Handlebar moustache
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy, upward curved, extremities. It is named for its resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle.[1] It is also known as a "spaghetti moustache", because of its stereotypical association with Italian men. The Handlebar Club humorously describes the style as "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities".[2]
Styles
This style is usually achieved by the use of moustache wax,[3] although hair gel, a curling iron, or natural curling can sometimes be used.[4] By varying the amount of curling of the extremities, a more dramatic appearance can be achieved. When worn without wax or grooming, the moustache style may more closely resemble a walrus moustache.[5]
History
Similar styles of moustache are quite ancient, appearing on statues and other depictions of Iron Age Celts.[6]
In the United States, handlebar moustaches were often worn in the later part of the 19th century by Wild West figures like Wyatt Earp.[7][8] In Europe, handlebar moustaches were often worn by soldiers during the 18th century through roughly the World War I era.
In 1972, to win a $300 "best facial hair" prize offered by team owner Charlie O. Finley, Oakland A's pitcher Rollie Fingers grew a handlebar moustache which he sported throughout his career.[9][10]
More recently, the contemporary hipster subculture has embraced the handlebar moustache by mocking conventional ideals of fashion, and by ironically combining a highly manicured handlebar moustache with the portrayal of an unkempt appearance or a haphazardly selected clothing ensemble.[11][12]
Famous men with handlebar moustaches
- Michael "Atters" Attree (b. 1965) — comedian and figurehead of the Handlebar Club
- Francisco Bertrand (1866–1926) — President of Honduras
- Juan Cailles (1871–1951) — Filipino commander
- Billy Childish (b. 1959) — artist, painter, author, poet, photographer, film maker, singer and guitarist
- Lord Randolph Churchill (1849–1895) — British statesman
- George Armstrong Custer (1839–1876) — United States Army officer during the Civil War
- George Dewey (1837–1917) — admiral of the United States Navy
- Wyatt Earp (1848–1929) — American gunslinger
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934) — English composer
- Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) — Archduke of Austria-Este
- Rollie Fingers (b. 1946) — baseball pitcher
- George V of the United Kingdom (1865–1936) — King of the United Kingdom
- Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) — English novelist and poet
- Maurice de Hirsch (1831–1896) — German-Jewish philanthropist
- Joseph Bruce Ismay (1862–1937) — English businessman
- Tom Ketchum (1863–1901) — a cowboy who later turned to a life of crime
- Horatio Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (1850–1916) — British Field Marshal
- Henry Ware Lawton (1843–1899) — United States Army officer
- George Lycurgus (1858–1960) — Greek American businessman
- José Martí (1853–1895) — Cuban national hero
- Robin Olds (1922–2007) — American fighter pilot and general officer in the U.S. Air Force
- Marcelo H. del Pilar (1850–1896) — Filipino writer, journalist, satirist, lawyer
- Albrecht von Roon (1803–1879) — Prussian soldier and statesman
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) — President of the United States
- Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) — Swiss linguist
- Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) — Premier of the Soviet Union
- William Howard Taft (1857–1930) — President of the United States
- Ben Thompson (1843–1884) — a gunman, gambler, and sometime lawman of the Old West
- Snidely Whiplash (fictional) — cartoon arch-villain to Dudley Do-Right
- Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919) — leading figure in the Mexican Revolution
- Eugene Hütz (b. 1972) - Ukrainian musician and frontman of New York-based band Gogol Bordello
See also
References
External links
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Category: Hair
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