Fake moustache

The use of false facial hair dates back to antiquity. In Ancient Egypt, most men were clean-shaven (real facial hair being a signifier of low social status). Pharaohs, however, often wore elaborate false metal beards, linking them with Osiris, the god of the afterlife.{{Cite web |last=El Samman |first=Khaled |date=2015-12-17 |title=King Tut's Beard Is Back, With Help from a Little Beeswax |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/151217-king-tut-mask-beard-repaired-egypt-archaeology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514062820/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/151217-king-tut-mask-beard-repaired-egypt-archaeology |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 14, 2021 |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=National Geographic}} In Ancient Greece, Aristophanes referenced false facial hair in his play Assemblywomen, in which the women of Athens disguise themselves as men using false beards.{{Cite book|last=Casey |first=Helen|chapter=A Tiny Cloak of Privilege: Facial Hair and Story Telling|date=2018|title=New Perspectives on the History of Facial Hair – Framing the Face|editor1=Jennifer Evans|editor2=Alun Withey|series=Genders and Sexualities in History |pages=131–146|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-73497-2_7|isbn=978-3-319-73496-5}}{{Rp|page=133}}

False facial hair has been used as a disguise for thousands of years.{{Rp|page=134}} In particular, women throughout history have used false facial hair to disguise themselves as men, often to gain access to freedoms they were denied as women.{{Rp|page=136}}

False facial hair has also been used for theater and performance since at least the early modern period. Boy players would often wear false facial hair to appear older onstage.{{Cite book|last=Rycroft|first=Eleanor|chapter=Liminal Masculinity|year=2019|title=Facial Hair and the Performance of Early Modern Masculinity|pages=65–96|publisher=Routledge|location=Abingdon, Oxon; New York|series=Studies in performance and early modern drama|doi=10.4324/9781351265041-3|isbn=9781351265041|s2cid=243679413}}{{Rp|page=15}}

In the 19th century, fake moustaches held associations with deception and criminality. Lewis Powell, one of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination plot, carried with him a fake moustache during his assassination attempt on William H. Seward.{{Cite book |last=Ownsbey |first=Betty J. |title=Alias "Paine": Lewis Thornton Powell, the mystery man of the Lincoln conspiracy |date=1993 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-89950-874-0 |location=Jefferson, NC}}{{Rp|page=71}} A key witness, Louis J. Weichmann, commented that he "thought no honest person had a reason to wear a false mustache".{{Cite book |last=Poore |first=Benjamin Perley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TJEZAAAAYAAJ |title=The Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of the President: And the Attempt to Overthrow the Government by the Assassination of Its Principal Officers |date=1865 |publisher=J. E. Tilton}}{{Rp|page=91}}

Despite these perceptions, false facial hair was worn for aesthetic reasons during the Victorian era, as facial hair was particularly fashionable during this period.{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Victorian beard craze inspired false 'mechanical' whiskers |url=https://phys.org/news/2016-11-victorian-beard-craze-false-mechanical.html |access-date=2023-08-21 |website=phys.org}}

In the mid-20th century, fake mustaches were sold commercially. The New York Herald Tribune reported in 1963 that customers were primarily "young boys for fun or to 'virilize' themselves" as well as "wives who give them to their husbands".{{Cite news|last= |first= |date=2013-11-30|orig-date=November 13, 1963|title=1963: False Real-Hair Mustache Speeds Youths to Manhood |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/30/1963-false-real-hair-mustache-speeds-youths-to-manhood/ |access-date=2023-08-21|department=International Herald Tribune Retrospective|newspaper=The New York Times}}

During the 2010s, fake moustaches surged in popularity, as a humorous, ironic, and retro motif.{{Cite news|date=2010-02-20 |title=All of a sudden, mustaches especially fakes are everywhere |url=https://www.deseret.com/2010/2/20/20097475/all-of-a-sudden-mustaches-especially-fakes-are-everywhere |access-date=2023-08-21|newspaper=Deseret News}}

In many forms of popular media, the use of a fake moustache as an unconvincing disguise is a commonly-used trope.{{Cite web |date=2022-04-15 |title=5 Baffling TV Tropes That Are Constantly Overused |url=https://collider.com/baffling-overused-tv-tropes/ |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=Collider}}{{Cite journal |date=2014-12-18 |title=Smart chicks on screen: representing women's intellect in film and television|journal=Choice Reviews Online|volume=52|issue=5|page=186|doi=10.5860/choice.188094|doi-broken-date=February 1, 2025 |issn=0009-4978}} The "disguised face" emoji (🥸) features a fake moustache, as well as a pair of glasses.Hy, Mo. "[https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2018/18311-disguised-face-emoji.pdf Proposal for New Emoji: Disguised Face]" (PDF). Unicode.

Drawn-on fake moustaches are deployed humorously in graffiti and other artistic means. Marcel Duchamp's artwork L.H.O.O.Q. depicts the Mona Lisa with a moustache. In the 1946 cartoon Daffy Doodles, Daffy Duck draws fake moustaches on everyone she sees.{{Rp|page=138}}

Many iconic moustaches in popular media have been prosthetic: Charlie Chaplin,{{Cite web |last=Kratz |first=Jessie |date=2022-09-02 |title=Facial Hair Friday: Charlie Chaplin |url=https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2022/09/02/facial-hair-friday-charlie-chaplin/ |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=Pieces of History}} Groucho Marx,{{Cite web |date=2012-11-26 |title=Groucho Marx voted America's favorite facial hair icon |url=https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/groucho-marx-america-favorite-facial-hair-icon-194615033.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |website=Yahoo News}} and David Suchet (as Hercule Poirot){{Cite news |date=2010-12-20 |title=Suchet: Moustache completes Poirot|newspaper=Belfast Telegraph|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/suchet-moustache-completes-poirot/28577390.html |access-date=2023-08-20 |issn=0307-1235}} all wore fake moustaches. Marx's moustache, in particular, has gained prominence as the namesake of groucho glasses, novelty glasses with a fake moustache attached.{{Cite news|title=There Ain't No Sanity Claus|author=Gary Giddins|date=2000-06-18|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/00/06/18/reviews/000618.18giddent.html|access-date=2023-08-20|newspaper=The New York Times}}

• Groucho glasses

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Category:Costume design

Category:Artificial objects

Category:Moustache