Between Einstein, Nietzsche and
Gandhi, it’s almost impossible to measure up. Throw in David Crosby, Tom Selleck and Burt Reynolds, and you can pretty much forget about it. Still, Justin Wyatt isn’t letting the stars of the facial hair fraternity scare him off. The way he sees it, anyone can rock a ’stache … for a month, anyway.

“You can get away with anything for a few weeks,” says the associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who, for the third year in a row, is growing a mustache for Movember – the annual, month-long men’s health initiative that raises awareness and money for prostate and testicular cancers. And, while he admits that “not everybody looks good with a mustache,” he quickly points out that “everybody does have some experience with cancer, everyone has seen it destroy lives, and everyone knows a man who thinks he’s too tough to go to the doctor.”

Of course, no one is pretending that growing a mustache can end cancer, but it certainly can’t hurt.

“It’s just a way to put the word out there,” says Wyatt. “Your mustache is that conversation starter, and once the conversation starts, it will spread from there. It all starts with one person.”

For Wyatt himself, it started while he was on sabbatical in Australia, where the Movember movement was founded in 2003. The annual effort – which, having raised $47 million for cancer research to date, is already the world’s largest charity event for men – challenges “Mo Bros” to team up, grow their mustaches for a month and have their friends and family sponsor them.

“It gets people talking, and I just thought it was a really cool idea, so I decided to do it again when I got back to the States,” says Wyatt, who last year enlisted some 14 other men – including a few of his students and colleagues in the chemistry department. The team of Mo Bros started with a clean shave at the beginning of the month, chose the mustache style they were going for and hoped for the best.

“It’s a funny thing because we all started out without any facial hair whatsoever, and then we slowly started to transform into these guys with mustaches,” says Wyatt, who last year donned a handlebar ’stache. “It’s such an interesting, odd process, because it’s just one little thing about you, but it can change your entire personality. Sometimes it’s almost like
you take on the personality of your mustache. That’s why it’s so entertaining. It changes everything.”

Especially how you are perceived.

“Your mustache is the first thing people notice when they see you, and it really colors everything else they think about you,” says Wyatt, adding that it’s not just limited to first impressions. “Even my students told me I seemed meaner with my mustache. For some reason people hear you completely differently when you have a mustache – you sound stricter or somehow less funny.”

Lucky for his students, there’s little chance of Wyatt’s mustache lasting beyond November.

“Facial hair is not where I like to be. It’s itchy, it’s uncomfortable, it starts to drive you crazy after a while. Plus, I play with it a lot – stroking it without even knowing I’m doing it,” he says. “It’s like you can’t help it – you just have to pet it. It’s crazy – all these weird habits start developing. It’s really disturbing!”

But, Wyatt insists, it’s worth it.

“This is a big deal, and I want to keep reminding men to take care of themselves,” he says, adding that new Mo Bros (and the “Mo Sistas” who support them) are always welcome. “I’m excited to see more and more people get involved – the more people sporting mustaches every year, the bigger the impact we can have.”

It just goes to show: A little hair can go a long way.