@@TheHistoryGuyChannel facial hair in general. The Victorian ideal for elderly men is a thick, grandfatherly beard. This shaped our popular image of St Nick, which continues today
As a teenager in the 1970s, I can confirm that long hair was most definitely seen as un-American. [ edit back then, long hair also might have caused one's masculinity to be called into question; perhaps a little less so than in the 60s, those guys had it particularly rough, got called " f-----ts" regularly. Towards the tail end of the Vietnam War, long hair was most definitely seen as a defining message of disagreement with that part of American foreign policy, hence the frequent charges of un-Americanism].
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel The clean-shaven look, may be a Roman ideal ... that of low body hair. As men mass for military service, it may have played a role in reducing lice.
@@goodun2974 I hear ya man. My Dad freaked when my hair got too long. I tried to argue that fashions change by citing George Armstrong Custer and others, including the powdered wigs of presidents. He didnt hear a word. I suspect the guys at the American Legion were ribbing him about me. Dont get me wrong. I grew up in that Legion Hall. But its a shame parents demand the same from their kids as their own fashion dictates. I shoulda dyed it purple and spiked it, lol.
Very interesting piece; I’ve fortunately been able to visit Paris a couple of times and I have enjoyed all of the people as well as all of the artistry not to mention all of the wonderful foods; Talk about one long flight from the states, Still one very nice weekend visit
And in 1992 they opened Disneyland Paris, and Disney learned that people in France feel very strongly about not being told by their employer how to wear their hair.
I am sorry to have to be "that guy" ---- well, maybe not really sorry at all ha ha ! ---- but a follicle is the little pouch in the skin that the hair actually sprouts from, it is not the hair itself.
Amazing. I remember a time in the Sixties when a young man couldn't get a job if he had long hair. Looking back it seems trivial, but it was a big deal at the time.
In 1967 my High School football coach refused to fit me for a helmet until I got my hair cut; and it wasn't that long, just unkempt. My hair barely covered the top of my ears.
Another great episode. I attended Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the US, graduating in 1987. The growing and wearing of a properly trimmed moustache was a privilege reserved only for senior (final year) cadets. In 1986 I grew my moustache, and have worn it ever since. With a 30 day exception in the 1990s when I shaved my moustache to raise money for a charity and my supervisory colleague, who had always been clean shaven, grew a moustache for the same 30 days. It was done for a good cause. After leaving the military, I began shaving my head (courtesy of male pattern baldness) and cultivating a handlebar moustache, which I kept neatly waxed and trimmed. While from time to time, mostly during the cold Maine winters, I grow an accompanying beard, the large, handlebar moustache has been a fixture in my life. I can not imagine looking in the mirror and seeing a clean shaven upper lip.
The military connection to the mustache is why the Old Order Amish men, even today, wear a beard but not a mustache. The religion rejects anything military.
That is also the reason Old Order Amish don’t wear any buttons on their shirts/blouses. They have a pin or hook method instead. Buttons on shirts are associated with the military. I wouldn’t have known either, except that I have a friend who grew up in the Old Order Amish church who explained these things to me.
Not military style boots. Also Velcro is considered too modern. I have seen nice tennis shoes worn. But keep in mind, each Amish group has their own rules, called the “Ordnung”. For instance one group may allow rubber on their wagon wheels but others only allow steel rims. Some have “Y” suspenders, others “H” or only one side. Belts are a no-no due to the military look.
Even my current job restricted beards until fairly recently. It's only recently that beards were allowed in my type of job (where the public can see me). And of course in the Navy beards were forbidden, but plenty of men had mustaches.
When I joined the FBI in '88, mustaches were allowed but not beards. When I grew a beard, my supervisor took my access to a government car away. Also, only white shirts were OK. You were pushing the limit if you wore blue, but you had crossed the line with any other color.
When I was drafted in to the Danish army in 1972 I ended up in a Hussar regiment. Naturally they had by then traded in the horses for tanks but they still kept a small squad of horse soldiers for parade purposes complete with a light blue traditional Hussar uniform like the the original Hungarian model. If I had only known how to play a trumpet or ride a horse I could have avoided a lot of slogging .. such is life :-)
I hear mustache and I think of that fellow from tank chats, David Fletcher. Thank you THG for a whimsical & entertaining presentation making Monday morning more bearable. 🐱
The meeting of the bow tie and the mustache! I forgot that you have personal experience with that place and those people. It's been about a year now hasn't it? Always a treat when they use your message to pramote donation end subscription at the end of one of them their videos.
I grew a moustache over the summer between my junior and senior year in high school and kept it all through my senior year. It wasn't very impressive, but was important to me. There were two other guys in our senior class of 300+ who had moustaches. When graduation time came around it was announced over the intercom that we who wore moustaches would not be allowed to take part in the graduation ceremonies unless we shaved them off. No one spoke directly to any of us so I just as quietly declined and showed up with my moustache intact. The other two guys had shaved. Not a word was said about mine and I walked across the stage moustache intact and head held high. Though I had shaving gear with me and would have shaved it off if challenged directly, it didn't happen. I learned some lessons about civil disobedience from that. Except for a couple of times when I shaved it off for a lark, I've had a moustache ever since. I'm 70 now. and I've been allowing it to get more fluffy the last few months, though it has increased maintenance issues.
Hey Mr. History Guy, You need to grow a mustache and proclaim to all that YOU are the great Mr.MOUSTACHEIO! Your videos are always as entertaining as they are informative. Thank you good sir.
