Real Reason The British Military Demanded That Every Soldier Had A Mustache

If you were to watch British troops march across the globe in service of Queen and country in the Victorian age, something curious may have struck you. To a man, the soldiers all sported face fur. Yes, in the second half of the 19th century, members of the British military all wore a mustache.

The mustache was mandatory

What might come as something of a surprise is that the soldiers had to sport a hairy upper lip. That’s right: military regulations between 1860 and 1916 stated that recruits couldn’t shave their mustaches off, or they’d face stern consequences. And the punishment for walking about clean-shaven included jail.

Shaving came with consequences

Yes, even in the depth of the brutal conflict of World War I, soldiers had to keep their ’taches on. When a general from that era, Nevil Macready, looked into the subject, he was astonished to find out that one man had even faced a court martial for getting rid of the hairs on his upper lip. And this was shortly after the king himself had reminded them all to stay hairy.

It wasn't just for fashion

If you’ve ever seen photographs in a book, or a film set in Victorian times, you might have wondered why everyone had facial hair. Did they all just like the look? And if it was just fashion, why did army bigwigs feel the need to make it an actual regulation? Well, there was a reason, but we’re going to need to take a trip through history to find it.

A symbol of the empire

And it’s quite some history. From humble beginnings the image of a mustache-bearing man became synonymous with an empire as the British took over a large chunk of the world. But the word “mustache” only entered the English language in 1585, borrowed from a French description of Turks. Mind you, the facial decoration itself is older.