Fashion Rebels With a Cause
A good mustache is difficult to grow. That was obvious from the dozen or so fresh-faced twentysome- things who gathered outside the Spaceland nightclub in Silver Lake for their weekly “mustache checkpoint.”
After three weeks, none of the 20 participants in the second annual Holiday Mustache Growing Fund-Raiser to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation had achieved any substantial growth.
“Mine isn’t so overt,” said Kevin Perry, a tall, blond 26-year-old with a peach-fuzz upper lip. “The ‘stache is in the heart more than on my face.”
Sasha Veneziano, 24, felt his pain. “Whenever I [tell people they] should support me in my growing for children, they’re like, ‘What are you growing?’ ” said Veneziano, who is sporting a mustache for the first time. “It hurts deeply, but that’s what you have to go through.”
Although the mustache has never been out of style in some quarters--firemen, policemen and cowboys are among its notable fans--it is by and large not a look currently in favor with hip, young urbanites. Not that all facial hair is out of vogue--lamb-chop sideburns and soul patches are the epitome of cool in certain circles.
“I think there is a certain taboo with a mustache. Guys of our age only grow a mustache for a joke or as part of an unsuccessful goatee,” said Allen “Big Al” Ewald, a baby-faced 28-year-old with a barely-there ‘stache. He’s growing his second mustache ever, his last one cultivated in late ’99 for the same cause. Like many of the men at the checkpoint, Ewald was wearing a yellow-and-white baseball jersey with the words “Mustaches for Kids” written across the front.
Ewald came up with the idea last fall while working the night shift at a film production company with his friend Dan Strange. “I originally challenged him to a beard-growing contest,” Ewald said, “but he didn’t want to do it. Then I challenged him to a mustache-growing contest, and it got more interesting.”
The two told a few co-workers and the contest was up and running. Each participant gets sponsors--the idea is that each gets at least $50 in pledges--payable to Make-A-Wish and collectible at the end of the monthlong growing period. Last year, seven people participated and raised $900, primarily from friends and family. This year, Ewald anticipates they will raise about $2,000 because his donor group has grown to more than 20 people.
Tony Schloss, 25, was at a party when he was recruited for the cause. “They just swarmed up on me and said, ‘Hey, man. You’ve got a mustache. What’s up with that?’ Then they started telling me about Mustaches for Kids, and that was really cool.”
Like all of the fund-raiser’s participants, Schloss started out clean-shaven on Nov. 20, the day the contest began. Every Monday night he has gone to Spaceland for the checkpoint, where his mustache is evaluated for conformity to the rules. This week, when caught with the ends of his mustache curling around the edges of his mouth, Schloss was dinged for breaking the rules.
“Dude. I had no idea,” he told Ewald.
All mustaches must be “corner to corner only,” said Ewald. “All hair below the mouth must be eradicated weekly.” No handlebars. No Hitler mustaches allowed.
Why the strict rules?
“We don’t want to draw attention away from the point of the fund-raiser, which is to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”
Ewald wanted to support a cause but was not interested in conventional fund-raisers, like walkathons. He chose the Make-A-Wish Foundation because it is a well-known group with ties to the entertainment industry.
A charity with 20 international affiliates and 81 U.S. chapters, the foundation raised $2.4 million last year. It has helped realize more than 80,000 wishes since it was launched in 1980. The first wish was granted to a 7-year-old boy with a terminal illness whose dream was to spend a day working as a police officer.
“We all work in the film industry,” said Ewald. “We moved here to buy into the dream, so it seems appropriate to make somebody else’s dreams come true.”
The contest ends tonight. With only a few more hours until the final checkpoint, some of the contestants may have a wish of their own: to shave.
*
For more information on Mustaches for Kids, call (323) 551-0827.
