(Click on the photos to enlarge).
My #1 son is currently taking part in Movember, a worldwide movement for the growing of moustaches during November to raise funds and awareness of men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and male depression. It is disconcerting to see my lad looking more and more like a Mexican bandit, making me want to take him to the barber and say, in my best Godfather voice, "I want you to use all your powers and all your skills. I don't want his mother to see him this way.”
The custom of our forefathers (and in this instance I can use gender specific language without being politically incorrect) was to have much more facial hair than males do today. Witness the old photos depicting gentlemen with sideburns, moustaches and beards, or various combinations of them, such as Australia’s first Federal Cabinet when Australia became a Federation in 1901. Edmund Barton is noticeable for his face being bare.
Hitler and Stalin effectively killed moustaches after 1945 but the resurgence of moustaches in November started me thinking about Hitler’s moustache: What would be the reaction if someone grew one today? What is the history behind it? How popular had it been before Hitler came to power?