The Hussars were the last military units allowed to wear their hair in braids in the belief that such braids were some protection against saber strokes to the neck.
Battles over hair styles are not new. It’s only first world if it involves a strike instead of guerilla warfare or attempts to overthrow an emperor (see the Chinese queue as an example)
@@kthomasaus I completely forgot about the fight over the Chinese queue. Don't forget that between 22 and 34 New Yorkers were killed in a riot at the Astor Place theater on 10 May 1849 over which actor played Hamlet better on stage.
Yep, the ol' "other people have worse problems than yours, therefore, you have no problems" commie shit. "First world"...the prattle of the truly smug & self-righteous. Besides, there is no longer a First World, or a Second World, or a Third World, or any other number world. There is only the Last World, & we're in it.
At school, they were always insistent that the older boys were clean-shaven my friend and I were the rebellious type and would usually have a heavy growth of stubble. Our headmaster an ex-Royal Navy captain called us to his study. He made a deal with us that if we could grow a beard navy style within six weeks, we could ignore the usual rule. Both of us succeed in growing a "full set" as it was known in the navy parlance, a thick well-trimmed beard. The headmaster who thought the task was beyond a couple of lads didn't like it but was a man of his word and stuck to the deal. My friend later became an RN captain.
Aah, Imperialism at work. I’m sure your mate is being used by the Military Industrial Complex to destroy the lives of those in the brutally exploited 3rd world. Fuck the UK and their Imperialist tendencies🇬🇧🗑️🔥
No. I understand that the creator can designate where the YT ads will be inserted, and THG does it so that he doesn't get cut off mid-sentence. My complaint about some of the mid roll ads is their length.
I gotta say, I laughed about the poor Americans who were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I can totally see myself in their shoes. "Hey! What did I do!?"
I’ve been wearing mine for almost 15 years and I recently turned down employment because they said I had to shave! My inspiration for growing one is my favorite musician: king diamond
I had one for around twenty years, early twenties to early fourties in age. But I gave it up when the colors red and gray started infiltrating my brown mustache. It looked horrible and I was not going to dye it. So it was gone. I always kept mine cut and trimmed. Some of the pictures in THG's video really got me in the fact it seems no maintenance or care was taken of the mustache. I would rather do without than have a rat's nest under my nose.
Same here. I've shaved it only twice once during Boot Camp and the second during the first weeks of the Police Academy. Both times as soon as I was allowed - boom! Mustache on!
I last shaved my upper lip the day I graduated High School. It has been so many years I never think much about it. Funny how people don't change, the things we "fuss" about change but people don't really change
I did the exact same thing. We weren’t allowed to have facial hair in high school. I got yelled at more than once not to come to school the next day with hair on my upper lip. Even got sent to the dean of boys office once. Got a lecture on how ridiculous mustaches looked in modern times. And when I got older I would understand this. So when I graduated, I grew a mustache, probably for revenge at the time. I’ve worn it ever since. It’s been 50 years now. I wonder how the dean of boys would feel about that!
I noticed that you used the term "waxed" in a video about mustaches. Good one. I've had a mustache since 1981 and a full beard since 1997 and wouldn't go without them.
I enjoy this channel very much and would like to humbly suggest a future episode. There is a stretch of 'The Old Spanish Trail' between Moapa, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada, so dry and steep that settlers would depart at night, even in the cooler months, to avoid the harsh sun. Still, less than halfway through the fifty waterless miles, the settlers would begin to jettison their heavier belongings. Potbelly stoves, cast iron cookware, and all manner of furniture was said to litter the sides of the trail as the settlers desperately tried to get their families and animals to the springs of Las Vegas before succumbing to the desert. The slope caused the horses to strain mightily, and slowed the pace as well as dramatically increasing their need for water, and so, the only way to survive was to lighten the load and leave behind belongings and necessaries that had traveled, in some cases, from as far away as Europe. I think that deserves to be remembered. I wish I could provide a source, but alas, I can't remember where I read about it. Keep providing wonderful content. I will continue to watch the ads, and so, I hope, put a little money in your pocket.
I am a history fanatic and was so excited the first time that I came across your channel. All of your videos are amazing. I love your narration and how much effort you put into every video! It is a bit ironic that sometimes the videos are regarding an event/topic that many people have never heard of or ever thought about, but that is the appeal. Curious and intrigued, decide to watch, and then it is like WHAM, and you are hooked! It is amazing how much I personally learn from a single video. Thank you for teaching us, for remembering the past which continues to shape our future. Wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year!
You never disappoint. I remember the strict grooming standards we had in the Marines; a senior Machine gunner wore a mustache just to try out the grooming standards. He looked different, to say the least. Lol
When I went into the Army when I was 17 I couldn't grow one. My drill sgt told me that I had to shave every day even though I couldn't grow any hair there. After 2 months in basic and 2 months in AIT, of shaving every day. When I went home on leave my mom sighed and said her youngest son was becoming a man as I could now grow one. Thanks for the enlightening episode.
I grew a moustache as a young police officer in 1981in order to look older and because it was just what cops wore back then. Now, 40 years later, my wife bristles at any suggestion that I shave it off. I think she would appreciate this video.
Vive le moustache!. I'm 66, and haven't been without one since I first was able to grow one at 14. It's taken different shapes (US military regs determine how it must look) through the years, and has been worn with and without an accompanying beard.
They had to! After carefully examining the situation, they had no other choice that the threat caused by your hirsute upper lip presented a clear and present danger to all that would behold it, and it might possibly escape, run free and bite people in the ankles, and thus it was obvious the threat was greater than the one posed by any violation towards civil or human rights with you in particular or as government standard in general.
