I grew my first mustache in 1976, about as soon as I was physically able. I shaved it off in 1991, for reasons I don’t quite remember…and then grew another one about six months later. I’ve had that one ever since, until 3 days ago, when I decided It Was Time. Because
This is so weird. I don’t recognize myself in the mirror – there’s this vast expanse of blindingly white skin between my nose and chin. There’s a cold draft on my upper lip every time I breathe. And my shaving routine is all messed up.
But it’s not like getting a tattoo removed…if I can’t deal with it, I suppose I could always grow another.
Why don’t you post some pictures, and we’ll be the judge of whether you did the right thing or not. Heck, if you can’t trust us with this decision, who can you trust?
sometimes I get jealous of the options and flexibility men get with all their various hairs.
My husband likes to go through different cycles of hair: shaves his head and grows a goatee, then shaves off the mustache and grows the beard long. Shaves all the facial hair and lets his hair grow long, then various iterations of all of the above, including the full-on grizzly adams style beard.
I have always been just a bit jealous of how easy it is to change your “look” when you have such flexiblity with hair.
You know those dime-store toys where you drag the magnetic filings around a picture of a face, to make weird hair combinations? Your husband sounds like the human version.
I was hoping in one of the beard length experiments that he would be fully Scotty Ian (bassist in Anthrax), but for some reason his beard hairs don’t grow as long, or else they break off. I guess he was using conditioner on it too! :rolleyes:
The other weird thing: apparently during my mustachioed life (90% of my adult life) I developed the habit of, while dining, using my napkin 10x as much as normal people, to ensure that bits of food weren’t stuck there. So in the meals I’ve eaten since shaving I keep wiping my mouth and there’s nothing there.
It’s weird, isn’t it? I had a full beard for 15+ years. One day I decided to turn it into a goatee. Then a couple of years ago I just shaved it all off. Then some odd looking fellow decided to move into my mirror. It was really strange. It was like my face didn’t fit me anymore. And it felt really weird.
And things were different. Suddenly water bottles acted like suction cups.
For the next several months I experimented with every possible permutation. Stubble was a style, but always a temporary one. And my hair got shorter and shorter. I now shave my head. In a few years, my hairstyle will just be a neck stump.
When I met my (now-EX) husband, he had a full beard - trimmed and neat, but the whole thing. Looked great. Brought out his cheekbones and his eyes. One day, after we’d been together for a good 6 months or so, he just randomly decided to shave the beard and keep just the mustache. Walks out of the bathroom and I’m face to face with a cop. I swear he went from this handsome woodsy looking guy to a cop. Nothing personal against policemen, but it just was so odd. I freaked. And then when he shaved the mustache, I found out he had no upper lip. None. Well, ok, a small one. Horrible. I made him grow the beard back before we got married.
And I’m not really one of those people who are super into looks or style or whatever. He just looked like a completely different person – not like the guy I met - and it was a look that just creeped me out for some reason. I just hated it. I’ve known guys that can shave different ways and they look a bit different, but not that strikingly.
The entire time we were married (18 long years), he would periodically do that. I tried really hard not to give him crap about it - -after all it was HIS face and he said that sometimes he just needed to expose the skin, so there was even a legitimate reason for it. But damned if it didn’t creep me out each and every time. Still hate it now when I see him.
So yes, jsc1953, there is a scenario where it wouldn’t be the right thing!
Shaving off your mustache can be very bad for your health. Check out the French film La Moustache. It’s about a guy who shaves off his 'stache (or so he thinks) and goes stark raving loony (maybe). Anyway, grow it back, just to be safe.
When I was a kid a friend of my parents has a mustache. He looked like a cool, hip, slightly dark-skinned white guy. Then he shaved off the 'stache – suddenly he was Chinese.
I had a mustache starting from the age of 14 - was the first thing to come in after puberty and I figured “what the hell, I’ll keep it”. Shaved the later arrivals, but kept the mustache for the next 14 years, until shortly after I got married. One request from my wife (“it tickles” was the reason) and it came off.
Then, about two ro three years ago, I grew a mustache and a small beard (think what Todd Palin has/had - what’s that look called? (so sue me, Todd Palin was the first person that came to mind with that look, any other examples welcome)) at the request of the director of a play I was in. I told my wife I’d shave it off after, but I liked it so darn much (and female friends were complimenting it), I kept it. It looks … youthful.
This Halloween I dressed up as Groucho Marx and I once again had to shave it off for that (funny to shave off your mustache to dress up as a man known for his mustache, but his (at least in his movie and vaudville days, not the You Bet Your Life days) was just greasepaint) I tried it once overtop of my real mustache (before I met my wife) and it doesn’t work as well. Grew it back immediately after Halloween (as well as the small beard. Again, I like that look much better than just plain 'stache, or bare).
And, yeah, jsc1953, I find the “sweaty lip” phonomenon happens after you shave it off as well, always found that odd (and gave me extra incentive to grow it back again as soon as possible.) This never happens with you clean-shaven guys?
