I’ve worked in Southeast Asia, traveled through many Asian countries. Have noticed that Asian men who have facial moles do not cut the hairs from the mole but let them grow to (sometimes) extraordinary lengths. The men can be professionals, farmers, ordinary guy-on-the street types and can be otherwise clean-shaven. Is there any religious or cultural significance to this? I doubt that it’s a lack of vanity.
I’m currently living in China, so I’ll take a crack at this one.
If there’s one thing that Asian cultures prize it’s rarity(at least the Chinese and Japanese). This accounts for many unusual and pricy delecacies that most people don’t even find tasty, it’s simply a novelty.
Now, as you may have noticed, most Asian men grow little or no facial hair. I have never seen anyone around here with a full beard. I have noticed a couple of mustaches, and but they are most often quite modest, nothing like the pipecleaner Saddam and Nigel Mansel have had on their lips.
So I assume that the rarity of having a beard or any facial hair to speak of accounts for not cutting what little there is. The mole thing has been a trend in China for ages, literally!
This would also explain why companies like Motorola are making huge investments in the Chinese market while Gillett seem largely unconcerned with moving in to this new area of business… 
- G. Raven
Hmmm… that may be the case there in China, but not here (Korea). I see few men with facial hair here, and don’t recall ever seeing any with a huge, long hair growing from a mole!
FYI: since coming here 5 years ago, I have noticed a lot more shaving products on the market in the last year or so… why? I dunno!
An aside: there is a razor brand, sold at the stores here and I assume is Korean-made, that has the brand-name… wait for it… “Dorco!!!” Makes me laugh every time I see it! I hope they don’t plan on marketing it in the west… 
Hairy moles are considered lucky by many Chinese people. If you cut the hair, then you’re supposedly bringing on bad fortune to yourself. Why is it considered lucky? I’ve never heard of a satisfying explanation except the one which Morrison’s Lament had mentioned: novelty.
Hmmmmm… now I do recall the doorman in The Good Earth, “twisting the three hairs of his mole” all the time. I thought it was gross. Didn’t know it was trendy.
I occasionally go to this sushi bar where on of the chefs has the exact same feature. Mole with loooong hairs growing out of it - always kinda weirded me out. I always wondered what the heck was up with that!
same here… in my case a waitress in a restaurant… hehe
I understod that asians lack the ability to grow substatial facial hair due to the lack of chitin producing facilities. This doesnt really tie in with the popular fashion amoung senior asians of having a full long white beard.
On a related note why is that all indian men seem to wear a mustache? I dont like generalising about an entire nation but it does appear that a surprisingly high percentage of the (male) population sport mustaches froma very early age.
Well, I guess it’s popular for old men to have white beards, but they’re not very full (at least not compared to the kind of beards that westerners would grow if they never shaved), nor are they really that common.
As for India, it’s actually not nearly as common for men to have mustaches there as it is in their neighboring state of Pakistan. My father has spent a lot of time in India and said that he did notice a high percentage of muslim Indians with mustaches, but not in the general hindu population.
As Pakistan is a muslim country, the fashion seems to have something more to do with Islam than ethnicity. I suppose we all know of the muslim stereotype male with a bushy, Saddam like mustache. Of course it’s only common, not universal, but there seems to be a link there, IMHO.
- G. Raven