I was HS class of 1972. One of my sisters is 4 years older than I and was sent home from HS for wearing culottes (a split skirt) instead of a skirt. By the time I got there no one cared what we wore or how long our hair was.
@@juadonna At her first Grand Ole Opry appearance in 1960, Patsy scandalized Nashville by performing in slacks, instead of a dress. Now, the whole Cyborg Assassin From The Year 3768 That's Been Through A Tree Shredder look is de rigeur.
Well! Very interesting. I am a conservative Mennonite. Many of our brethren will not wear a moustache with their beard. As most of you already know, most of our Amish cousins are the same, saying that back in Europe a moustache represented the military, which they don't want to emulate. But I never knew all the background history until now. I will keep my short moustache. I am an American. But now I know what they are talking about. Thank you. I have been enlightened about one facet of my church.
@@cplcabs Good question. As one of the few who was not born into the church, it is one item I have not given up. Also unusual I am a veteran and have been to college. That was decades before I found the church. In virtually everything else I gladly conform very well. And am glad to.
@@michaeldougfir9807 Thanks for you reply. I honestly thought that you had no choice. I also didn't know you could just join which I suppose makes me a tad ignorant really.
That brought back memories of older women calling my mustache a "cookie duster" when I grew mine when I was in my twenties. Always loved those older people, their stories, and their humor and crazy sayings.
Right! I don't eat powdered doughnuts to this day. Mustard and mayonnaise go on the BOTTOM piece of bread in a sandwich. Moustache bath after meals is the norm.
I am 54 years old and I have never shaved my moustache when it came in when I was 13 years old Yes I am a hairy beast great channel my brother Thank you for the daily history lessons Hope you and the Ms had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a prosperous New Year
"One newspaper mocked that the waiters would just strike again when mustaches went out of style." Of course they would. They're French. Baseball is said to be the great American pastime. In France, it's strikes.
As a teenager, I adored the boys with the bushy mustache from college. Now I hate facial hair on med but I am in my 50s snd my view carries no weight. In Chicago the old famous restaurants always had the head waiter with the big mustache. However. Pepe la Pew had the skinny type I think of as so French! Great research and story! Thanks.
By a weird coincidence, I just found out that there's a group trying to prohibit employers from firing people because of their hairstyles. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It was mandatory for British soldiers to have a moustache until 1916. In that year an officer was court martialled and sentenced to be cashiered for shaving his off. Apparently he was an actor in civilian life and wearing a moustache gave him a rash which might adversely impact on his post war employment opportunities. The sentence was approved by all levels of authority until it reached the Adjutant General, Sir Nevil Mcready, who had never liked his own moustache. He thought that the case was ridiculous, quashed the conviction and changed Kings Regulations so that moustaches were no longer required.
I agree with the article that maintained mustaches are a vanity, and therefore absurd, but as a matter of principle, people should have the right to be absurd.
when i was in RAF 1980-1997 they were just abolishing the big whiskers you associate with early aviators. i saw one old chief technician weeping at being told he had to remove his whiskers and facial hair was limited to just above the upper lip. ppl could get "shaving chits" and grow beards - but this was temporary only. the era of the Cold War heating up in the 80's meant that anyone who needed a full beard all of the time would be out the door. the Royal Navy has been the only branch of service that traditionally allowed beards, but i think even they were "trimmed back" in the 80's.. after the Cold War there was a general loosening of regulations. but certainly by time i left moustaches only were the rule for RAF/Army that i'm aware of
@@TheInfidel_SlavaUA Nobody ever expected to get such permission, or would avail themselves of the opportunity. It's just a form of dissent that you probably won't get fizzered for...
You should’ve grown a few day mustache for this one. Lol I’m very proud of mine. Even though it’s always been so light that it never shows up on photos. Lol
I'm French and don't associate manhood with "La Moustache, Le guidon de vélo (hadnlebars)....", and son many other argotic terms that were common until the second WW. However it's true that at the time and since Emperor Napléon III's time and especially during the 3rd Republic, France promoted an image of the "Gaulois Chevelu" or the long haired Gaul as the national heroic ancestor type, who was always depicted with a long "moustache" this is so true that if you look at most pictures of French soldiers during WW I you will see a big imposing upper lip appendage. These "poilus" or hairy soldiers were the heroes of the nation.
The "scariest" facial hair I've ever seen on human beings is the extra bushy white eyebrows seen on some older British men (especially a few British actors), makes them look hawk-like.
I always was terrified of men with mustaches when I was a small child. Very peculiar this was, both my father and grandfather wore them my whole life. When my father shaved his as a test, I cried. I don't wear any facial hair but when I tried I had already gone quite grey so, I missed my shot according to my daughters. Never had a job that cared either way. Never been an issue here at my place.
That must have been very long ago. The Bible already has rules forbidding Jews from shaving. So shaving must have been around thousands of years ago. Egyptian paintings already show most men clean-shaven and those paintings are 4000 years old, if not older.
The French have striking down to an high art form. It seems they prefer their strikes to take place in the spring and summer. I remember a dear friend who was a Paris police officer telling me that the French prefer to strike then so as to add to their annual summer holidays.
The French military is well known for going on strike the minute any enemy is spotted. Other militaries call this "surrendering" and it's frowned upon by them....
