# Police, fire fighters, and moustaches **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 7, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168 "2006-12-07T03:31:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/21 "2006-12-07T20:13:38Z")
[QUOTE=St. Urho] **VunderBob** are you getting annual fit tests? Those are tough to pass with any facial hair- like **KCB615** said. [/QUOTE] I personally haven’t done one since I grew the beard, but once again, I don’t think it will be a problem. All of the beards in the department are under an inch long. If it is, 5 minutes with a razor, and I’m back to 'stache only. As often as we get calls out in Mayberry, I doubt if anyone’s house will burn down between the test and getting home to shave. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/22 "2006-12-08T00:30:34Z")
[QUOTE=born too late] Kind of a poll - [/QUOTE] Kind of moved to IMHO. **samclem** ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/23 "2006-12-08T00:39:16Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] Do you know that you actually wrote that where people could see it? 🙂 [/QUOTE] Hell, I’ve admitted to, and have even posted pictures here, of myself with a “walrus-stash” that I had when I was a firefighter. There were about three of us there with walrus staches, about ten more with regular moustaches, and a a couple goatees (when small enough, they can still be used with an SCBA.) ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/24 "2006-12-08T02:52:04Z")
[QUOTE=VunderBob] I personally haven’t done one since I grew the beard, but once again, I don’t think it will be a problem. All of the beards in the department are under an inch long. If it is, 5 minutes with a razor, and I’m back to 'stache only. As often as we get calls out in Mayberry, I doubt if anyone’s house will burn down between the test and getting home to shave. [/QUOTE] You can’t even be fit-tested here with any facial hair on your chin or jawline. You can have a moustache, but not even so much as a goatee. Makes no difference to me, as I’m of the non-facial hair growing gender, but I do have long hair and longish bangs. When I was fit-tested, and for practicals, I have to have a couple of barettes making sure all my hair is pulled back securely. Even a few wisps will screw up the seal. I’m in a Mayberry-type department, too, and every so often someone will try to grow a beard or Fu Manchu style 'stache and our captain will tell them to shave or they can’t ride till they do - it’s a safety issue. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/25 "2006-12-08T11:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=BiblioCat] You can’t even be fit-tested here with any facial hair on your chin or jawline. You can have a moustache, but not even so much as a goatee. Makes no difference to me, as I’m of the non-facial hair growing gender, but I do have long hair and longish bangs. When I was fit-tested, and for practicals, I have to have a couple of barettes making sure all my hair is pulled back securely. Even a few wisps will screw up the seal. I’m in a Mayberry-type department, too, and every so often someone will try to grow a beard or Fu Manchu style 'stache and our captain will tell them to shave or they can’t ride till they do - it’s a safety issue. [/QUOTE] It’s all academic now. I shaved this morning, having proved to myself that I can finally grow a beard. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/26 "2006-12-08T14:16:24Z")
Little known falsehood. . . Firemen grow moustaches to help filter out harmful particles that might be in the air during a fire. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/27 "2006-12-08T15:49:07Z")
My police department has 90 officers. Subtract the 7 females. Out of the 83 left I can only think of 7 that have moustaches, and 2 of them are also volunteer firemen. I don’t think that is a particularly high percentage. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168/28 "2006-12-08T17:18:46Z")
Our lab techs have to wear respirators when working with the infected animals and one tech had grown a beard and couldn’t get a good fit test. It became something of an HR issue because the situation hadn’t come up before and it wasn’t clear whether he could be compelled to shave. Techs rotated and it wasn’t essential that he be in that lab area, but he was supposed to be starting there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/police-fire-fighters-and-moustaches/383168.md?page=1)