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Here are a few things to keep in mind right off the bat:

• Generally not a good idea for women to try this.
• You’re going to love it!
• This is a labor of love.
• This will be awesome!
• It will be itchy (you have to muscle thorough).
• DON’T GIVE UP AND SHAVE!!!
• You will want to give up and shave.
• DON’T GIVE UP AND SHAVE!!!

The Skinny:

I am on my second handlebar mission since we started MustacheStuff.com and I have found that, instead of growing through the creepy mustache stages, it is easier to mask the fact that you are growing a mustache by hiding your sweet sweet stache in a beard for the first few months. Everyones experience will vary but, for me, I grow the beard for about 3 months before I shave down to the standalone. It gets very itchy at times, excruciating even, but its important to remember that you CAN’T FREAKIN SHAVE! This will come and go in stages and, at the time of this writing, I am having one of the “gotta shave” days. One of the ways to get through this stage is to carry a mustache/beard comb with you. Coming the beard seems to help. Another way is to just put some warm water on your face or jump in a warm shower. DON’T, however, try to shampoo or condition as this dries our your face and makes itching worse. Shampooing can also lead to a dandruff-like situation and it looks like its snowing when you scratch your beard. There are also some other products you can put in your beard to help but I will have to research to become more familiar and update this post later.

Maintenance:

There will be some slight maintenance during the beard process. If you have a job that lets you have a beard they will usually want you to keep it manicured. Get a beard trimmer and every once in a while do a little light trimming so that you don’t look like a bum. A good rule of thumb, so that you don’t accidentally trim too much, is to start a little further out and work your way down (I’ll explain). Most beard trimmers will have guards that go from 1 – 7 (7 being the biggest guard, leaving the most hair and 1 being the shortest). Work your way down from 7 until you hear it start to cut hair. Once you hear it cutting hair, don’t go any lower! We are just trimming, after all. When trimming, steer clear of the mustache area! We are growing that out! You will probably want to maintain that area a little as well. It starts to get noticeable when the hair starts growing in and toward your mouth. I found the quick and easy solution to get past that and still have a sweet handlebar. *pay close attention – there will be visual aids here as well… In order to stay sane, you will want to trim certain areas above the lips. You will start to notice that you get a lot of food in your mustache and your mustache will get in your food… a lot… Be handy with the napkins, gentlemen (you are becoming gentlemen!). Go to a store like CVS, Walgreens or Rite Aid, they will all have mustache grooming supplies. You want to get a pair of mustache trimming scissors. Careful, they are sharp and you will probably poke yourself in the mouth… but put up with it, you’re fancy now! In the famed Heineken commercial, featuring the handlebar mustache, you will notice that this guy’s mustache is actually trimmed right underneath the nose. If you hold a comb vertically and put it beside your nose, you can use that as the cutting guide (pictures below). [nggallery id=3]

When is it time to shave?!?

That, my friends, is entirely up to you! Like I said before, I usually wait for about the 3rd month. But, as a rule of thumb, if you can curl up the sides, you have a handlebar mustache! When you do shave, you might wonder just how high up to go. I grab a comb and hold it horizontally even with the corner of my lips and shave underneath that. If you go up too high, you will thin up the curly portion of your mustache (that is difficult to come back from!). Be careful when shaving. You’ve put a lot of time and effort into it at this point so don’t get anxious and ruin it now! If you reaaaally want to feel fancy, find an old school barber and get the whole treatment. I think that’s what I’m going to do this time around!

Styling:

There are any number of pruducts you can use for styling, and I’ve tried a few, but the one I like the best is Clubman Wax. It comes in a little metal tube and comes in Neutral, Brown & Black. If you have blonde, light brown or red hair, I would suggest the neutral. If you have brown or dark brown hair, I’d suggest brown and black for black hair. I experimented with a few ways to style the stache and it seems that one of the most effective is the easiest. put a dab of wax in between the tips of your thumb and forefinger and rub them together. Then work it into the curly portion of the mustache, doing a combination of a pull and about a quarter turn with your fingers each pull. Do that until you feel that it looks the way you want and repeat on the other side. I found that it was difficult to get both sides exactly the same but you are going to be your biggest critic. Most people are just going to be excited to see this magnificent creature on your face!   If you have any questions that I haven’t answered here or other suggestions… put ‘em down below in the comments!

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