Goodbye, Movember!

On the first weekend of this month, my friend Scott and I decided to take a road trip to Gander for the weekend. When I picked him up, I couldn't help but notice something different about him. A new, stylish jacket? No, not that. A noticeable improvement in his physique? Absolutely not. The next words I uttered were a phrase that I thought I would never say to anyone during my time on this Earth. "Nice mustache."

He then proceeded to fill me in on what was being dubbed as 'Movember'. He said that, in short, Movember was an event in which men (and men only... I hope) were to shave their entire face on the first of the month and proceed to then grow a mustache for the entire month. The participants were to raise money for prostate cancer awareness, as the duster was supposed to represent a ribbon for men's health, much like the pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness. Upon further research, I learned some interesting facts about the latest craze among men. As it turns out, Movember came about in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia, when a group of friends went out for beers. Now as a man who enjoys beer, I can attest to coming up with some pretty wild and creative ideas while hammered, but growing mustaches for an entire month to raise awareness for prostate cancer?!?! I don't know what they put in that Foster's beer, but I have GOT to try me some of that!!!

Unfortunately, at the tender age of 26, genetics won't allow me to participate in any events in which X amount of facial hair is required to participate (hey, at least I've got a nice, healthy, full head of hair!). But that didn't stop thousands, and thousands... and thousands of men, worldwide, from participating in what has become nothing short of a global phenomenon. You can check out a cool YouTube compilation of Movember staches here: Sweet Movember Dusters

Everywhere I went over the course of this month, there was a mustache-wearer lurking somewhere close. It was as if Ron Jeremy was following me everywhere (which, for the record, would be weird as shit). And it was easy to differentiate (big word!) between the men who were rockin' Movember staches and those who lived with a mustache. The distinction was simple: every time I saw a man with a Movember stache, upon eye contact, the stache bearer would get that shit-eating grin on his face as if to say, "God, this is embarrassing." While I'm sure Movember participants wore their prostate cancer awareness mustaches with pride, the embarrassed grin was a reaction that could not be fought, as oftentimes happens when men make any changes to their regular visage.

The Movember trend seemed particularly popular among sports figures, both players and commentators. Personally, I thought Gino Reda's Movember "cookie duster" was epic. Some notable dusters from the NHL included my boy, Carey Price, Cal Clutterbuck and Sam Gagner, to name a few. It was a trend that was embraced by everyone. I read somewhere that more than $21 million was raised for Movember in 2009, and one can only imagine that at least that much money was raised this year.

I'm going to state this for the record, and for those of you who see me on a regular basis, feel free to remind me: I will participate in Movember 2011. I don't care if I still have the facial hair growing ability of a pre-pubescent boy, I am going to participate next year. And I will raise as much money as I can to help support a very worthy cause.

To those of you who did participate in Movember 2010, I salute you. And I'm sure for many of those who did participate, November 18th was a great day, which was coined 'Have Sex With A Guy With A Mustache Day'. I bet you guys weren't embarrassed about your Movember lip sweaters then! ;)

For my useless factoid, I'll leave you with something mustache related:

 
The average mustache traps 72 pints of beer and 37.5 pounds of beer-related snack foods within it's folicles each year! Motivation to keep that Movember stache...?

Side note: for those of you who visited that "Movember Compilation" before reading to the end of this post... in your face! I responded to one global phenomenon with another - the Rick Roll! I am so 2007! :)