Don’t take it in the chin, chaps

HAPPY Movember to one and all!

Yes, you read that correctly, this is Movember, not November, or at least it will be in my house. Movember is a yearly event to raise awareness of men’s health issues and as such is responsible for the sudden appearance of furry growths on the top lips of many normally tonsured faces.
Yes, November has become Movember because for the whole 30 days of the month men are encouraged to grow moustaches!

This for me is a bit of a double-edged sword. On the one hand I love to call my husband’s bluff: he has on many occasions spoken about growing a D’Artagnan style moustache, or even a ‘Niven’, but until now has completely chickened out of the actual growing and sporting of said facial accessory. The closest he has ever got to having a moustache has been when he has taken his own sweet time in the bathroom shaving off his beard and perhaps just rested in between strokes of the razor to see what he would look like with a handlebar, or a Dali, or perhaps even a Super Mario Brother. But on the other hand, snogging a fella with a moustache, well, I guess everyone has to make sacrifices for charity and health awareness.

My husband has said that he would definitely do it if we were still living in London as plenty of his friends would be doing it with him, so this has led me to try to form the S’Arraco Moustache Club.
So far I have not been able to recruit one single person, but I am determined as it starts today, Movember 1st. The rules are such: each ‘Mo Bro’ (that’s the cute name you get if you participate) must start the month clean shaven.
For the entire month the Mo Bro must grow and groom a moustache. There is to be no joining of the mo to the sideburns as that is considered a beard. And there is to be no joining of the handlebars to the chin as that is considered a goatee. And, (this is the best rule), each Mo Bro must conduct himself like a true gentleman.

Mo Bros effectively become walking, talking billboards for the month of Movember and through their actions and words raise the profile of men’s health issues, such as prostrate and testicular cancer which is often still not spoken about as it is such a private issue for so many people.
Some get sponsored to grow their moustache at the money goes to men’s health charities. At the end of the month there is often a party (I am using this as a way to encourage the Moustache Club: come on Bros! There will be Scotch eggs and beer!).
‘Mo Sistas’ are the women who support the Bros. The most supportive thing you can do is not, repeat NOT snigger at the early days attempts. Teenage ‘bumfluff’ moustache or full on ‘Tom Selleck’, it is the thought that counts.

Since its humble beginnings in Melbourne, Australia Movember has grown to become a truly global movement inspiring more than 1.9 million people.
Last year over 854,000 people around the world got on board, raising GBP 79.3 million. Big steps have been taken towards changing attitudes and habits relating to men’s health around the world but there is still much to be done to catch up with the women’s health movement.
You can get more information at www.movember.com . If you are planning to a fundraising Movember moustache campaign in Mallorca then please let me know! www.familymattersmallorca.com.