu manchu” which is grown long from the upper lip only– the sides remain shaven in the fu manchu.  Here is a handsome man from around the turn of  the century sporting a Horseshoe Moustache and Goatee (Photographed By F. J. Weber & Bro. Erie, PA).

I am going to leave it there for today, but I'll look at the other moustache types next time.  As usual the post has taken longer than I imagined, as I keep getting distracted by old photos.

Meanwhile,

if you can, when faced with the moustache symbol that seems to have taken off over the recent year, and made itself into some sort of Warhol modernist symbol, manifesting on every possible t-shirt, mug, earring, sticker, tattoo, dummy (pacifier) and even hairstyle across the town. Points in fact:

Enough said!

Deb