Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by Ella from Medicine Hat. Ella Wonders, “How long is the longest mustache in the world?” Thanks for WONDERing with us, Ella!
˜Is that a woolly worm on your dad's upper lip? Nope! If it looks like one, that just means he's probably sporting a fashionable mustache!
Mustache — or as some people around the world spell it, moustache — refers to facial hair grown on the upper lip. You can spell it either way, but mustache seems to be the preferred spelling in American English.
The word “moustache" is French, but it comes from Italian, Medieval Latin, and even Ancient Greek roots. Quite appropriately, it means “upper lip" or “facial hair."
Mustaches have been around ever since prehistoric man first walked Earth. It should come as no surprise that early man probably did not make shaving a high priority. Between hunting game, gathering berries, and making fire, there probably wasn't much spare time to worry about things like shaving the hair off your upper lip!
Eventually, prehistoric man did invent razors made out of sharpened stones. No one knows for sure, however, when it first became popular to shave the entire face with the exception of the upper lip to create the mustache. Historians believe the oldest picture showing a shaved man with a mustache is of an ancient Iranian horseman from about 300 B.C.
Today, all you need to do is take a look around to see a wide variety of mustaches on the men you see. Like any other kind of hairstyle, mustache styles can vary wildly and make a statement about the man behind the mustache.
How many types of mustaches are there? The World Beard and Moustache Championships (yes, there is such a thing!) has six different sub-categories for mustaches in 2014: natural, Hungarian, Dali, English, Imperial, and Freestyle.
Of course, there are many other types of mustaches that have been popular over the years. Here are the names of just a few: Chevron, Fu Manchu, Pancho Villa, Handlebar, Horseshoe, Pencil, Toothbrush, and Walrus! Often certain styles of mustaches become popular because of their association with a famous person who sports their own individual style of mustache.
If these names sound hilarious, you should see some of the mustaches themselves. We encourage you to use your Internet research skills to look up some of the many styles of mustaches.
While many mustaches are small and don't go far beyond the upper lip, other mustaches can grow long and droop low. In fact, the longest mustache in the world measures a whopping 14 feet long!
That long mustache belongs to Ram Singh Chauhan of India. He set the Guinness World Record for longest mustache when his impressive mustache was officially measured in 2010 on a television show called “Lo Show dei Record" in Rome, Italy.
How did he grow such a long mustache? Not shaving really helps! Ram Singh Chauhan claims that he hasn't trimmed his mustache in over 32 years! Today, Ram Singh Chauhan spends about two hours every day grooming his “most prized possession."
