# Yer father's mustache? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 17, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848 "2018-01-17T19:20:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/21 "2018-01-17T23:50:01Z")
My dad also had one in the Seventies. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2018, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/22 "2018-01-17T23:51:50Z")
Yep, my Daddy has had a mustache almost all of my life… it’s white now. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/23 "2018-01-18T02:53:28Z")
My father born in 1918 never had a mustache. I don’t thin my grandfather ever did either. He certainly didn’t while I was aware and I’ve never seen a picture of him with one. I grew one in 1976 when I started teaching grad school and some of the students were older than I. I shaved it off the year my son went to kindergarten and he brought home all kinds of colds so I constantly had a stopped up or runny nose. That lasted about a year and I’ve had one ever since (1983). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/24 "2018-01-18T02:58:29Z")
I just learned about [a distant cousin with a mustache](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42720556). ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/25 "2018-01-18T04:32:55Z")
Never knew him w/o a beard & moustache. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/26 "2018-01-18T04:44:30Z")
My most recent male ancestors with facial hair were my great great grandfathers. Nearly every one of them. Then clean-shaven faces all the way down until I reversed the trend. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/27 "2018-01-18T04:53:17Z")
Mine had one until I was maybe 5. Our family traditionally was Russian Orthodox-Original Ritualists so it was basically religious although being in the mines and then mills he kept it fairly short. Around the time I was starting school, for no real reason I was ever given, he decided to drop it and never had one the second half of his life. His father was also bearded. Mothers side of the family migrated early more towards Georgia (Republic) and then Germany and most of them were reformed and clean-shaven. I’ve had my beard most of my life since about age 12 although for the last ten years or so the upper lip is mostly clean; basically for the same reasons/reasoning as the Amish - separation from the military through their custom of allowing a mustache but not beards. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/28 "2018-01-18T06:09:23Z")
My dad had a mustache, had a mustache and beard, and was clean-shaven, at various different times. I think he just liked to “shake things up” every once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/29 "2018-01-18T06:36:35Z")
Nope, nor his father or his uncles; both of his grandfathers had the Buffalo Bill kind of moustache and beard, but the beards were shorter than Mr. Cody’s. One of Dad’s brothers had a full beard for decades; when he shaved we were all surprised to see how much he looked like another of the brothers. They looked a lot more similar in their 60s than they had before Uncle Ig grew his beard. ---
**Author:** ![Annoying\_Buzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Annoying\_Buzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annoying_Buzz)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/30 "2018-01-18T08:25:40Z")
Yep, he always had one. Beard, too. He bore an uncanny resemblance to Luciano Pavarotti. When he doing his military service in France, the rule at the time was that soldiers had to either be clean-shaven, or they had to grow out a full beard. He opted for the latter. When he came to America in '65 and started working as a high school French teacher, the superintendent told him he’d have to shave his beard and mustache. His response was simply, “Non, I do not think so.” (which, looking back, was pretty gutsy for a 23-year-old in a new country starting his first job). The superintendent decided to let him, rationalizing it as “cultural authenticity”, but refused to allow any other teachers to grow one until well into the '70s. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/31 "2018-01-18T12:37:45Z")
My dad tried to grow a 'stache once. It just didn’t suit him and I’m pretty sure our endless mocking (OK, we were just little kids, but we had opinions) made him change his mind. I don’t think my mom liked it, either. My brother had a mustache for a short time, and a younger male cousin did, but I don’t think any other men in the family sported any facial hair. My husband’s father had a full beard when we met (as did my husband) but a few years later, he went to just a mustache. My husband has had a full beard for most of the last 34 years, with a few short-term flirtations with just a 'stache or variations on a goatee. I prefer a neatly-groomed full beard on him. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/32 "2018-01-18T12:37:51Z")
Once, for about twenty minutes, in the 1960s. I don’t think my mother approved. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/33 "2018-01-18T14:05:09Z")
Almost always. He tried the shaved look from time to time just to mix it up, but he looked better with a 'stache. Honestly, while I look a lot like him, he was much more handsome. Check out this glorious 70’s hair and stache combo (which he’s rocking in 1983, I think.) [http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oid=867470](http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oid=867470) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/34 "2018-01-18T15:19:54Z")
Great Ghu, no. Dad had a passionate hatred of any and all facial hair. That’s one of the reasons I grew a mustache the second I was able, and a beard the day I moved out. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/35 "2018-01-18T15:30:04Z")
Facial hair wasn’t a thing in my family. I have to go back to my great-grandpas to find the last of the mustaches. My dad always had short (and thinning) hair - not even sideburns. The same for both of my grandpas. I think one or two of my uncles may have sported a '70’s mustache and/or sideburns for a short while (in the actual '70’s!!). ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/36 "2018-01-18T18:53:04Z")
One of my grandpas wore a mustache. My dad is a retired mail carrier. He used to grow a beard in the winter and shave it off in the spring. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/37 "2018-01-18T18:58:19Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > No, but _his_ father did. Same here. I’ve never seen a picture of my father with facial hair, but his father had a moustache. I’ve grown beards three times in my life, but don’t have one now. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/38 "2018-01-18T20:14:58Z")
My dad qrew a 'stache a couple of times, but they never lasted long. As far as I remember he never tried a beard. I have only shaved my moustache once, but grew it back immediately. OTOH, it really didn’t grow in until I was in my 20’s. For the last 2-3 years I’ve had a short beard - it took 50+ years to manage that much. The men in my family are just not that hairy. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848/39 "2018-01-18T21:56:01Z")
The whole time I was growing up, my father was clean-shaven. He grew a moustache by itself in his later 40s and after he retired he pledged to never shave again. Since then he’s had the full facial hair; he clips it so it never gets too long, but he doesn’t shave. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yer-fathers-mustache/806848.md?page=1)