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At long last, the mustache lobby is coming to Washington.
The American Mustache Institute (AMI) is planning a "Million Mustache March" on the nation's capital, part of an ongoing campaign to convince lawmakers to create government incentives to grow facial hair. Rally organizers plan to mobilize their mustache-wearing compatriots on April 1 at the White House and march to Capitol Hill.
Their rallying cry: Pass the "Stimulus To Allow Critical Hair Expenses," or STACHE Act, which would "provide a $250 annual tax deduction for expenditures on mustache grooming supplies." According to AMI research, mustached Americans earn 4.3 percent more money than "clean-shaven Americans" on average per yer. Therefore incentivising mustache growth would boost the economy.
"Given the clear link between the growing and maintenance of mustaches and incremental income, it appears clear that mustache maintenance costs qualify for and should be considered as a deductible expense related to the production of income under Internal Revenue Code Section 212," wrote Dr. John Yeutter, a tax policy professor at Northeastern State University, in a 2010 white paper supporting the legislation.
The subsidy, according to a 2010 proposal , would cover all products required for any proper mustache-wearing patriot, including:
Mustache and beard trimming instruments
Weightless conditioning agents and wax
Facial hair coloring products (for men and women over 43 years of age)
Bacon
Mustache combs and mirrors
Burt Reynolds wallet-sized photos
The campaign's backers have recruited celebrities to help support the cause, including guitarist John Oats, Ellie Kemper of "The Office" and Milwaukee Brewers pitcher John Axford. Each will produce videos to inspire mustached activists to support the STACHE Act. In total seriousness: The group has also secured a promise from H&R Block to donate a charity that provides clean drinking water for each person who participates in the march.
AMI members are planning a press conference Monday on Capitol Hill to outline the details of the initiative.
Already known the world over for its baths, coffee and sweet Turkish delights, Turkey is on the way to adding another item to its roster of specialities: the mustache. Mustaches remain a highly sought-after symbol of masculinity in Turkey and the Middle East to the point that the less hirsute are increasingly seeking out transplants at the hands of Turkish cosmetic surgeons. Among them is Selahattin Tulunay, head of a thriving private practice that once specialized in hair transplants, but has been adapted to cater to the increasing demand for mustaches. Ive been doing mustache implants for around three years now, Tulunay said. A lot of men have come to see me saying: Im 40 years old, Im the head of a large company and no one takes me seriously abroad. I want people to see that I have hair.
Engin Koc, 30, had long despaired of his clean-shaven face before he opted to go under the knife seven months ago and get the upper lip of his dreams. I wanted to look like ancient Turks, like the Ottomans, and since Im a nostalgic soul with an admiration for that era, I got the implants, he said, calling the mustache a symbol of Turkish virility. Mustaches have long been a serious matter in Turkey, where a popular saying states: A man without a mustache is like a house without a balcony.
The shape of the specimen even holds political meaning. The bushy style, like [Josef] Stalins, is more the prerogative of the left or of Kurds, said anthropologist Benoit Fliche from the French Institute of Anatolian Studies in Istanbul. When neater, like that of [Turkish] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it becomes religious and conservative. And when it shoots down on both sides of the mouth like fangs, its a mark of the extreme right, he added.
Although the bewhiskered look is winning over fewer Turks from the big cities who are drawn more toward Western fashion a mustache and beard remain a must for men from Arab countries or the Turkic republics of Central Asia, who journey over to Istanbul to satisfy their need for hair. The Turkish television series broadcast in the Arab world wield a great influence, Tulunay said, adding that its upon seeing our actors that these patients called on us for the same beard or the same moustache.
These clients constitute the core of the new market for facial hair. In Istanbul alone, about 250 practices are locked in fierce competition to sell their services. The majority are linked to travel agencies and offer package deals that include the operation, a hotel stay and airport pick-up, with the most competitive offering package deals from US$2,700. Hair tourism is in full swing, fueled by a constant uptick in the number of foreigners visiting Turkey, with more than 35 million visits estimated last year. Every week, we welcome 50 to 60 patients for a hair transplant and five to six for a moustache transplant, Istanbul Hair Center surgeon Meral Tala said. And as our results are now much better than before, we expect a large rise in demand.
FEATURE: Men seek dream mustache from Turkish surgeons - Taipei Times
Impeccably trimmed to 76cm, Afridi spends 30 minutes a day washing, combing, oiling and twirling his facial hair into two arches that reach to his forehead, defying gravity. People give me a lot of respect. Its my identity, said the 48-year-old grandfather in the northwestern city of Peshawar, when asked why he was prepared to risk everything for his whiskers. I feel happy. When its ordinary, no one gives me any attention. I got used to all the attention and I like it a lot, he said. For centuries, a luxuriant mustache has been a sign of virility and authority on the Indian subcontinent. However, in Pakistan, Islamist militants try to enforce religious doctrine that a mustache must be trimmed, if not shaved off. So Afridi went from celebrity to prisoner of Lashkar-e-Islam, then a rival and now an ally of the Taliban in the tribal district of Khyber on the Afghan border.
First the group demanded protection money of US$500 a month. When he refused, four gunmen turned up at his house in 2009. He says they held him prisoner for a month in a cave and only released him when he agreed to cut it off. I was scared they would kill me, so thats why I sacrificed my mustache, he said. He fled to relative safety in Peshawar. However, he grew his facial hair back and last year the threats started again: telephone calls from people threatening to slit his throat. So he left the Taliban-hit northwest altogether, moving to the Punjabi city of Faisalabad and returning to Peshawar to visit his family only once or twice a month. Im still scared, he said. Im in Peshawar to spend Ramadan with my family, but most of the time I stay at home and tell people Im in Faisalabad if they want to meet me.
His only concession is the holy Muslim fasting month, when a free-standing mustache interferes with his daily ablutions and he keeps it smoothed across his face and tucked behind his ears. It costs US$150 a month to maintain more than a Pakistani teacher can earn although he gets a mustache bursary of US$50 from the home district in the lawless tribal belt he was forced to flee. The Khyber administration pays anything from US$10 to US$60 a month to men with particularly eye-catching mustaches as a symbolic gesture of appreciation for the bravery and virility traditionally associated with such facial hair. Both tribesmen and members of the security forces can qualify for the sum, which is handed out at the discretion of the chief administrator.
Afridi has a hairdryer, bars of soap, shampoo, an alleged German oil from Dubai whose label he has ripped off so no one knows its alchemy, a mirror and an old bottle of homemade coconut oil. Then there are towels and a hair brush. He massages the secret oil into his whiskers, twiddles and twirls them in front of the mirror and dries them to stand on end, before striding around a shopping mall, quickly attracting a crowd. An opinion piece published in Pakistans Daily Times newspaper last year drew parallels between power and a luxuriant mustache, although Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the only man in the country to win a third term in office, is clean shaven.
More FEATURE: Pakistani man threatened with death over mustache - Taipei Times
