If you think you’re seeing more moustaches lingering over mens’ upper lips as November unfolds, chances are your eyes are not deceiving you. November has long been synonymous with Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, but it’s also taken on a whole new persona in recent years, and moustaches are a significant part of that new identity.
Arguably as popular as ever, Movember is a public health-focused effort designed to raise awareness of and support research into men’s health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and suicide. Men who participate in Movember typically begin growing moustaches on November 1 and keep them throughout the month.
The origins of Movember can be traced to 2003, when two men in Australia, Travis Garone and Luke Slattery, met for a beer in Melbourne. At that point in time, the popularity of moustaches had waned, but Garone and Slattery joked about restoring the stache to its once-lofty status. At the time, a friend’s mother was fundraising for breast cancer, and Garone and Slattery were inspired to combine their efforts to bring back the moustache with efforts to raise awareness about men’s health and prostate cancer. In a testament to the two friends’ skills in the art of persuasion, they were able to find 30 men willing to take up the challenge to grow a moustache. Those who accepted the challenge agreed to follow the rules of Movember, which included paying $10 to grow a moustache.
