The evening was different. Cotton clouds were in the sky and a soothing wind was recurring now & then. That day the man was sitting idly while the lady went to roam outside. He looked up at the sky- It was sunset. The sky was red and the reflection of light in the clouds created a magic matrix. For the first time, he started feeling a strange void inside him.

Ekti Kaajer o Chaarti Baaje Kotha

Moustaches are not only bushes on upper lips but also conveys a complex cultural, social, religious, heretical symbolism, sometimes also indicates orientation & taboos. It is raining here, and I took the day off. Though it is an extremely stupid idea to start analysing moustaches throughout the ages, I am out of work too. Let’s not include beards here. Only Moustache. So whenever I will use the word Moustache, if context applies, please consider Beards too. Deal.

Adim Manush, Pathor o Gonfer dol

Shaving was possible from Neolithic Age with the invention of the stone razor. Since then for next few thousand years, the shaving of Moustache was used as a Hallmark for the Membership of a Tribe. If you can see a Neolithic Man with Moustache, keep in mind that every male in his tribe is sporting Moustaches. Also, note that his rival tribe is cleanly shaven. So, if you are clean shaved, save your ass buddy.

From the Caveman’s Whiskers to Today’s Moustache Hysteria- the social history progressed, so did Pogonotrophy (Art of Cultivating Facial Hair). Which started with Binary (to sport or not to sport a moustache- that’s the real question), became more & more complicated as time passed.

Gonf Chacha Purohit o Gunfo Ghorsowar

From Archaeological Evidences, it is clear that even more than 5500 years ago, the artistic trimming of Moustaches was quite common. Let’s look at this Priest King from Indus Valley Civilisation, who is a 4500 years old dude. But till now, the oldest sporting of Moustache was found from a picture of Ancient Iranian Horsemen from 300 BC.

Greek Gonf, Cheena Gonf, Mishorer Gonf, Mesopotemiar Gonf ebong Gonf er Bhedabhed

The application of any symbol depends on its perceived generalisation. In ancient Greece, Neatly trimmed facial hair was connoted as Philosopher’s Virtue. They were also cautious about not allowing excessive hair in the face, because that was the trait of “Barbaroi” (Barbarians, literally “Hairy Ones”) from their north and east.

In Early Empirical China, though few elites sported moustaches- generally it was associated with “Uncivilized People from Northern Frontier” & the prevailing notion was that the excessive hair expressed ‘Physical regression, generated by the absence of cooed food, decent clothing & proper behaviour’. So, Chinese citizen remained clean shaved.

But in contrast, Egypt associated facial hair with high rank & the same was worn by females too- sometimes fashioned by gold. In Mesopotamia too, it was the denotation of Higher Class. Interestingly, that Binary Method to distinguish among different Tribes of Cavemen continued in a different form.

Gonfer Aro Bhedabhed- Daser Gonf, Dosher Gonf

Along with distinguishing from the uncivilised ones, the moustache distinguished a certain class from the lower ones in the social hierarchy. It can be understood more clearly with an instance from ‘Hair: The First Five Thousand Years’ by Richard Corson. He says, Early in First Century when elites preferred to be clean shaved, slaves were required to wear facial hairs as a sign of their subjugation. But in Second & Third century they had to shave them clean because keeping the facial hair was an erstwhile trend among the elites.

Sommohoni Gonf o Shishura

Nigel Barber’s study on Moustaches sheds light on few contemporary issues regarding the acceptance and perception, like- influence on the marriage market, even on the number of illegitimate children born. Statistically, a strong correlation has been found between a growing marriage market & growing bushes on upper lips. He describes, it is perceived that a man with moustache represents high reproductive and biological traits.

Weirdly, he claims that the number of moustaches in a society represents the number of illegitimate births in that region. “Here bastards, their bastards, moustaches everywhere.” The reason is directed to the mystery moustaches tends to create at face. The lower visibility of upper lip movement gives a woman hard time to judge if the subject is trustworthy or not. This may sound like a joke, let’s be neutral here. Throughout many thousand years, before and shortly after the application of proper human language- the Homo sapiens had to rely on such visual keys to survive.

So, according to Nigel, the response of women towards moustache is mixed of previous two impulses. Women dislike the men displaying a visible moustache but prefers a visible hint only. 5-o-clock shadow blues.

Office er ei Badorgulo, Mathaye Khali Gobor/ Gonf jora je kothay gyalo, keu rakhe na khobor!

Not only marriage markets, generalising experts claims job markets have their own preference too for moustaches. A prominent example can be the crisis of moustaches among American males during the great depression. A reasoning can be done from a bestselling book of that time, published in 1932 by W C Graham – ‘How to get a Job during Depression’. Here he says, “Shave off that Moustache if you’re looking for a Job”. He adds, “A Moustache may help in getting a job as a ‘Gigolo’ or Sheik, but they are practically no openings for them during depression..”

