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A Brief History of the Moustache

A History of the Moustache. Article connected to The London Hair Clinic.

Author: Fiddymcegg

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Theoretically speaking, the moustache may well date back to pre-history. Shaving, or the maintenance of a facial hair as a moustache, was apparently possible in the neolithic period with the use of simple flint stones fashioned into razors - around 30,000 years ago! Whether early man decided to trim his facial hair, or indeed any other hair, into something attractive is impossible to tell. The earliest recorded (i.e. verifiable) moustache is dated to around 300 b.c.e. in ancient Persia. In a felt artefact found in a burial site of the ancient “Pazyryk” culture of modern Iran, a horseman is depicted with a partially shaven head and slightly elaborate moustache.

Naturally, it is difficult to separate the beard from the moustache in recorded history. We can, therefore, assume that the moustache or something similar existed in some places in ancient Egypt and Rome. However, the origins of the word “moustache” lead to some interesting assumptions that are difficult to ignore: The word itself comes from renaissance France of the 1500s (and hasn't changed since then). This French word was derived from Italian of the 1300s- “mostaccio”. The Italian was in turn a direct derivative of both the Medieval Latin word “mustacium” and Medieval Greek word “moustakion”. Both the Latin and the Greek date no further back than the 8th century c.e.

What can we surmise from this? First of all, it was in 16th century France, around the time that the beard became popular, that the moustache also became fashionable. Secondly, the word moustache was not derived from the late Roman Empire and was, therefore, not popular at that time. This correlates with what we know of the beard at this time (after the accession of Constantine the Great in the 4th Century, the church declared the Beard as heretical). Therefore, the moustache, along with the beard, briefly flourished during the early Middle Ages, in the time of Germanic Tribal influence, but became unfashionable again until the 16th century.

If we can use the suggestive correlation between the popularity of the beard and the popularity of the moustache, then we can assume that upper-lip hair once again became popular in the 19th century. Indeed, by this time the moustache became very fashionable, especially among the military elite. The thickness and bushiness of a man's moustache denoted his seniority and rank- something made famous with the hilariously insane General Melchett in Blackadder.

Although the moustache is still around (especially among sleep deprived postgraduates... believe me, I know!) the last time upper-lip hair was truly fashionable was the 1980s, with men like Tom Selleck making it look sexy.

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A Brief History of the Moustache