Another fine example of how any historical event must be viewed in "the light of its day". That is, to fully understand a particular historical event and its significance one must evaluate everything that surrounds it; for instance, the social mores, morals, politics and beliefs of the people of that era. What was happening in the world around that time and so much more, just as today, have an effect, profound or otherwise, on a particular event.
Dear History Guy: How about doing a piece on the US Marine Corps' birthday. You have slightly less than a year to research it, until November 10, 2021. Semper fi.
When I got out of the 1st and 10th CAV in 1979 I went to apply to work at a Les Schwab Tire Store only to be told I would have to shave My Cavalry Handlebar Moustache...They allowed zero facial hair and I never did work for them .And I still have the 'Stash
I'm stroking my moustache as I ask you, The History Guy, once again. Can we please have an episode or two about the loss of the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion?
Some of those moustaches are just plain gravity defying... How was that possible back in the day? Did they use gel back then? Or some other hair product for styling?
Bernard Cornwell, in one of the Sharpe's Rifles novels, describes a British sergeant getting his moustache tarred - applying hot tar to maintain the shape. I think wax was more common.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Interesting... I'm guessing either they used soft, warm beeswax or there were special products made from bees wax and other ingredients especially for facial hair right? Similar to modern beard styling products.
I grew a mustache as soon as I could at the age of 16, and it has been on my face ever since. The mustache is another victim of the pandemic - alas, all of our glorious facial hair is hidden beneath a mask. *sigh* Thanks, HG, for bringing the mustache to the forefront of style once again!!
Complaining that mustaches are “un-English” is the most English thing I’ve ever heard
It is comic how that changed. 19th century British generals had some of the most impressive moustaches that I have ever seen in photographs.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel facial hair in general. The Victorian ideal for elderly men is a thick, grandfatherly beard. This shaped our popular image of St Nick, which continues today
As a teenager in the 1970s, I can confirm that long hair was most definitely seen as un-American. [ edit back then, long hair also might have caused one's masculinity to be called into question; perhaps a little less so than in the 60s, those guys had it particularly rough, got called " f-----ts" regularly. Towards the tail end of the Vietnam War, long hair was most definitely seen as a defining message of disagreement with that part of American foreign policy, hence the frequent charges of un-Americanism].
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel The clean-shaven look, may be a Roman ideal ... that of low body hair. As men mass for military service, it may have played a role in reducing lice.
@@goodun2974 I hear ya man. My Dad freaked when my hair got too long. I tried to argue that fashions change by citing George Armstrong Custer and others, including the powdered wigs of presidents. He didnt hear a word. I suspect the guys at the American Legion were ribbing him about me. Dont get me wrong. I grew up in that Legion Hall. But its a shame parents demand the same from their kids as their own fashion dictates. I shoulda dyed it purple and spiked it, lol.
One might say that employers giving in to the demand to be allowed to wear a mustache was merely paying lip service to their complaints.
They could keep the strike going as long as they did cos they had a lot of money...
...'stached away.
I ordered a lesson on mustaches, with a side of history on restaurants.
And how far the French will go to hold a good strike
Very interesting piece;
I’ve fortunately been able to visit Paris a couple of times and I have enjoyed all of the people as well as all of the artistry not to mention all of the wonderful foods;
Talk about one long flight from the states,
Still one very nice weekend visit
I complimented my server on having a thick mustache. My jaw still hurts. I don't know why she took this as an insult.
You just won my "morning coffee snorted out of my nose award'" for today! Very good comment, enjoyed it tremendously!
Some people just can't take a compliment.
@@ronfullerton3162 That is sooooo funny... and it buuuurrrns!! ;^)
@@MrGaryGG48 Did it ever, but such a small price to pay for a good laugh!
Next time, don't have breakfast at the circus.
Dad: " I once dated a twin"
Me: " How did you tell them apart?"
Dad: " Her brother wore a mustache."
ha ha haaa
And in 1992 they opened Disneyland Paris, and Disney learned that people in France feel very strongly about not being told by their employer how to wear their hair.
Lakrids pibe er overvuderet
Having sported a mustache for 49 years, since age 18, I stand with them!
👍👍
Mustaches are for homosexuals. It helps attract other homosexuals so they can be homosexuals together, and enjoy the scent of each other's
feces.
@@conradmcdougall3629 >>> *Dork.*
Nice to see your stache is still here with us brother! 👨👌
Conrad MacDougal lmaoolmao
Here's to the mighty mustache. A most maligned follicle. Thank you for raising it up!
Dilly Dilly Old boy!
hair raising?
I am sorry to have to be "that guy" ---- well, maybe not really sorry at all ha ha ! ---- but a follicle is the little pouch in the skin that the hair actually sprouts from, it is not the hair itself.
@@goodun2974 Can't have one without the other, Mate.
@@ibannymous , true, but, is the chicken the same as the egg?🙂
Today, the image of a French waiter with a pencil moustache is almost stereotypical in most in the minds of most people 😁😎
As a man with a formidable mustache, I enjoyed this very much.
Amazing. I remember a time in the Sixties when a young man couldn't get a job if he had long hair. Looking back it seems trivial, but it was a big deal at the time.
Even the last 10-20 years things have changed a lot in regards to a general acceptance of tattoos and piercings.
Same thing in the 70s when I was a teenager, long hair was still considered un-American.
In 1967 my High School football coach refused to fit me for a helmet until I got my hair cut; and it wasn't that long, just unkempt. My hair barely covered the top of my ears.
@Guy Incognito who are "THEY"?
@Guy Incognito I'm sorry that happened to you. Don't worry though, it should wear off any decade now...
