Movember: 28 Interesting facts about mustaches! (List)

In Movember, also known as Mustache November, men everywhere in the world are growing out their mustaches in order to bring awareness to prostate and testicular cancer.  The organization’s hope is that people will donate the money normally spent on waxing and shaving to the American Cancer Society. Read here 28 interesting facts about mustaches!

1. There are between 10,000 and 20,000 hairs on a man’s face and the average moustache has 600.

2. Albert Einstein sported his moustache for over 50 years.

3.  A fancy way to say shaving is pogonotomy.

4. In a deck of cards the King of Hearts is the only king without a mustache.

5. An Indian man holds the record for the longest growing mustache. According to Guinness World Records, Ram Singh Chauhan has a mustache that spans 14 feet long. He has been growing it since 1982, after a friend with a 7-foot-long mustache suggested it, the Huffington Post reports.

6. The first artifact known to sport a tash dates back to 300 BC and depicts an Iranian horseman with a thick black number.

7.  The oldest recorded mustache dates back to at around 300 B.C.

8. The average one-month old moustache is capable of holding 30ml of liquid or 10 per cent of a glass of beer before leaking its contents down the owner’s face. Useful for spills.

9. Not only are men seen as more attractive with it, but facial hair might also help protect against skin cancer. This past year, a study conducted at the University of Southern Queensland in Australia found that facial hair can prevent skin cancer against 90 to 95 percent of harmful UV rays.

10. In 1967 The Beatles gave away cardboard moustaches with their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

11.  A man spends an average of five months of his life shaving if he starts at the age of 14 — assuming that he lives until he’s 75 years old.

12. On average a man with a moustache touches it 760 times a day.

13. During the Victorian era, noblemen used mustache spoons to protect their mustaches when eating soup. It was made with a guard on its rim that acted as a barrier between mustache and soup.

14. In Eureka, Nevada, USA, it is illegal for men with moustaches to kiss women.

15. The legend’s moustache has its very own Facebook page with nearly 4,000 Facebook fans. It doesn’t tweet. That would just be weird.

16.  Moustaches filter the air breathed in through the nose.

17. Having a Beard makes you instantly stronger than those without.

18. Stroking of the Moustache Increases concentration and cognitive ability (and evilness).

19. Police in the district of Madhya Pradesh state in India are being paid to grow moustaches because bosses believes it makes them command more respect.

20. US marines are not permitted to grow moustaches longer than half an inch.

21.  Scientists place the first ever moustache back in the Jurassic Era.

22. When twisted at the ends, moustache wearers have been known to exhibit fits of evil genius.

23. High-ranking ancient Egyptians dyed their beards and plaited them with gold thread. They also sported false metal beards (postiches) as a symbol of sovereignty. The postiche was worn by kings, queens and royal cows.

24. Beards were dangerous in hand-to-hand combat. Alexander the Great made all his soldiers shave before the battle of Ardela, though some let their hair grow long in back, to show they had no fear of being grabbed from behind.

25. Every year since its inception in Germany in 1990, there has been a World Beard and Moustache Championship competition attracting entrants from all over the world. Hosted by The Handlebar Club, celeb moustache wearers judge the various categories – such as the goatee, Dali moustache and full beard freestyle. Raising money for local charities, Anchorage in Alaska has hosted a record number of entrants in the history of the competition – even topping popular Carson City in Nevada.

26. Civil War era men who shaved their upper lips, like Abe Lincoln and John Greenleaf Whitter, the poet, did so for convenience in eating.

27. In the early ’60s, the CIA plotted to ruin Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s public image by making his beard fall out. One idea was to grab Castro’s shoes when they were put out to be shined, and to insert thallium salts, a chemical used by women as a depilatory. But the plot was never carried out.

28. Beards have been regarded as emblems of wisdom: Philosophers were always bearded (Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, Shakespeare). “Lose your beard,” it was said, “ and you lose your soul.”