When James Franco was photographed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Art & Film gala this month with a shaved head and Ned Flanders mustache, Twitter users were not kind.

“All I want for Christmas is for @JamesFrancoTV to have hair again & shave his stupid mustache,” one user wrote.

“James Franco’s mustache looks like he wants it to find another apartment but he can’t work up the guts to kick it out,” another added.

“You’re starting to look just like Cheech from Cheech and Chong,” a third wrote.

The backlash was surprising given that Mr. Franco was just the latest in a string of scruff-chic stars, including Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper and Michael Cera, who have tried to revive the mustache as a not-entirely-ironic fashion statement. And not always for Movember, the annual awareness campaign that encourages men to grow lip fuzz to promote male health in November.