I work at this great place. Today around breakfast (which for me meant coffee and for others meant A LOT of coffee) we got chatting about facial hair and how it would be nice if all the guys wore mustaches for the entire season. One of our co-workers already started with a very neat, smallish mustache and I feel many of the others will soon follow. They looked to me to join and I’m all for it although as an actor I do like to have a full beard at all times because it’s easier to take it off than put it on but anyone who knows me knows I’m into facial hair. On men. Not that I’m into men. Not that I’d have a problem if I was…you get the point. I like being creative with facial hair.

One of girls had to throw us some “neg”. She said she thought mustaches were gross. I say neg because I felt she was being a little playful. There was laughter and good humor about it. We, the men at the table, listened and made her feel heard but energetically had to disagree. Mustaches are cool. Consciousness is cool. To me, if you put a razor on your face, you’re already engaged in a conscious act. You know, or you may injure yourself and I’m all for acts that make one more aware.

After hearing our lady friend make her point I countered. Our friend is scientifically inclined and likes to hear me talk science, so I slung a little. I said, “well, you know, mustaches are a secondary sexual characteristic”. It was like one of those moments when you hear a meditation bell chime and everyone gets quiet. I got the, “Yeah. Go on” vibe.

When we’re born (most of us), we exhibit primary sexual characteristics. Male or Female (and maybe some grey area). When puberty hits we take on and exhibit our secondar sexual characteristics. Beards, breasts, pubic hair, etc. My claim to our friend is that the mustache is grand statement of chest thumping manhood displayed right on the face for all to see. We also talked about “body mimicry” as defined by Desmond Morris but that’s another story.

I like that. I think I could dress this argument up with a discussion of Ahamkara but I’ll leave it at that for the moment. That is that facial hair is a grand statement of primal cave man, silver backed manliness and with an added dose of consciousness can become the height of cool.