Another great episode.
I attended Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the US, graduating in 1987. The growing and wearing of a properly trimmed moustache was a privilege reserved only for senior (final year) cadets.
In 1986 I grew my moustache, and have worn it ever since. With a 30 day exception in the 1990s when I shaved my moustache to raise money for a charity and my supervisory colleague, who had always been clean shaven, grew a moustache for the same 30 days. It was done for a good cause.
After leaving the military, I began shaving my head (courtesy of male pattern baldness) and cultivating a handlebar moustache, which I kept neatly waxed and trimmed. While from time to time, mostly during the cold Maine winters, I grow an accompanying beard, the large, handlebar moustache has been a fixture in my life. I can not imagine looking in the mirror and seeing a clean shaven upper lip.
Liberte, Egalite, Moustacherie !!
The military connection to the mustache is why the Old Order Amish men, even today, wear a beard but not a mustache. The religion rejects anything military.
I never knew that. I always assumed it was reason similar to why muhammadans do it.
That is also the reason Old Order Amish don’t wear any buttons on their shirts/blouses. They have a pin or hook method instead. Buttons on shirts are associated with the military. I wouldn’t have known either, except that I have a friend who grew up in the Old Order Amish church who explained these things to me.
@@keithweiss7899 they wear boots, though?
Not military style boots. Also Velcro is considered too modern. I have seen nice tennis shoes worn. But keep in mind, each Amish group has their own rules, called the “Ordnung”. For instance one group may allow rubber on their wagon wheels but others only allow steel rims. Some have “Y” suspenders, others “H” or only one side. Belts are a no-no due to the military look.
I live in around the largest american old order community. Good folks.
Some of us are old enough to remember strict facial hair restrictions for schools, athletic teams and various career paths.
& Disney
I believe that flight crews on airlines (at least in the US) are still not allowed to have facial hair.
Even my current job restricted beards until fairly recently. It's only recently that beards were allowed in my type of job (where the public can see me). And of course in the Navy beards were forbidden, but plenty of men had mustaches.
@@johnopalko5223 With good reason oxygen masks dont fit very well in an emergency.
When I joined the FBI in '88, mustaches were allowed but not beards. When I grew a beard, my supervisor took my access to a government car away. Also, only white shirts were OK. You were pushing the limit if you wore blue, but you had crossed the line with any other color.
When I was drafted in to the Danish army in 1972 I ended up in a Hussar regiment. Naturally they had by then traded in the horses for tanks but they still kept a small squad of horse soldiers for parade purposes complete with a light blue traditional Hussar uniform like the the original Hungarian model. If I had only known how to play a trumpet or ride a horse I could have avoided a lot of slogging .. such is life :-)
I hear mustache and I think of that fellow from tank chats, David Fletcher.
Thank you THG for a whimsical & entertaining presentation making Monday morning more bearable. 🐱
He does have an impressive 'stache.
The meeting of the bow tie and the mustache! I forgot that you have personal experience with that place and those people. It's been about a year now hasn't it? Always a treat when they use your message to pramote donation end subscription at the end of one of them their videos.
Just imagine the indignity...
That of being served by a waiter with a 'tash' more impressive than one's own.
Impossible to live it down!
I grew a moustache over the summer between my junior and senior year in high school and kept it all through my senior year. It wasn't very impressive, but was important to me.
There were two other guys in our senior class of 300+ who had moustaches. When graduation time came around it was announced over the intercom that we who wore moustaches would not be allowed to take part in the graduation ceremonies unless we shaved them off. No one spoke directly to any of us so I just as quietly declined and showed up with my moustache intact. The other two guys had shaved. Not a word was said about mine and I walked across the stage moustache intact and head held high.
Though I had shaving gear with me and would have shaved it off if challenged directly, it didn't happen.
I learned some lessons about civil disobedience from that. Except for a couple of times when I shaved it off for a lark, I've had a moustache ever since. I'm 70 now. and I've been allowing it to get more fluffy the last few months, though it has increased maintenance issues.
The first restaurant wasn't opened in France. A fast food joint was unearthed from underneath the ashes in Pompeii just recently
Hey Mr. History Guy, You need to grow a mustache and proclaim to all that YOU are the great Mr.MOUSTACHEIO!
Your videos are always as entertaining as they are informative. Thank you good sir.
yaaaaaas
No. Do not let a Caterpillar take up residence under your nose. Mustaches are nasty.
yep
The Hussars were the last military units allowed to wear their hair in braids in the belief that such braids were some protection against saber strokes to the neck.
a stiff collar or leather scarf might be more effective...
When metal wire was woven into the braids they did provide some protection against sabers.
@@davidwilliams1959 metal wire coven in..? good grief.
The things we did for "some" protection of the neck from saber strikes.
I served in a Hussar regiment our mustaches were exempt from the grooming standard.
You know that you're living in the First World when you're striking to wear a mustache.
Some hills are worth dying on, other less so.
Battles over hair styles are not new. It’s only first world if it involves a strike instead of guerilla warfare or attempts to overthrow an emperor (see the Chinese queue as an example)
@@kthomasaus I completely forgot about the fight over the Chinese queue. Don't forget that between 22 and 34 New Yorkers were killed in a riot at the Astor Place theater on 10 May 1849 over which actor played Hamlet better on stage.
Yep, the ol' "other people have worse problems than yours, therefore, you have no problems" commie shit.
"First world"...the prattle of the truly smug & self-righteous.
Besides, there is no longer a First World, or a Second World, or a Third World, or any other number world.
