I took this photo during a Zoom call at work this afternoon.
A colleague at work asked what was going on with my mustache. He wanted to know if I was going to wax it into a handlebar mustache at some point. I told him it’d been about a decade since I had a big mustache and I was growing it out again to see how it looked and how much grey had moved into place. I’m not ashamed of the grey anymore as I have earned it. I didn’t think I’d ever make it into my mid 50s but here we are.
One of my uncles had some nifty muttonchops and a waxed handlebar back in the 1970s. I always thought that was a cool look, but I never mentioned it to him because we never saw eye to eye on anything. My dad was always clean shaven. Always, without fail. One of my city uncles always had a beard and another had a mustache in his later years and I found that nifty. The country uncles sported various facial hair configurations, usually around hunting season.
Growing out my mustache has been kind of fun and it won’t last forever but it’ll be around for a while. I have to keep a napkin in hand when I’m eating because I don’t like food hanging off of it, especially after I’ve left the table.
Our friends Homer and Matt have great facial hair. I’ve followed Homer’s blog for many years and I’m happy that we’re real life friends now. He’s interesting to talk to and interesting to look at.
I’ve always had an affinity specifically for mustaches. Back when I was in my later high school years in the mid 1980s many of my male classmates grew mustaches. I tried but it was hopelessly blond until I went away to college. It wasn’t until the latter half of my freshman year of college that you could actually see my mustache. I guess the red mustache was only destined to last a few decades before going to grey.
Of course, my husband always has facial hair of some sort and that is most enjoyable to me. In fact, until recently I was the only one in our family of five that was clean shaven. That’s no longer the case. I feel a little less out of step with the rest of the family.
