ShareThisBy DAN VIERRIA
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Will the mustache rise from the stubble? Maligned as the fashion statement of Larry the Cable Guy, the 'stache is itching for a glorious comeback. Blame it on Borat.
Sacha Baron Cohen's character Borat in the box-office hit "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" sports a big, bushy mustache. It protrudes from his upper lip like a band of steel wool.
The Borat signature mustache is in demand, being peddled online. Ironically, Cohen was just photographed clean-shaven, but his now-famous alter ego remains devoted to the hairy lip.
"Clearly he's chosen it to mark his foreignness," says Dr. Allan Peterkin, a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "That big mustache stands out."
Peterkin has thoroughly researched the subject and is the author of "One Thousand Beards: A Cultural History of Facial Hair" (Arsenal Pulp Press, $16.95, 250 pages). He says that while researching the book in 2001, the prediction was that mustaches would be making a comeback. It didn't happen, perhaps because of Sept. 11, 2001, and hirsute terrorists, he acknowledges.
In recent months, before Borat uttered even one "sexy time" on the big screen, the mustache's resurgence had been stirring from its 30-year dormancy.
"Mustaches certainly seem to be making a comeback," says Phil Olsen of Tahoe City, Calif., a four-time competitor in the World Beard and Mustache Championships.
"In the 1970s ... lots of my friends had mustaches," Olsen says. "But they all shaved them."
Peterkin says Western males came to associate mustaches with three types of men: "fops, foreigners and fiends."
Men's Flair, an online style guide _ at www.mensflair.com_ has singled out Hollywood for the return of the 'stache.
"Mustaches are back, and with reason! We've seen guys in the limelight and many celebrities with mustaches, from fashion photographer Terry Richardson to Nicolas Cage," according to Men's Flair.
Mark Ruffalo, Jack Black, Sean Penn, Ashton Kutcher and Terrence Howard were cited by the fashion guide as celebs who've opted for mustaches.
Rockers Dave Navarro (the Panic Channel), Bob Dylan and Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello) proudly display mustaches. And there are those "Got Milk?" mustaches that won't go away.
"Men used to take their cues from clergy and kings," Peterkin says. "Today, we take our cues from rock stars, movie stars and athletes."
He says he's seen mustaches recently on male models in magazines and on fashion runways.
"It's the stubble look with a more established mustache on top of it," Peterkin says.
With the beard, goatee and soul patch all taking turns with popularity, the mustache is past due. It got so bad for the mustache that even the "Brawny Man" shaved his three years ago. The paper-towel brand image had his mustache removed for a new dimpled, clean-shaven appearance. Its maker, Georgia-Pacific, claimed its research found overwhelming approval for the new Brawny Man.
Superheroes, such as Superman, Captain America and Spider-Man, shave.
Politicians long ago chose the clean-shaven image. Betsy Rothstein, writing in The Hill newspaper, says voters seem to prefer their politicians clean-shaven. Not one member of the U.S. Senate has a mustache, according to The Hill. (William Howard Taft, who was president from 1909 to 1913, was the last chief executive to grow a mustache.)
Where does this leave the mustache? Borat only knows.
(Dan Vierria can be reached at dvierria(at)sacbee.com)
