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The dash for the best tache is on as London’s chaps raise mo-ney by sprouting soup-strainers, handlebars and truckers. Richard Godwin gets to the root of Movember’s growing power
29 November 2013

Ten years ago in a Melbourne pub four friends were lamenting the fact that no one wore moustaches any more. The era of Tom Selleck was over. Clark Gable was a distant memory. Even Hulk Hogan was beginning to look passé.

Rather than sit there weeping over pictures of Ian Rush circa 1988, they decided to do something about it: spend the month cultivating whatever sorry growth protruded from their upper lips while keeping the rest of their faces clean-shaven. November would thenceforth be known as Movember.

As the assorted bristles and whiskers, handlebars and pornstars, truckers, pencils, regents, cowlicks, lipbrows, soup-strainers, cookie-dusters and muff-sanders on this page attest, the idea has caught on and then some. Movember has become an international phenomenon.

In London, there is scarcely a data services company, nary a photocopier parts distributor or one media content provider where one member of the equipe doesn’t currently look like a big hairy tit.

Still, for all the weak banter and Instagram abuse that Movember has occasioned, it means well. The comedy aspect of all these wanton follicles shouldn’t obscure the fact that in 10 years Movember has become the single most successful men’s health campaign ever. The sponsored ’tache is the male equivalent of the pink ribbon.

The wide-exposure represents a new willingness to talk about men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer and testicular cancer, and to present masculinity in a positive light.

But might Movember’s success have sown the seeds of its decline? In the new climate of beardiness moustaches are now commonplace. Justin Bieber has had a go. I’m a bit worried that Damian Lewis’s is not a joke too.

And is a single month long enough to cultivate a proper Fu Manchu, or a really hefty Prussian cavalry officer? Might we have to have a new campaign? A moustache is for life, not just Movember? Meantime, London Mo Bros… well, just look at you.

BEST PLACES TO GET MOWED

If your upper lip is itching for liberation, don’t start hacking at it with a Gillette — take that tache to an expert. For only a real barber can deal with a bushy, hirsute face. Here’s five of the best.

Murdock Shoreditch

The Murdock chain is growing faster than a bushy tache. At the original Shoreditch shopdapper barbers will tame your facial hair into submission. A beard trim or top lip tidy takes 15 minutes and costs £15.

46 Redchurch Street, E2 (020 3393 7946, murdocklondon.com)

Pankhurst

To celebrate your face’s return to normality — and your girlfriend talking to you again — get 50 per cent off deluxe shaves at Pankhurst on Sunday December 1. Lounge with a whisky in hand like a modern-day Don Draper.Quote “Pankhurst Carnaby” between 10am and 6pm.

10 Newburgh Street, W1 (pankhurstlondon.com, 020 7287 9955)

Tommy Guns

Soho salon Tommy Guns is an institution: think huge enamel sinks, kitsch accessories and retro fittings. Girls allowed too.

65 Beak Street, W1(tommyguns.com, 020 7439 0777)

Huckle The Barber

No-nonsense trims, local craft beer and a steeling shot of whisky for those who’ve grown attached to their mo. Forget the east London postcode — this offering is a little more grown-up

340 Old Street, EC1(hucklethebarber.com, 020 3222 0021)

Geo F Trumper

This traditional Mayfair offering has been treating mos since 1875. The old school wet shave is reportedly one of the best in London.

9 Curzon Street, W1 (trumpers.com, 020 7499 1850)

Search for and sponsor the Movember participants pictured at mobro.co

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