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Although Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another scooped the best film award at the Oscars last week, there was only one real winner at the biggest night in Hollywood – Leonardo DiCaprio’s big bushy moustache. Loud and proud, it adorned his upper lip, lending the 51-year-old actor an unapologetic swagger we hadn’t seen from him for several years.
“I haven’t found Leo attractive for decades, but with this moustache…” one fan wrote on X/Twitter, alongside a clip of the actor nonchalantly nodding his head at quips fired out at his expense by ceremony host Conan O’Brien, before turning his gaze (The Office-style) straight down the camera lens to look at us thirsting over him at home. “He looks HOT,” another shocked fan assessed. “Probably for the first time since 2001.”
A moustache – long a symbol of masculinity, strength and maturity – can have this impact. Pedro Pascal, meanwhile, stepped out alarmingly clean-shaven at the Academy Awards, and sadly suffered the inverse effect. “Someone pick the shaved hairs [up from his sink] and glue it back again QUICK,” one fan begged upon seeing his silky smooth appearance. “I can see regret all over his face,” another claimed of the actor’s tache-less state of mind.
Moustaches have been on the up for a while. The “dirtbag” tiny tache – sported by Jacob Elordi, Harry Styles and (to much criticism) Timothée Chalamet has been slowly coming back since the pandemic – particularly when paired with a mullet. But, now we’re seeing the resurgence – and celebration – of the full-throttle, unapologetically present, mouth-framer of a bygone era: You can either grow one, or you can’t.
27-year-old teacher Cam was an early adopter of said movement; He grew his tache out three years ago having long suspected his dark hair meant he’d be well equipped to sport the style. “It transpires that I am exceptionally good at having a moustache: I was stopped by a gallery attendant to ask for advice on growing one,” he says. “I take particular pride in my thick moustache standing out against the hordes of wispy and pallid imposters.”
Hair today: ‘I haven’t found Leo attractive for decades, but with this moustache…’ (AFP/Getty)
Similarly, 30-year-old fund manager Chris grew his moustache ahead of the trend two and a half years ago. “Originally I started it in Movember to see if I liked it,” he says. “It was when I was working at an investment bank; the uniform there is relatively strict, so it was a way of bringing in a bit of individualism. I got compliments on it and decided to keep it ever since as a bit of a streak of rebellion.”
Chris later tells me that one of the main sources of these compliments were women, who seemed drawn to him like never before. Studies have found that when it’s harder for men to find a partner, because there are lots of single men of marrying age competing, they’re more likely to grow facial hair like moustaches or beards to stand out or look more attractive to potential partners. And it works.
Vanishing act: Fans were aghast to see Pedro Pascal without his signature moustache (Getty)
Notably, less than half (49.5 per cent) of adults are now married, according to Office for National Statistics data, with predictions forecasting that 45 per cent of women aged 25 to 44 will be single by 2030 – the largest share in history, up 41 per cent from 2018. A bit of upper-lip hair isn’t going to solve the plummeting birthrate – but many women are drawn in by a moustache.
Twenty-six-year-old Ella first realised she gravitated towards facial hair when she clocked eyes on Kings of Leon lead singer Caleb Followill. “He had that long hair and porn star tache,” she says. “It’s very attractive, and [moustaches] can hide a multitude of sins like, say, a thin upper lip; It masks that, if it’s something that you struggle with.
“They’re just really cool and they make you look like a cowboy or a sheriff,” she enthuses. “That’s the fundamentals of it… It’s quite manly isn’t it? It enhances a guy’s look. We use makeup, why can’t they grow a moustache to indicate a sense of self or style?”
On its way out: Timothée Chalamet’s barely-there tache was far less popular with armchair critics (Getty Images)
Founder of luxury barbershop Supply 91, Maxwell Oakley, says he notices an uptick in confidence in his customers who opt to grow a moustache. “It’s a bit of a gradual progression,” he says. “We get a lot of guys who do a kind of cowboy moustache, where they have stubble or a grade one beard and then a moustache that’s really full. That’s a pretty cool look, then sometimes they shave the rest and leave the tache as a statement.”
Men across east London have attempted to copy Jacob Elordi’s tache-and-mullet combo (Getty Images)
Of Beards and Men: The Revealing History of Facial Hair author Christopher Oldstone-Moore says this “long-term overall trend towards facial hair” could indicate something of a masculinity crisis. “Gender – and in particular masculinity – is constantly up for negotiation,” he says. “Men are more and more interested in facial hair because it helps them explore or define their own group’s masculinity. It’s becoming more important for that reason,” he adds. “I don’t see it abating any time soon because I don’t think we’ll come to a collective agreement on what masculinity is supposed to look like or how it’s meant to be.”
Another study found that men who grow facial hair tend to care more about living up to masculine expectations.
The Prince of Wales has been sporting facial hair since last spring (PA Wire)
Evolution of facial hair perception is charted well if you look at the monarchy: In his 2023 memoir Spare, Prince Harry recounted how “livid” William was that he was allowed to keep his beard for his 2018 wedding to Meghan Markle, despite army regulations ordering him to shave it. The Prince of Wales – who was forced to shave his own facial hair for his wedding to Kate Middleton in 2008 – is now sporting a full beard of his own, which Kate is reported to love.
Similarly, in the world of politics, while anything but a clean shave was formerly considered to be flagrantly unkempt, vice president of the United States JD Vance is now the first vice president since William Howard Taft in 1913 to have facial hair. “What’s striking to me is that it crosses ideological grounds,” says Oldstone-Moore of the political undertones. “There’s just as much – maybe even more – interest in facial hair on the right as the left.”
Sign of the times: JD Vance is the first vice president since 1913 to have facial hair (Getty)
On further investigation, it seems DiCaprio’s moustache might have first been grown out for a role. The actor is set to star alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Martin Scorsese’s gothic horror What Happens at Night, an adaptation of Peter Cameron’s 2020 novel of the same name, which follows a couple who travel to an unnamed European city to adopt a baby.
So, perhaps the tache might get the snip after he’s finished filming – but if DiCaprio takes Pascal’s plummet in allure as a warning, he might realise the best thing a man in Hollywood, or on Hinge, can have right now is some upper-lip hair. Just ask this year’s Best Actor winner Michael B Jordan, who’s even joked about setting up an OnlyFans account just for his moustache: “His name is Murphy,” he said. “It’s going to get wild.”