No-Shave-November seeks to bring cancer awareness to the forefront of the conversation. Cancer patients suffer in many indescribable ways and also lose some of their hair due to treatment – what better way to remember all of them by doing a Grizzly Adams, or in some cases, a peach-fuzzed Sanchez. The link below outlines how to do your part in November. Many men, however, choose to simply let it all hang out, and use November as an excuse not to shave.
Be it a beard, a mustache, or a handlebar-strong, fu-man-chu, we thought we would share some of the classics – styles that have made it through the ages and to also serve as a suggestion. After all, beards are back, so mix it up this month.
The Tom Selleck
This is Detroit’s very own mustache. Selleck was born in Detroit, and if you know where to look you can find his childhood home. Tom Selleck has been sporting a stately push broom as long as we can remember, and can be considered Hollywood’s leading man of the mustache.
The Sam Elliot
Sam Elliot reserves his own category. This guy has been rocking a fierce mustache for a long time. Over the years, that stache has taken so many shapes and sizes that is impossible to place Sam Elliot in any category, but his own. He looks bizarre without his cookie-cutter. Hat’s off to this guy.
The Salvador Dali
Known for his mind-blowing art, this early 20th Century artist was also no stranger to an array of eccentric mustaches. These days it would take an adventurous soul or someone with a really laid-back boss to pull off something akin to Dali’s facial wonders.
The King Leonidas
Gerard Butler’s chin paddle in 300 has caused a landslide of imitation. A few years ago you couldn’t wade through the crowd at a Halloween party without bumping into some gym rat with a King Leonidas knockoff. Now that a few years have passed, we think this style is as awesome as it is ambitious. For many, it takes more than a month to get something like this going, so start early.
The Franz Joseph
I first noticed Franz Joseph while touring a museum in Budapest roughly 10 years ago. This utterly wild facial storm has stuck in my mind, and clearly, no discussion of facial hair would be complete without him. He was the Emperor of Hungary from 1848-1916, for all you history buffs out there.
The Special Operator
This sort of beard screams buck-slayer. It is the sort of beard that says “no retreat, no surrender.” Again, it would take more than your average fella to hit this sort of hang time in a month. This would be best started sometime in late August, or early September.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfgvCYF73SI
The Lawman
Wyatt Earp was known as one of the fiercest lawmen of the American West and while throttling drunks with his pistol handle, he also rocked a frivolous mustache. Kurt Russell did the lawman mustache some serious justice in 1993’s Tombstone.
The Rebel
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, probably the 20th-Century’s most famous Marxist revolutionary, was always sporting a wispy beard and mustache combo. Inspiration for those of us who can’t grow a thick beard, and a reminder that there is no reason not to try.
The Bill the Butcher
A handlebar is a legendary approach. The idea is to swing the ends up to resemble bicycle handles. That is typically achieved with mustache wax or some other grooming product. Daniel Day-Lewis crushed this look in Gangs of New York.
The Total Lunatic
This beard screams f**k the world. The lunatic approach is a lifestyle, not a fashion statement. The time and dedication behind a beard like this are more than November can provide, but it’s always something to consider for next year. After all, giving no f**ks is in right now.
The Honest Abe
It takes a pretty strong jawline and a determined glare to pull of a good chinstrap beard. When we say we say chinstrap we are omitting any references to that wafer-thin noise that has somehow wormed its way into the modern male facial-hair repertoire. This is an aggressive move, and if done wrong, can leave you looking like cousin Hezekiah, the kind of guy who you pass in a horse buggy.
Final Word
Like the 1970s, we hope the near future ushers in a new era where long hair and aggressive facial hair are an integral component of modern style. This baby-smooth modern male is scary. Men come hard-wired to sport facial hair. Let’s help put an end to western society’s proclivity for soft skin and keep it going past November.