There is only the Last World, & we're in it.
At school, they were always insistent that the older boys were clean-shaven my friend and I were the rebellious type and would usually have a heavy growth of stubble. Our headmaster an ex-Royal Navy captain called us to his study. He made a deal with us that if we could grow a beard navy style within six weeks, we could ignore the usual rule. Both of us succeed in growing a "full set" as it was known in the navy parlance, a thick well-trimmed beard. The headmaster who thought the task was beyond a couple of lads didn't like it but was a man of his word and stuck to the deal. My friend later became an RN captain.
Aah, Imperialism at work. I’m sure your mate is being used by the Military Industrial Complex to destroy the lives of those in the brutally exploited 3rd world. Fuck the UK and their Imperialist tendencies🇬🇧🗑️🔥
Always a fan of *_THE HISTORY GUY_*
If he and Ms. History Guy ever get top Western Australia, I'm buying them both a cold beer!
Does it annoy anyone else when an ad interupts The History Guy when he's in the middle of explaining an historical fact?
No. I understand that the creator can designate where the YT ads will be inserted, and THG does it so that he doesn't get cut off mid-sentence. My complaint about some of the mid roll ads is their length.
@@michaelwarren2391 I wasn't aware that the creator had control of ad placement. Thanks for the info.
I gotta say, I laughed about the poor Americans who were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. I can totally see myself in their shoes. "Hey! What did I do!?"
I’ve been wearing mine for almost 15 years and I recently turned down employment because they said I had to shave! My inspiration for growing one is my favorite musician: king diamond
I've had a moustache for most of my life. Not going without it.
I had one for around twenty years, early twenties to early fourties in age. But I gave it up when the colors red and gray started infiltrating my brown mustache. It looked horrible and I was not going to dye it. So it was gone. I always kept mine cut and trimmed. Some of the pictures in THG's video really got me in the fact it seems no maintenance or care was taken of the mustache. I would rather do without than have a rat's nest under my nose.
Same here. I've shaved it only twice once during Boot Camp and the second during the first weeks of the Police Academy. Both times as soon as I was allowed - boom! Mustache on!
Same here, I have worn a moustache ever sense I got out basic training in 88.
My moustache has been a constant companion since 1980... but it would be gone in an instant if my wife ever asked 😜😜
@@kthomasaus My wife has disallowed me from being clean-shaven. LOL
I last shaved my upper lip the day I graduated High School. It has been so many years I never think much about it. Funny how people don't change, the things we "fuss" about change but people don't really change
I've never once shaved mine! Trim it weekly, but never shaved it. I'm 43 now.
Same for me. I graduated high school in 1971
I did the exact same thing. We weren’t allowed to have facial hair in high school. I got yelled at more than once not to come to school the next day with hair on my upper lip. Even got sent to the dean of boys office once. Got a lecture on how ridiculous mustaches looked in modern times. And when I got older I would understand this. So when I graduated, I grew a mustache, probably for revenge at the time. I’ve worn it ever since. It’s been 50 years now. I wonder how the dean of boys would feel about that!
I learn something every time I view your channel. Thanks, History Guy.
I noticed that you used the term "waxed" in a video about mustaches. Good one. I've had a mustache since 1981 and a full beard since 1997 and wouldn't go without them.
I enjoy this channel very much and would like to humbly suggest a future episode.
There is a stretch of 'The Old Spanish Trail' between Moapa, Nevada and Las Vegas, Nevada, so dry and steep that settlers would depart at night, even in the cooler months, to avoid the harsh sun. Still, less than halfway through the fifty waterless miles, the settlers would begin to jettison their heavier belongings. Potbelly stoves, cast iron cookware, and all manner of furniture was said to litter the sides of the trail as the settlers desperately tried to get their families and animals to the springs of Las Vegas before succumbing to the desert. The slope caused the horses to strain mightily, and slowed the pace as well as dramatically increasing their need for water, and so, the only way to survive was to lighten the load and leave behind belongings and necessaries that had traveled, in some cases, from as far away as Europe. I think that deserves to be remembered. I wish I could provide a source, but alas, I can't remember where I read about it.
Keep providing wonderful content. I will continue to watch the ads, and so, I hope, put a little money in your pocket.
I am a history fanatic and was so excited the first time that I came across your channel. All of your videos are amazing. I love your narration and how much effort you put into every video! It is a bit ironic that sometimes the videos are regarding an event/topic that many people have never heard of or ever thought about, but that is the appeal. Curious and intrigued, decide to watch, and then it is like WHAM, and you are hooked! It is amazing how much I personally learn from a single video. Thank you for teaching us, for remembering the past which continues to shape our future.
Wishing you and your family a very Happy New Year!
"moustaches are ridiculous, but waiters should be free to wear them" why can't we have this attitude towards most other controversial topics...
well mustaches are harmless whereas many other things are not.
Many of us do have that attitude today.
You never disappoint. I remember the strict grooming standards we had in the Marines; a senior Machine gunner wore a mustache just to try out the grooming standards. He looked different, to say the least. Lol
When I went into the Army when I was 17 I couldn't grow one. My drill sgt told me that I had to shave every day even though I couldn't grow any hair there. After 2 months in basic and 2 months in AIT, of shaving every day. When I went home on leave my mom sighed and said her youngest son was becoming a man as I could now grow one. Thanks for the enlightening episode.
Brilliant episode! I really loved this one. Thanks, History Guy!
Very interesting, thank you!
