Ever since the dawn of time, wearing beards and mustaches reflect a wide range of customs, beliefs, and personal tastes. In the past, it was common to make no distinction between a mustache, beard, and other types of facial hair as these are usually grown together. In some periods of time and places, mustaches have been forbidden because they were upsetting the social order. At some point in time, having a mustache means you’re not professional or intelligent. It seems to make a comeback in fashion every few years, but some men can rock it better than others. Some may not have an aesthetic-looking mustache but made it very memorable. Here are some of the famous ‘staches in history:
Clark Gable
Film actor Clark Gable, known for the classic movie Gone With the Wind, was often referred to as the King of Hollywood. Throughout his almost 30-year career in Hollywood, he starred in some of the most memorable productions in history. Gable was the ultimate heartthrob of his time, and he wore the perfect pencil mustache that suited his handsome face. As he started his career in silent movies, his ‘stache did the talking.
Adolf Hitler
Admit it; you expect Adolf Hitler to be on this list. Beyond his atrocious role in starting World War II and his state-sponsored killing of the Jews, this fascist dictator was also known for his unique grooming style. He sported a toothbrush mustache, one with thick whiskers that spanned the width of his nose. Since he became the most hated person in history, the world abandoned the toothbrush mustache because of its association with him. Nowadays, this style was rarely seen.
Charlie Chaplin
Before Hitler, Charlie Chaplin was the first person to make the toothbrush mustache popular. The silent film star added a facial hair as part of his comedy, and he starred in most of his films as the same character. His audiences could not imagine him in any other way.
Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx’s mustache is likely one of the most famous on the planet when it comes to facial hair. Marx was an American comedian and TV star who often starred alongside his siblings, the Marx Brothers. His distinctive wide mustache is largely a part of his style as an entertainer, along with his nose and glasses. The novelty disguise glasses with a mustache is based on him, and it still appears in stores today.
Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali was an impressive surrealist painter, but he’s also known as much for his weird, waxed mustache. In fact, he even wrote a book about his mustache called “Dali’s Mustache.” His trademark narrow and curled-up mustache has created a mustache category at the American Mustache Institute, and it is called “Dali.” Twenty-eight years after his death, Dali’s corpse was exhumed to collect DNA for a paternity suit, and they discovered that his waxed mustache was still intact.
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft is the 26th president of the United States and the 10th chief justice of the US – the only person in history to have held both of these offices. As iconic as he was, he also wore the classic handlebar mustache. It’s similar in design to Salvador Dali’s mustache, but Taft’s was larger, bushier, and far less weird, with only a slight upward curl. The ‘stache truly suited his statesman image.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein is the standard for “genius,” and he’s known worldwide for being the physicist who worked on relativity theory. His work in theoretical physics won him the Nobel Prize. But along with his intelligence, he was famous for his wild hair and mustache. During Halloween, many people enjoy dressing up as him today.
Theodore Roosevelt
The 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was a great American statesman. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for the role he played in ending the Russo-Japanese war. He was also popular for his barely-there spectacles and iconic mustache, which was ranked number two in GQ’s list of American presidential facial hair.
Hulk Hogan
Hulk Hogan’s mustache is one of the things you’ll notice about him. He loves sporting his unique horseshoe mustache that perfectly encapsulates his personality. The look of this former wrestler and TV personality is so iconic that many have worn him as a Halloween costume to pay homage.
Tom Selleck
The small screen has paid homage to Tom Selleck’s iconic mustache. The actor is best known for playing a private investigator named Thomas Magnum in the CBS show Magnum, PI, and for millennials, he is best known as Richard Burke, the eye doctor who became Monica’s boyfriend in Friends. His mustache became so famous that the Magnum PI reboot paid homage to it.
