{"id":496452,"date":"2026-03-26T13:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496452\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:31:16","slug":"from-hollywood-to-hinge-the-curious-reason-behind-the-return-of-the-bushy-moustache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/496452\/","title":{"rendered":"From Hollywood to Hinge: The curious reason behind the return of the bushy moustache"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Although Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s One Battle After Another scooped the best film award at the Oscars last week, there was only one real winner at the biggest night in Hollywood \u2013 Leonardo DiCaprio<\/a>\u2019s big bushy moustache. Loud and proud, it adorned his upper lip, lending the 51-year-old actor an unapologetic swagger we hadn\u2019t seen from him for several years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t found Leo attractive for decades, but with this moustache\u2026\u201d one fan wrote on X\/Twitter, alongside a clip of the actor nonchalantly nodding his head at quips fired out at his expense by ceremony host Conan O’Brien, before turning his gaze (The Office-style) straight down the camera lens to look at us thirsting over him at home. \u201cHe looks HOT,\u201d another shocked fan assessed. \u201cProbably for the first time since 2001.\u201d <\/p>\n

A moustache \u2013 long a symbol of masculinity, strength and maturity \u2013 can have this impact. Pedro Pascal<\/a>, meanwhile, stepped out alarmingly clean-shaven at the Academy Awards, and sadly suffered the inverse effect. \u201cSomeone pick the shaved hairs [up from his sink] and glue it back again QUICK,\u201d one fan begged upon seeing his silky smooth appearance. \u201cI can see regret all over his face,\u201d another claimed of the actor\u2019s tache-less state of mind. <\/p>\n

Moustaches have been on the up for a while. The \u201cdirtbag\u201d tiny tache \u2013 sported by Jacob Elordi, Harry Styles and (to much criticism) Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet has been slowly coming back since the pandemic \u2013 particularly when paired with a mullet. But, now we\u2019re seeing the resurgence \u2013 and celebration \u2013 of the full-throttle, unapologetically present, mouth-framer of a bygone era: You can either grow one, or you can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

27-year-old teacher Cam was an early adopter of said movement; He grew his tache out three years ago having long suspected his dark hair meant he\u2019d be well equipped to sport the style. \u201cIt transpires that I am exceptionally good at having a moustache: I was stopped by a gallery attendant to ask for advice on growing one,\u201d he says. \u201cI take particular pride in my thick moustache standing out against the hordes of wispy and pallid imposters.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"HairHair today: \u2018I haven\u2019t found Leo attractive for decades, but with this moustache\u2026\u2019 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Similarly, 30-year-old fund manager Chris grew his moustache ahead of the trend two and a half years ago. \u201cOriginally I started it in Movember to see if I liked it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was when I was working at an investment bank; the uniform there is relatively strict, so it was a way of bringing in a bit of individualism. I got compliments on it and decided to keep it ever since as a bit of a streak of rebellion.\u201d <\/p>\n

Chris later tells me that one of the main sources of these compliments were women, who seemed drawn to him like never before. Studies have found<\/a> that when it\u2019s harder for men to find a partner, because there are lots of single men of marrying age competing, they\u2019re more likely to grow facial hair like moustaches or beards to stand out or look more attractive to potential partners. And it works. <\/p>\n

\"VanishingVanishing act: Fans were aghast to see Pedro Pascal without his signature moustache (Getty)<\/p>\n

Notably, less than half (49.5 per cent) of adults are now married, according to Office for National Statistics data, with predictions forecasting that 45 per cent of women aged 25 to 44 will be single by 2030 \u2013 the largest share in history, up 41 per cent from 2018. A bit of upper-lip hair isn\u2019t going to solve the plummeting birthrate \u2013 but many women are drawn in by a moustache. <\/p>\n

Twenty-six-year-old Ella first realised she gravitated towards facial hair when she clocked eyes on Kings of Leon lead singer Caleb Followill. \u201cHe had that long hair and porn star tache,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s very attractive, and [moustaches] can hide a multitude of sins like, say, a thin upper lip; It masks that, if it\u2019s something that you struggle with.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just really cool and they make you look like a cowboy or a sheriff,\u201d she enthuses. \u201cThat\u2019s the fundamentals of it\u2026 It\u2019s quite manly isn\u2019t it? It enhances a guy\u2019s look. We use makeup, why can\u2019t they grow a moustache to indicate a sense of self or style?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"OnOn its way out: Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet\u2019s barely-there tache was far less popular with armchair critics (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Founder of luxury barbershop Supply 91, Maxwell Oakley, says he notices an uptick in confidence in his customers who opt to grow a moustache. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a gradual progression,\u201d he says. \u201cWe get a lot of guys who do a kind of cowboy moustache, where they have stubble or a grade one beard and then a moustache that\u2019s really full. That\u2019s a pretty cool look, then sometimes they shave the rest and leave the tache as a statement.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"MenMen across east London have attempted to copy Jacob Elordi\u2019s tache-and-mullet combo (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Of Beards and Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair author Christopher Oldstone-Moore says this \u201clong-term overall trend towards facial hair\u201d could indicate something of a masculinity crisis. \u201cGender \u2013 and in particular masculinity \u2013 is constantly up for negotiation,\u201d he says. \u201cMen are more and more interested in facial hair because it helps them explore or define their own group\u2019s masculinity. It\u2019s becoming more important for that reason,\u201d he adds. \u201cI don\u2019t see it abating any time soon because I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll come to a collective agreement on what masculinity is supposed to look like or how it\u2019s meant to be.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another study<\/a> found that men who grow facial hair tend to care more about living up to masculine expectations. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Prince of Wales has been sporting facial hair since last spring (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Evolution of facial hair perception is charted well if you look at the monarchy: In his 2023 memoir Spare, Prince Harry recounted how \u201clivid\u201d William was that he was allowed to keep his beard for his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle, despite army regulations ordering him to shave it. The Prince of Wales \u2013 who was forced to shave his own facial hair for his wedding to Kate Middleton in 2008 \u2013 is now sporting a full beard of his own, which Kate is reported to love. <\/p>\n

Similarly, in the world of politics, while anything but a clean shave was formerly considered to be flagrantly unkempt, vice president of the United States JD Vance is now the first vice president since William Howard Taft in 1913 to have facial hair. \u201cWhat\u2019s striking to me is that it crosses ideological grounds,\u201d says Oldstone-Moore of the political undertones. \u201cThere\u2019s just as much \u2013 maybe even more \u2013 interest in facial hair on the right as the left.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"SignSign of the times: JD Vance is the first vice president since 1913 to have facial hair (Getty)<\/p>\n

On further investigation, it seems DiCaprio’s moustache might have first been grown out for a role. The actor is set to star alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Martin Scorsese\u2019s gothic horror What Happens at Night<\/a>, an adaptation of Peter Cameron\u2019s 2020 novel of the same name, which follows a couple who travel to an unnamed European city to adopt a baby. <\/p>\n

So, perhaps the tache might get the snip after he\u2019s finished filming \u2013 but if DiCaprio takes Pascal\u2019s plummet in allure as a warning, he might realise the best thing a man in Hollywood, or on Hinge, can have right now is some upper-lip hair. Just ask this year\u2019s Best Actor winner Michael B Jordan, who\u2019s even joked about setting up an OnlyFans account<\/a> just for his moustache: \u201cHis name is Murphy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get wild.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-496452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}