Yes, what she said.
Oh my gaaaaawd yesssss…then again he also makes having half a face look good too. It might just be him.
I’m not blessed with great facial hair genetics. If I go without shaving for a few weeks I can get a beard going with decent coverage but it’s also a different color from my hair and is 30% silver these days (despite not being gray at all up top). So it looks like I’m either wearing a wig or a fake beard and, either way, ages me considerably. So a mustache isn’t in my future either.
But I think they can look fine on people who can pull them off. No, it’s not everyone but I rarely think “Gee, what a terrible mustache” either. I’m speaking of standard modern styles, not Civil War era stuff or hipster wannabe-pugilist nonsense.
Yep. My moustache has been shaved exactly once in my life. I’ve offered to shave it again, but the wife says “Nope”. The beard comes and goes, but the moustache is permanent!
Depends on the guy and the style. Some look good in one, some don’t.
Interesting. I’m not crazy about stand-alone moustaches, but the first thought I had when I read the OP was “Well, what about Sam Elliott?”
I was thinking The Golden Compass, though, not Big Lebowski.
Not much to add. Styles come & go. When a style is more out than in it takes extra good looks & execution to pull it off.
My take is that by far the dumbest facial hair fashion is the so-called 5 o’clock shadow look. When I see that I think: Too lazy to shave & too testosterone deprived to grow a beard. IOW, they look like a 12 yo carefully preserving his budding peach fuzz.
As Yoda sez: Grow or do not. There is no try.
His guest (bald face) appearance on “Justified” proves the exception to the OP. I kept mentally adding a mustache to his face anytime he was on screen.
Sam! Sam! Please grow it back.
Bubbadog
whose wife prefers a hairier husband
There was an Air Force base close to where I grew up in West Texas. I don’t know what regulations are like now, but back then the Air Force allowed moustaches only. Most of the guys you’d see in town with one were base personnel.
Yes, Yes!
I’ve indicated my tolerance for different styles of facial hair. But there is no excuse for Perma-Stubble.
If it’s Sunday afternoon & a guy wants to hit the hardware store after a weekend of not shaving, so what? But we see actors on the Red Carpet wearing nice suits–and stubble. Including a bit of neckbeard…
Nope.
Haven’t seen the show but just googled “Sam Elliott no facial hair” and was struck that “bald face” (and a relatively short hair-do vs. cowboy-esque unkempt man-locks) knocked 10-20 years from his appearance! De gustibus and all that, but I think Sam Elliott looks better with shortish hair atop his head and none* on his face.
*Except eyebrows, of course. Most people look creepy without eyebrows. 
Depends on the mustache and depends on the face.
My dad tried to grow on once - it absolutely didn’t suit him, and he gave up within a few days. My FIL, on the other hand, went from full beard to mustache some years back, and it’s him, absolutely. I’ve seen photos of him bare-faced and it just doesn’t work.
Ayup.
I don’t have anything against mustaches. There are some styles that are ridiculous, yes, like anything a villain might twirl. But I’ve seen some that look pretty nice. I always felt Tom Selleck looked better with a mustache than without. Like any fashion/grooming choice, you ought to see how it works and you need to not use it as an excuse to things run wild. If you’re getting food in your mustache, you’re doing it wrong.
Now for me personally, any attempt at a mustache would be ridiculous. From the very beginning of puberty, my facial hair has come in essentially salt and pepper - a mix of dark brown and blond/white (verging on transparent). So no matter how much facial hair I’ve actually grown, you can only see half of it.
I’ll join the others in condemning perma-stubble. That’s just wrong.
Well, my moustache is huge and thick. within two weeks it’s “Viking Warriror”, and just gets more silly from there. But, as has been noted upthread, not everyone’s face makes a moustache look ridiculous.
And truth be told, I think my face is pretty goofy looking when it’s clean shaven, but my moustaches don’t help (see below).
One of my favorite cruel games of my entire life is to shave a week and a half growth into a toothbrush moustache and chase my wife around the house, trying to convince her to kiss me with it. All my claims of “I’m Charlie Chaplin” do nothing to placate her.
My attitude toward facial hair is “go big or go home,” and honestly, most men should just go home. 
I used to be wholly against beards, but this 21st century beard resurgence is swaying me to the other side. If you are man who can grow a nice, even thatch of a beard and you look good with one and you keep it groomed, then you, my friend, are a lucky man indeed and your beard just adds to your attractiveness.
HOWEVER. Mustaches alone are usually horrifying (Jack Huston and Sam Elliot are actors who do a lot of period pieces and westerns, respectively, so their mustaches suit their personas…and they’re also both handsome men to begin with), and beards with no mustaches are strictly for the Amish and Abe Lincoln impersonators. Goatees are to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
Other less common facial hairscapes, like Ambrose Burnside-style sideburns, usually signify you’re either an actor in costume or are an irredeemable hipster.
You know how you know about something forever and never really think about it? I never thought of Magnum as more than just a random last name for a character till now. And now it does seem … like a little much.
For those preferring clean-shaven, I offer this (SFW): http://cdn4.image.bored.com/thumbnails/haircut-catastrophes-snuck-out-barbershop/asset_20433__big_no.jpg
Certainly quite the improvement over a 'stash, isn’t it?
(This link courtesy of this thread from last month: Is there a name for this haircut? - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board)
I don’t think they look good on many people, but to each his own.
I dated a guy with a mustache. One day he shaved it off, he looked awful without it. He had a very round face, looked like the moon. He needed a mustache to break it up and add some interest.
Actually, my wife won’t let me shave my beard off for exactly that same reason- my beard is nice and soft, my shorn face is like sandpaper anything more than three hours after I shave.