Andy Jaeger social media and social change

When I started out on my tache oddysey at the beginning of September, I wasn't sure entirely what to expect. Aside from the physical act of transforming my facial hair, I've found myself talking about my tache all the time to anyone who'll listen.

I've met a lot of new people in September, and I've found myself starting conversations with the words "I don't usually look like this..." Partly, I want people to know I don't normally look like a 70s porn star reject and partly, I want to plant the seed of them being able to recognise me when they meet me, not during September, and I don't have a moustache! I'm not sure it's a look I'd want to maintain the long term. I also can't stop playing with it, stroking it in a contemplative fashion that makes me look, well, a bit bonkers.

A surprise upside of growing my top lip has been a new a Remington grooming kit. It's been really handy throughout the month. My top lip hair does not grow universally straight and neat, so being able to tidy up the edges has helped me maintain an air of manicured (faci-cured?) orderliness. I've mostly used the medium width trimmer, but the Remington comes with other interchangeable bits too. There's even one for dealing with nose and ear hair... yum... though it's a tad vicious and pulled out a piece of hair, prompting lots of eye watering! Still, I suppose that's better than my former grooming machine, which seemed to totally give up at the sight of a thicker than normal hair, and frequently ran out of juice midway through a trim. It's got a neat little charger and a places to store all the bits, and has pride of place on my bedside table.

All in all though, I can't wait til Wednesday morning when the tache can come off. My tache has raised £75, and I'm currently ranked at number 297 (ah well, can't win them all) so I feel like I've done my bit for tacheback. I also have a list of people to email on Wednesday morning who've promised to sponsor me to shave the tache off, so I should be able to push my total up a little higher.

The only thing I have to decide is what to do next. Growing a moustache has the same kind of facial impact as shaving off an eyebrow. It's one thing to be cleanly shaven, even to have all over stubble, but it takes a kind of strange persistence to grow hair on just one part of your face. Still, I suppose with my new clippers, my face is my oyster.