Maggie Wettergren

The mustache is making a comeback. Whether it be a victim to the hockey boy aesthetic or a musician with thigh tats, everyone’s seeming to grow a stache. I, for one, am here for it. 

The messy, unkept, so-called pornstache is everywhere nowadays. I can’t step on the T without seeing at least one in the train car. 

I attribute this mustache renaissance to the film industry and plenty of male celebrities putting down the razor and picking up the stache lifestyle. 

I pin Miles Teller in Top Gun: Maverick as the catalyst for the rebirth of the facial hair phenomenon. Recently, Austin Butler and Jacob Elordi are two of my favorites to follow suit, sporting some type of mustache in recent years. Not to say Teller invented the mustache, as Henry Cavill and Tom Selleck, to name a couple, have been rocking them for years. Teller’s stache simply happened to catch immense public attention.

Despite my strong personal thoughts, public opinion is divided. I’ve found that much like today’s social and political climate, people have strong opinions on either end. There are those for or against; and few left in between.

“The most beautiful men have mustaches,” said Maria Martinez, sophomore Nursing student and local mustache enthusiast. “It makes a guy look like a man. Mustaches give off an old Hollywood vibe that I like, as an avid movie-watcher.”

Senior Communications and Studio Art student, Sophia Getz, is on the fence regarding the matter. 

“If you’re not a creep, then it’s fine. It can get creepy really fast,” said Getz. “There’s a very fine line between a hot mustache and a creepy pornstache.”

I used to share a similar mentality. I was as anti-mustache as they come. I had my attention set on baby faces and baby faces alone. In recent years though, I, along with a large section of 20-something-year-old women who are chronically online, have boarded the mustache train. I didn’t even look back when I entered the station, luggage in tow.

My interest in the phenomena first struck when the photo of Harry Styles sporting his own upper lip foliage at an Italian vineyard dropped back in 2020. I was obsessed with the hair change and obviously interested, yet wasn’t fully convinced. I stayed in that gray area for a while. 

But it was game over once I saw the photo of Paul Mescal walking on the streets of New York wearing short shorts with a Sweetgreen bag in hand. Since then, I lay my head to rest at night with visions of mustaches (and Paul Mescal himself) dancing in my head.

I am thoroughly locked into the lifestyle. I even requested my long-term boyfriend grow one to meet the needs of my newfound desires. 

To anyone with mustache capabilities reading, I implore you to consider growing one and joining the ever-popular stache nation. Hop on the train at the next stop and join me on this journey.