One more try with the waxes - lessons learned

This morning's lightly waxed mustache - what a beaut!

After my previous post, I was just about ready to shove my waxes in bottom drawer and forget about them for a very long time.  But then today came along and, well and with minimal effort and with no styling product, all the forces came together to magically form a beautiful mustache.  Rather then immediately going for the Got2B Glued tube, I decided to give the Firehouse Moustache Wacky Tacky wax another try but just using a really light coat and I ended up with the mustache that you see above which I am quite happy with.

Closeup shot

The two stages of mustache styling

So,  what did I learn?  Well...  the mustache styling process involves two stages regardless of the product used if one is used 1) getting everything where you want it to be (or very close to it) which I will call the styling stage, and 2) setting it so that it will keep its shape and form for the desired time period which I will call the setting stage.

My mistake was trying to use a very firm wax - like the Wacky Tacky in styling stage.  It is just too strong of wax to use for this and should only be used for the setting stage.  When attacking a wild and bristly mustache like mine, it seems to want to immediately hold everything where it is - and if the mustache is messed up, it will want to keep it in that state.  On the other hand if the mustache is already pretty much in the desired form, the firm wax will keep it there.  Of course there will still be a little bit of styling once applying the wax such as getting the hairs at the tips to stick to each other.  But for the most part, I learned not to touch a firm wax until I already have a mustache that I can be quite happy with for the day.

The Got2B Glued glue, however, is much more forgiving.  It can be used to both style and set the mustache.  I actually transitions from a very wet and runny styling product to a firm tacky holding one within less than a minute.  For this reason, it can be used both to tame a messed up mustache and then keep it in control once it dries.

Why today was such a good day before using product

At the end of a restaurant shift I take a shower before going to bed as I don't want to go to bed dirty, sweaty and smelling like food which is what I did last night.  I shampooed the mustache (usually I don't), rinsed it thoroughly, and put in conditioner and very lightly rinsed it probably leaving some conditioner in it.  I then finger styled it with pretty good results before going to bed.

But, since I wash may face thoroughly before shaving and rinse it afterwards, it really does not matter how good or bad the mustache looks the night before since it will get all wet and washed out anyway.  When wet, my mustache immediately goes into frizzy mode which it did this morning.  After shaving I gave it a quick hit with the hair drier and combed it and fussed with it till I got the shape I liked.  While it sounds like a timely process, it took a lot less time then when I previously tried to style using the wax.  This, the position of the sun in the sky,  the migratory pattern of monarch butterflies, location of the earth's magnetic field, phase of the moon, size of the polar ice cap, and several unknown factors all combined to make a great mustache day.