I grew a moustache as a young police officer in 1981in order to look older and because it was just what cops wore back then. Now, 40 years later, my wife bristles at any suggestion that I shave it off. I think she would appreciate this video.
As a man with a BIG mustache I must say what a great video!!
I noted your "Grogu" on your shelf and had to check back episodes to see if it was new. I guess someone had a good Christmas!
Great video as usual! This is definitely history worth remembering. Thank you for what you’ve done in 2020
Li love the passionate delivery of every episode
I really enjoy your teaching 😀 and your back wall.
Vive le moustache!. I'm 66, and haven't been without one since I first was able to grow one at 14. It's taken different shapes (US military regs determine how it must look) through the years, and has been worn with and without an accompanying beard.
I crashed my warhorse while under the influence of a moustache.
What a fun and needed historic inclusion during this time. Thank you.
Awesome episode sir. I wish I loved history when I was young.
More interested in " herstory" 📉😂📈
Every time I shaved off my mustache (twice in my lifetime) I immediately regretted it. Won't ever happen again!
I shaved my mustachez 3 time, evry time regret it and start growing them back, we all have moment of weakness
I LOVED this. Thank you!
I am mustached and appreciated this history lesson.
Thank You & Happy Holidays Everyone 😁
This would have been a great opportunity to feature the famous francophile Ian from forgotten weapons
I was expelled from school for refusing to shave my moustache and cut my hair. It was the seventies after all.
They had to! After carefully examining the situation, they had no other choice that the threat caused by your hirsute upper lip presented a clear and present danger to all that would behold it, and it might possibly escape, run free and bite people in the ankles, and thus it was obvious the threat was greater than the one posed by any violation towards civil or human rights with you in particular or as government standard in general.
I was HS class of 1972. One of my sisters is 4 years older than I and was sent home from HS for wearing culottes (a split skirt) instead of a skirt. By the time I got there no one cared what we wore or how long our hair was.
@@shorttimer874 I was HS class of 68. Girls were allowed to wear slacks starting in the fall of 1969.
@@juadonna At her first Grand Ole Opry appearance in 1960, Patsy scandalized Nashville by performing in slacks, instead of a dress. Now, the whole Cyborg Assassin From The Year 3768 That's Been Through A Tree Shredder look is de rigeur.
Well! Very interesting. I am a conservative Mennonite. Many of our brethren will not wear a moustache with their beard. As most of you already know, most of our Amish cousins are the same, saying that back in Europe a moustache represented the military, which they don't want to emulate. But I never knew all the background history until now. I will keep my short moustache. I am an American. But now I know what they are talking about.
Thank you. I have been enlightened about one facet of my church.
Wait a minute. If you are a Mennonite, what the heck are you doing on the internet?!
@@cplcabs
Good question.
As one of the few who was not born into the church, it is one item I have not given up. Also unusual I am a veteran and have been to college. That was decades before I found the church.
In virtually everything else I gladly conform very well. And am glad to.
@@michaeldougfir9807 Thanks for you reply. I honestly thought that you had no choice. I also didn't know you could just join which I suppose makes me a tad ignorant really.
Wore a mustache during my 20's. Had an interesting relationship with powdered donuts during it.
That brought back memories of older women calling my mustache a "cookie duster" when I grew mine when I was in my twenties. Always loved those older people, their stories, and their humor and crazy sayings.
Right! I don't eat powdered doughnuts to this day. Mustard and mayonnaise go on the BOTTOM piece of bread in a sandwich. Moustache bath after meals is the norm.
I am 54 years old and I have never shaved my moustache when it came in when I was 13 years old Yes I am a hairy beast great channel my brother Thank you for the daily history lessons Hope you and the Ms had a wonderful Christmas and look forward to a prosperous New Year
And in 54 years you haven't learned to use punctuation.
I don't know if I can trust the guy on this subject. He's suspiciously clean-shaven.
"One newspaper mocked that the waiters would just strike again when mustaches went out of style."
Of course they would. They're French. Baseball is said to be the great American pastime. In France, it's strikes.
As a teenager, I adored the boys with the bushy mustache from college. Now I hate facial hair on med but I am in my 50s snd my view carries no weight.
In Chicago the old famous restaurants always had the head waiter with the big mustache. However. Pepe la Pew had the skinny type I think of as so French!
Great research and story! Thanks.
By a weird coincidence, I just found out that there's a group trying to prohibit employers from firing people because of their hairstyles. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Outstanding show!
*Parisian Waiters* :"We have waited long enough. It is our time to grow moustaches,"
No commercials. No sponsors. That gets a thumbs up from me
It was mandatory for British soldiers to have a moustache until 1916. In that year an officer was court martialled and sentenced to be cashiered for shaving his off. Apparently he was an actor in civilian life and wearing a moustache gave him a rash which might adversely impact on his post war employment opportunities.
The sentence was approved by all levels of authority until it reached the Adjutant General, Sir Nevil Mcready, who had never liked his own moustache. He thought that the case was ridiculous, quashed the conviction and changed Kings Regulations so that moustaches were no longer required.
I agree with the article that maintained mustaches are a vanity, and therefore absurd, but as a matter of principle, people should have the right to be absurd.
thanks
A traditional way of showing passive dissent in the British army is to ask "permission to grow a beard sir"...
