What is Movember?
November kicks off a world wide movement, when ordinary men take on the brave task of growing a moustache for charity in a bid to raise awareness about men’s health issues – prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health issues powered by The Movember Foundation.
What does Movember mean and where did Movember begin?
Movember was started in 2003 by two mates from Australia. Travis Garone and Luke Slattery jokingly decided to bring back in fashion the moustache by convincing their friends to grow one. Inspired by a friend’s mother who was fundraising for breast cancer, they associated the moustache with the pink ribbon, but for men. This is how the campaign began being about men’s health – prostate and testicular cancer. They found 30 friends willing to “grow a mo” after sending an email titled ‘Are you man enough to be my man?’.
The enthusiasm of the first 30 Mo Bros who pioneered the No-Shave-November and they took it to the next level. They decided on supporting the fight against Prostate cancer and got in contact with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) who agreed to accept the funds raised through the 2004 campaign. That year 450 Mo Bros in Australia, UK and Spain contributed with AUD 54,000 to the PCFA.
Evolution
In 2005 the campaign spread like wildfire. The guys had a bigger team and a stronger creative campaign called ‘Give Prostate Cancer a Kick in the Arse’. Their idea was so popular that they got together 9,315 Mo Bros and raised AUD 1.2 million for the PCFA. The 2007 campaign saw 134,171 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK and Spain raise AUD 21.5 million and generate enormous awareness of men’s health issues.
Since then the Mo Bros and Mo Sistas from all over the world have worked to create this massive global movement known as Movember, being awarded Social Force of the Year award from GQ Australia magazine, getting together 4,027,688 Mo Bros and Mo Sistas since 2003, raising £346 million and funding over 770 men’s health projects.
What are the rules?
If you want to get involved, there are many ways of contributing to raising awareness on men’s health issues. The first thing you need to do is register. Once on the site, you can decide whether you’re working alone, or whether you want to team up or join another ‘pack’. On The Movember Foundation website you can find their suggestions on how to participate.
The original way and most popular is to grow a moustache. Sadly no beards.
1) Once registered, each participant must begin the 1st of November with a clean shaven face.
2) You must grow and groom a moustache for the whole month.
3) You cannot have a beard – which means no joining your sideburns to your beard.
4) Nor can you join your chin to your handlebars
How to “moustache”
To help you decide, we’ve made a short intro to moustaches so you can chose your fave and work towards that goal and a couple of tips.
Timing is everything
When growing a moustache the easiest way to trim your moustache in the initial stages is with clippers or a beard trimmer. However, after the first month you can go in just with a quality pair of facial hair scissors to trim around the mouth.
Scrub, Shampoo, Condition and Wax
To manage the coarse feeling of facial hair, but also to make sure you remove all unwanted food and dead skin cells use quality products to clean your moustache. Get natural wax and treat your mo to a pamper sesh.
Trim when dry
Much like the hair on your beautiful head, only trim your moustache when it’s dry as wet hair is heavier and you might find that you cut too much after your ’stach dries.
Match the style to your face shape
“It’s crucial to take into account your face shape when choosing a moustache style. Not everyone can pull off the ‘Tom Selleck’ or a pencil moustache, so make sure to strike a balance between your face shape and the style you choose. If you’ve a square face opt for a heavy, longer moustache and if you’ve an oval one go for a medium width style with a slightly triangular shape.” – Asgar Saboo, creative director at Daniel Galvin.
Movember Shaving Essentials
With beards strictly forbidden during Movember, it’s important to maintain a clean shave around your ‘stach. We’ve put together an essential grooming edit to ensure a well-maintained moustache and a stubble-free face:
1) Apply shaving soap evenly and efficiently with the No.88 Silver Tip Badger Shaving Brush, £125.
2) Draw the No.88 Ball End Razor, £160 across your face, moving in the same direction that your hair grows and avoiding the upper lip area.
3) With a freshly shaven face, apply Oxford & Cambridge Aftershave, from £70, which works to disinfect small cuts and nicks with a refreshing lavender scent.
Located in North America or would like to pay in Euros? Please visit our US site here and our EU site here.