Gonf Ghatok Chakuri

Interestingly, there are certainly two professions where facial hair is rare in West & other countries where it is not associated with social or cultural values. Banking & Politics. Because, according to Allan Peterkin, writer of ‘One Thousand Moustaches: A Cultural History of the Mo’,

“your clients, voters, public will misread your facial hair as something nefarious… The part of our survival has been a very delicate sensitivity to reading subtle face expressions- quivering lips, pursing lips, etc. So, one of the ideas I came across for a bit of my research was that men with facial hair have something to hide- that they’re concealing something. The subtle, muscular expressions that convey what they’re really thinking if they’re saying the opposite.”

It was the root of the cleanly shaven culture of Service Sector. If compared, the members from more or less autonomous sectors like Artists, Professors or the people whose faces don’t matter or whose face to face interaction to the subject customer is rare like employees of dot com industries enjoy more freedom regarding sporting facial hair. This way, the boom of IT market can easily be associated with the boom of moustaches of the current milieu.

Japani Gonf er Atongko

Among the countries, where shaving clean has reached a crazy height- Japan must have to be named. Here people get fired from Job because of sporting a moustache. This force of rejection is interesting to study because generally, it reveals a part of her own social history. In the case of Japan, from the medieval period to the start of Edo Period (1603 AD), Samurais had to keep the “Hige” (facial hair) mandatorily. But since the Edo Shogunate (military government) became a “Civilian Government”, the previously glorified fighting spirit started being viewed as the intention of rebelling. As ‘Hige’ was a symbol of prevailing warrior Samurais, facial hair was banned by the ruler. Even Samurais had to clean shave too.

Khrishtan Gonf er Donamona o Jishur Udaas Gonf

Talking of state control, Pope Gregory VII issued an edict banning facial hair of the high priests & clergymen in 1073. But even within Christianity, the rise and fall of moustaches is not a religious phenomenon, but cultural. In General, facial hair often used to be associated with Beast & particularly Moustaches with the Devil. But at the same time, most of Jesus’s sculptures & paintings made him wear a moustache. The godliness of the facial hair always depended on Bishop’s personal preferences like in contrast of Gregory VII, as for cleanliness of face being next to godliness, the Franciscans equated Facial hair with Manliness- “The Friars shall wear facial hair, after the example of Christ most holy.”

Hinduder Makundo Debota

Most of the Hindu Gods are also seen clean shaved. It is not sure if there is any specific symbolic representation of facial hair. But Allan Peterkin gave an explanation regarding this issue indicating a probable socio-economic reason. Clean-shaving is also an indication for Higher Class being able to hire a barber or slave to do the shaving. So it would be natural to imagine the deity with traits of elites.

Buddher Prachin Gonf

For Buddha also, there are two version of him- one with moustache & another one without. Earlier representations like the inscriptions in Kanishka’s Coins from 2nd Century BCE frequently displayed Buddha with moustache. It can be attributed to Contemporary Roman & Greek influence.

Gonf diye Jay Chena

There are very few religious doctrines specifying a certain attitude towards moustaches, like the Sikh Practice of “Kesh”, Hadiths of Muhammad or Amish men’s practice. Otherwise, men used to take cues from clergy, royalty, politicians and now takes from stars, athletes & celebrities. So in almost all phase of history, it has been a cultural phenomenon rather than a religious one, excluding few instances.

Gonf Premi Sikh Bhaiyera

Sikh texts ‘Siri Gur Katha’ & ‘Reht Maryada’ mentioned that Sikhs are meant to maintain their uncut hair all over their bodies & it is one of the Five Articles of Faith for them. Guru Govind Singh, the 10th Sikh Spiritual Leader, went to some extent extreme and said, “My Sikh shall not use the razor. For him the use of Razor or shaving the chin shall be as sinful as incest”.

Confusing Jews Bhaiyera

Modern Orthodox Judaism Posses same kind of hatred against Scissors. For that reason, they are cool for Shaving with Razors, but not with Electric Razors as they have two blades like scissors. But The Ultra-Orthodox Judaism goes along the Sikh Line banning the shaving altogether & Reform Jews don’t give a Komlalebu about it.

Gonf Bidweshi Muslim Bhaiyera

Quran has no mention about facial hair, but Hadiths (collection of Muhammad’s sayings) says, “Differ from the polytheists: let your beards grow & trim your moustaches”. Trimming Moustaches is considered as a Sunnah and Mustahab, i.e. way of life mostly among the Sunni Muslims. Interestingly, this Sunnah is just to distinguish from Polytheists.

German Birodhi Amish Bhaiyera

Similarly Amish men Grow Beards but always shave their upper lips. Their rejection is associated with German Military Oppression whose signifying fashion was sporting a moustache. Here, not for distinguishing themselves from others, but a concrete symbol for pacifism is behind this conscious practice.

She was feeling little tired too. While returning she suddenly stopped and looked at the sky. Few minutes passed and she continued walking slowly. The man saw her coming back. The wind is playing with her hair. A subtle light is reflecting from her. The last ray of sun is engulfed everything. With her every step towards him, the void inside him was turning into something else. She smiled at him and moved more close to him. Nobody knows why. But for the first time, She put her hand on his face. He put his hand on her head too and…

Legend says that God created humans with hairs covering all the body. When they first became aware of themselves and of that forbidden fruit, God was outrageous. The Frightened Humans bent and covered themselves. While Eve covered the head, Adam covered his face too. All the hairs from remaining body fall out.

That’s how men got their moustaches.