English Style without the goatee

At the request of an Englishman on the handlebar forum, I took and posted this picture when he wanted to see how I would look with the English style and no goatee.

In response to the picture, he wrote, "That's a real bobby dazzler me ol' china!"

As my English slang is lacking a bit, I requested a translation and got the following, "Bobby dazzler, northern English colloquialism for specially good looking...,  China (plate), London cockney rhyming slang for "mate" or pal!"

He then wrote, "John, if you're gonna look the look, you gotta talk the talk!!!!"

Hey at least I could understand that.

English Style

Here's my latest attempt at an English style.  With my natural curls, it must really be glued into submission. 

When English styled, I definitely have a face spanner.  It measured at just over 6 inches - as compared with 5 and 1/2 at the end of July.  While the increase in length has been small, the center shows remarkable improvement.  It's a much nicer looking mustache right now, even if it is not much longer.

Five-and-one-half-inch spread

Today's experiment with the English style provided me the opportunity to get a measurement of my mustache span.  When I took my measurements on May 29, 2013, my mustache width with was 4.25 inches.  Now two months later is is 5.5 inches - or an increase of an 1.25 inches.  If these figures are accurate, my hair growth rate is sightly faster than most at .625 inches a month while the average for most human hair is .5.

Update - the growth information is actually incorrect - based upon my July 5 blog entry, since the hair at the tips is growing in opposite directions, the growth is rate of individual hairs is half of the growth of the mustache.  This means that the hair growth rate would be .3125 inches a month, not the .625 I posted above.

In reality, I don't think that these growth numbers are accurate.  I think that one English style measurement can only be compared to another of the same style.  Although the hairs are styled in an erect fashion, they still are not perfectly straight.

Since many sources say that it takes most men a minimum of 3 months to grow a true handlebar mustache I can use that as a benchmark, (and I am still over a week away from the milestone).  With this photograph showing the graspable extremities approaching the width of my face, it shows at least an average - if not an above average - rate of growth.

From the looks  of this picture, I have a face spanner when styled this way, though just barely - and if the camera was a bit farther away, perhaps it would show that I am not quite there yet.  It certainly is not large enough to allow both sides to be viewed from behind my head. 

English Style

While I did receive complements today on my mustache, including one from an older man who said, "I tried to grow a mustache like yours a long time ago, but could never get it to work",   I think that the English Style is much better suited towards longer mustache where it can be truly awesome.  I also see it as kind of a special occasion style rather than something for every day.  But I will certainly style it this way occasionally.  It's fun and different and a great way to flash the stache.

English Style Handlebar

My first time in with the English style - Using Firehouse Wacky Tacky and glue stick

This morning I styled my handlebar mustache for the first time in the English Style.  This dramatic style sends the ends straight out to a narrow sharp point.

It takes length to pull of an English style and up to this point I did not have it.  Last night after taking a shower, I deliberately messed up the mustache and went to bed to see how it would look in the morning.  It did not look as scarey as I thought it would, but since it really didn't have much curl, I thought that I would give it a try.

My wife laughed as I worked at it.  She is convinced that this is a phase and evidence of a midlife crisis.  "At least it's cheaper than a red convertible" she said.