Thank you THG.
when i was in RAF 1980-1997 they were just abolishing the big whiskers you associate with early aviators. i saw one old chief technician weeping at being told he had to remove his whiskers and facial hair was limited to just above the upper lip. ppl could get "shaving chits" and grow beards - but this was temporary only. the era of the Cold War heating up in the 80's meant that anyone who needed a full beard all of the time would be out the door. the Royal Navy has been the only branch of service that traditionally allowed beards, but i think even they were "trimmed back" in the 80's.. after the Cold War there was a general loosening of regulations. but certainly by time i left moustaches only were the rule for RAF/Army that i'm aware of
@@TheInfidel_SlavaUA Nobody ever expected to get such permission, or would avail themselves of the opportunity. It's just a form of dissent that you probably won't get fizzered for...
"John has a long mustache"
'The Duelists' is a great movie about crazy Hussars!
You should’ve grown a few day mustache for this one. Lol
I’m very proud of mine. Even though it’s always been so light that it never shows up on photos. Lol
Wonderful, thank you.
Excellent - as always!
Yes ive been waiting for a new thg episode
I'm French and don't associate manhood with "La Moustache, Le guidon de vélo (hadnlebars)....", and son many other argotic terms that were common until the second WW. However it's true that at the time and since Emperor Napléon III's time and especially during the 3rd Republic, France promoted an image of the "Gaulois Chevelu" or the long haired Gaul as the national heroic ancestor type, who was always depicted with a long "moustache" this is so true that if you look at most pictures of French soldiers during WW I you will see a big imposing upper lip appendage. These "poilus" or hairy soldiers were the heroes of the nation.
May have to grow my moustache again...
I might go on strike if my employer demanded that I shave my upper lip.
I did and obviously won.
One of, if not the most turn-of-the-century things to go on strike for.
Wonderful episode! Salamat (thank you in Cebuano)
The "scariest" facial hair I've ever seen on human beings is the extra bushy white eyebrows seen on some older British men (especially a few British actors), makes them look hawk-like.
Or maybe a bit like the wizard Merlin?
IDK, bushy nose hairs kind of scary
@@davidstoyanoff , when they're white and assume tusk-like proportions, definitely!
I always was terrified of men with mustaches when I was a small child. Very peculiar this was, both my father and grandfather wore them my whole life. When my father shaved his as a test, I cried. I don't wear any facial hair but when I tried I had already gone quite grey so, I missed my shot according to my daughters. Never had a job that cared either way. Never been an issue here at my place.
Fascinating, and nicely done!
How about an episode on the history of shaving in general? When did men start to remove the hair from their faces?
That must have been very long ago. The Bible already has rules forbidding Jews from shaving. So shaving must have been around thousands of years ago. Egyptian paintings already show most men clean-shaven and those paintings are 4000 years old, if not older.
ty sir
I mean it's not like the French have a history of striking FOR EVERY REASON POSSIBLE!
This was one of several strikes in France in 1907.
There's probably a strike to protest too many strikes
I'm french and i can tell you this is 100% correct.
The French have striking down to an high art form. It seems they prefer their strikes to take place in the spring and summer.
I remember a dear friend who was a Paris police officer telling me that the French prefer to strike then so as to add to their annual summer holidays.
The French military is well known for going on strike the minute any enemy is spotted. Other militaries call this "surrendering" and it's frowned upon by them....
Another fine example of how any historical event must be viewed in "the light of its day". That is, to fully understand a particular historical event and its significance one must evaluate everything that surrounds it; for instance, the social mores, morals, politics and beliefs of the people of that era. What was happening in the world around that time and so much more, just as today, have an effect, profound or otherwise, on a particular event.
I can't help but think about the song from "A Million Ways To Die In The West".
America 2020 we need health care but won't strike.
France 1907 we want moustaches and will strike.
I have shaved off my mustache only 3 times in my life and every time it has grown back twice as thick.
Dear History Guy: How about doing a piece on the US Marine Corps' birthday. You have slightly less than a year to research it, until November 10, 2021. Semper fi.
I though you were going to end saying:
"their moustaches were symbols that they... deserve to be remembered!"
When I got out of the 1st and 10th CAV in 1979 I went to apply to work at a Les Schwab Tire Store only to be told I would have to shave My Cavalry Handlebar Moustache...They allowed zero facial hair and I never did work for them .And I still have the 'Stash
My favorite mustache belonged to the last Hussar, Field Marshall August Von Mackensen.
I'm stroking my moustache as I ask you, The History Guy, once again. Can we please have an episode or two about the loss of the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion?
Some of those moustaches are just plain gravity defying... How was that possible back in the day? Did they use gel back then? Or some other hair product for styling?
Bernard Cornwell, in one of the Sharpe's Rifles novels, describes a British sergeant getting his moustache tarred - applying hot tar to maintain the shape. I think wax was more common.
They typically used beeswax.
A wax & tallow mix was the most common. Still is no need to reinvent the wheel.
@@hbtrustme7196 That sounds somewhat dangerous... Was there anything written about the temperature?
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Interesting... I'm guessing either they used soft, warm beeswax or there were special products made from bees wax and other ingredients especially for facial hair right? Similar to modern beard styling products.
I grew a mustache as soon as I could at the age of 16, and it has been on my face ever since. The mustache is another victim of the pandemic - alas, all of our glorious facial hair is hidden beneath a mask. *sigh* Thanks, HG, for bringing the mustache to the forefront of style once again!!
Magnum P.I. (the Tom Selleck one) without a mustache is unimaginable and unacceptable.
The only person i have ever seen that looks better with a mustache than without.
good one
You had me at mustache strike.
The Marine Corps regulations on a mustache is such to render it so unappealing that most Marines refuse to grow one.