Mustaches instead of Beards?
There’s a new trend in Williamsburg of hipsters sporting upper-lip mustaches and closely cropped hair (Brad Pitt in inglorious bastards).
What’s the reason behind that? Anita
by Dyers.org
Recently spotted on the East Coast, the short hair/skinny mustache combo seems to be the latest hair trend of the cool kids. Different from what we’ve seen so far in the hipster world, the new style surprises quite a few. So what happened to the I-make-$10/hour-(including tips) shaggy grooming style? Is looking sharp the new black? Let’s look into the two parts of the equation in order to fully understand such a dramatic change.
1. From bushy to skinny:
Throughout the centuries, many political figures, great influencers and artists have made their distinctive facial grooming a part of history. The full beard made an acclaimed entrance in the pop scene when the Beatles went into their meditative Abbey Road period. For the first time, the homeless facial hair style was no longer only seen inside a Goodwill store. The masses became fond of the yeti trend and Gillette experienced its first recession with the hippie movement.
It is around 2005 that the bushy facial hair style started rocking the cool world. A purposely ungroomed face became one of the dominant trends of the indie scene. But like any other successful hipster story, the cool era of the bum style soon came to an end. After seeing it on the David Letterman show and all over Jezebel’s Snapjudgment column, the masses have now adopted the bearded style too. And it looks like this holiday season will be another tough one for the Mach3.
Naturally, the cool kids had to go in search of a new distinctive facial hair style. With cool origins that can be traced as far back as the stone razor age, the mustache was the ideal solution. Especially when the discovery of tattooed mummies from the same era confirmed that the upper-lip style was already a part of the cool ‘prehipsteric’ world. After glory years in the 70’s, the mustache was totally out of style for over 2 decades. So it is naturally that the cool kids decided to rescue it. After a few influencers of the cool world were recently spotted growing out a Burt Reynolds-ish, thin ’stache, the skinny upper lip movement is growing stronger everyday. It has now officially become one of the most recent signs of membership to the hipster world – contrasting with the uncontrollable beards and other messy facial hair seen on the masses.
2. From shaggy to croppy:
A very similar explanation lays in the origins of the cropped hair style’s cool faith. A perfect coiffe is every hipster’s signature. Asymmetry, shaggy style, everything is permitted as long as it reflects the contradictive hair values every indie kids stand for: effortlessness and complexity. Keeping up with such standards is made possible by the fact that cool kids all have a Hairdresser Hipster (breed description to come soon) in their inner circle of friends.
But things started going wrong in the cool hair world when a corporate finance giant tried to leverage the hipster trend. In early 2008, Mastercard released its “looking like you just rolled out of bed” tv spot. The masses realized that they too could look like they coolly don’t care. From your little cousin in Idaho to Ashley Simpson, everybody adopted some kind of hipster-looking hairstyle. And few months later Zac Efron was on the cover of Rolling Stones.
The cool kids immediately started experimenting all kinds of crazy hairstyles that only Lady Gaga could wear, but soon realized that the only way out from this mainstream mess was to go for a total different, unexpected style. The cleaner, Fonzie-ish look immediately confused the masses – which usually keeps them away for at least 6 months. In addition, it presents many other advantages: a beat generation touch (the poets in skinny jeans are often qualified the ancestors of the cool kids), a 50’s vintage style, and a Burt Reynolds in a 1978 Pontiac Trans-Am touch – which we know is always good.
With the recent popularity of the civil war hair style among the masses, hipsters from all over the world were forced to re-think their grooming. We can conclude that the emerging cropped hair/skinny ‘stache style is clearly a direct response from the cool kids to the mainstream world adopting the shaggy hair/bearded look. And Gomez Adams is now officially the new hipster hair model. As of Gillette… Well rumors say they might relocate their HQ on the alt side on the Brooklyn Bridge while waiting for brighter mainstream days.
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