Ramblings on thoughts, the goatee, waiter tip income, styling products, and keeping hair out of my mouth.

After the latest goatee trim this morning

Thoughts flooding through my head

I love my mustache ... I hate my mustache ... It is looking great today... It is looking awful ... I am going to shave it off ... I will keep it forever ... I look really stupid ... man, that mustache is awesome ... The left side is corkscrewing and won't hold together ... my right side has a great curl today ... the goatee is staying ... time to shave the goatee ... perhaps I need to just trim the goatee.

Welcome to my thoughts this weekend. As I had every thought and emotion possible regarding the mustache.  I start loathing the difficulty that it is giving me, but suddenly I get hit with a couple of compliments and I love it again.

Heavy mustache, light beard

I have come to the conclusion that I don't like the mustache with a large thick goatee, but I don't like a bare chin either.  So here's today I trimmed the goatee to the lowest setting on my trimmer.  I am going for the heavy mustache, light beard look.  The mustache grabs the attention, the goatee is an afterthought.

A waiter's tips machine

The longer my mustache gets, the better my tips are when working the restaurant job.  Except for some Austrians (who don't understand that waiters live on tips) and left me $1.42 on a $108 check, last Saturday, I did very well - averaging over twenty percent even including the Austrians' check.

Styling products

I now battle my mustache into submission with the following arsenal of products:

Clubman Mustache Wax - Neutral

Clubman's my the only product designed for mustache use.  I don't use it too much, but when I do, I primarily use it to keep the hairs growing to the side.  It works marginally well on the tips - but if I am not happy with its results, I use the Elmer's glue stick to firm them up.

American Crew Fiber

I am very glad that I discovered this product ... for my hair.  It has replaced hair jell for my daily styling.  Just a tiny bit keeps my top-of-head hair in place and looking great all day without a greasy look.  I don't know how it works, but it does.  I tiny bit goes a long ways.

Today I used it on my mustache again for the first time in several weeks.  I had stopped using it for a while because - well, I didn't see it making that much difference.  Perhaps it was just the stage that the mustache was in.  But today I was going for the au naturel look as I normally do during the day, and thought that I would give it a try "since it was not making that much difference anyway."   

Today it is giving a nice shape and keeping the hairs in the direction I want them, so it definitely an improvement.  The curls hold, but are fuzzy - see the picture above.

Got2B Glued Spiking Glue

Before going to work at the restaurant, I apply Got2B Glued.  This is the stuff that punk rockers use to create outrage spikes and mohawks so it definitely can hold hair.  Since I am  handling peoples food and also unable to check the mirror regularly, I need a product where I can set my mustache and forget it and this does it.  I also want a more groomed look for the formal setting.

It does not keep my tips together.  For that I use the Elmer's glue stick.

Elmer's glue stick

Nothing holds the curls better than the simple glue stick - unless it gets wet.  While I have used it on the entire mustache, usually I use other products on the center, and use the glue stick on the ends.  It forms a rock-hard curl that lasts until it gets wet.

At this time, I lack length for complete curls.  But the glue brings it to a nice solid point at the end of a semi-curl.

Nothing

Some days I just finger groom the mustache.  My wirery hair forms a nice handlebar shape without any product.  But, without product, I make many trips to the mirror to check and adjust and I do have to fight to keep hairs out of my mouth.

Hair in my mouth

Either the mustache is behaving better, or I am getting used to the occasional hair on my lips and going into my mouth.   I think that the length now allows those hairs be brushed to the side rather than poking into my mouth.  Or perhaps I just don't notice it any more.

Enough rambling for now.  Thanks for reading.