20 facts about 'taches.

1. In a deck of cards, the King of Hearts in the only King whom does not have a moustache.

2. For many years in his career on stage and film, Groucho Marx's moustache was achieved by applying greasepaint to his upper lip, until he decided to grow one in real life.

3. In 1967, The Beatles gave away cardboard moustaches with their album 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts club Band'.

4. In the 1972 April issue of Cosmopolitan magazine, Burt Reynolds posed nude on a bearskin rug with nothing but his moustache covering his dignity. Afterwards, he vowed never to remove his moustache as it was his claim to fame. 

5. Eight types of moustache are recognised at the World Beard and Moustache Championships. These are called: Natural, English, Dali, Handlebar, Wild West, Fu Manchu, Imperial, and Freestyle.

6. According to research by drinks producer, Guiness, the average moustached Guiness drinker traps a pint and a half of the drink in his facial hair every year.

7. Firemen are not allowed to have facial hair, as this prevents breathing equiptment from fitting properly.

8. In the 1960's, long and facial hair was considered to be "a sign of hippies", which the Disney empire did not wish to be associated with, therefore, a policy was set in place in which all male employees had to have short hair and no facial hair at the theme parks. It took until 2000 for the theme parks to remove this policy- now male employees are allowed to have neatly trimmed moustaches.

9. Shaving with stone razors was potentially possible from Neolithic times, but the oldest portrait showing a shaved man with a moustache is an acient Iranian (Scythian) horseman from 300 BC in a cave painting.

10. In Western cultures, women have generally avoided the growth of facial hair- some are (unfortunately) capable, but most use a form of depilation to remove it. Mexican artist Frida Kahlo embraced her facial hair and often depicted it in self portraits, along with a unibrow. Her distinctive style and empanicated style has been followed by many contemporary females working within the arts today.

11. The longest recorded moustache belongs to Bajansinh Juwansinh Gurjar of Ahmedabad, India. It had not been cut for 22 years and it was 12 ft, 6 in long in 2004.

12. Salvador Dali published a book, solely dedicated to his famed moustache.

13. Swimmer Mark Spitz won seven gold medals whilst sporting a moustache, when swimmers usually shaved all of their body hair to decrease drag. When other competitors questioned the moustache and the potential increased drag, he claimed that it helped to create a pocket of air to breathe.

14. Movember is an annual month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November, concieved in 1999 by a male group in Adelaide, Australia, the event supports men's health issues and charities, most notably, supporting research and care in prostate cancer.  

15. The French actor, Francois-Alexandre Galipedes used the stage name "Moustache" in reference to his facial hair.

16. A variety of tools have been developed for the care of moustaches, including moustache wax, moustache nets (snoods), moustache brushes, moustache combs and moustache scissors. 

17. The moustache cup is a drinking cup with a semi-circular ledge inside, which provides a guard to keep the moustache dry from the cup's liquids, and was thought to have been invented by British potter Harvey Adams.

18. The distinct style of moustache known as the pencil moustache is thin and found adjacend or a little above the lip. The style is neatly clipped so the moustache takes a pencil drawn appearance, whereupon a large gap is left between the nose and the moustache, usually breaking across the philtrum, or continues unbroken. Famous examples include director John Waters and television personality, Bruce Forsyth.

19. A horseshoe moustache is a full moustache with vertical extensions grown on the corners of the lips and down the sides of the mouth to the jawline, resembling an upside down U or a horseshoe. The whiskers grow along the sides of the mouth in the horseshoe are sometimes referred to as "pipes".

20. The styles of moustache include: natural, mexican, dali, english, imperial, freestyle, fu manchu, handlebar, rollie fingers, horseshow, pencil moustache, chevron, toothbrush, and walrus.