(moustache chronicles contd) .... fact or fiction. THE TOOTHBRUSH MOUSTACHE

Adolf Hitler had a troubled childhood. He was teased severely for having the surname Schicklgruber, which was his mother’s maiden name. Adolf was forced to take this name instead of his father’s name of Hitler (or Hiedler), due to the fact that his father was an illegitimate child. The teasing continued when news hit that Adolf’s father had indeed married his niece. The very union required a papal dispensation.

Adolf felt that he could escape the embarrassment of his family by becoming a famous artist. He spent all of his time learning to paint instead of doing his study, which resulted in him failing his first year of high school and later dropping out all together.

Still desperately wanting to escape the taunts of his past, but realizing that art would not be his salvation, Adolf decided to join the military. Adolf did very well for himself in the military, but he knew that if he ever wanted to be taken seriously as a military man, he must make some changes. He decided to create a new image by taking his fathers surname of Hitler (which can be translated into either, “shepherd“ or “one who lives to hunt”), then began to sport the current popular facial hair style of military men, the Kaiser Mustache. This change catapulted his military and political career to heights he had never dreamt of.

As the Third Reich began to take power and WWII was well underway, propaganda began to rise that Hitler’s former surname of Schicklgruber was in fact of Jewish origin. It was discovered that Hitler’s father, Alois, was actually conceived in a moment of passion his grandfather experienced with his Jewish housekeeper. Because of Hitler’s well-known anti-Jewish platform, this information had the potential of collapsing the Third Reich all together.


In order to break away from this bad press and solidify himself as the “Noble Wolf” of the Third Reich, he decided to trim his Kaiser style mustache into something a bit more striking and recognizable. He chose the Toothbrush Mustache, which would become his trademark. This style was also being worn at the time by the famous American silent film star, Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin.


Hitler hoped that by doing this, the Germans would now take him a bit more seriously, while the Americans would see him as less of a threat. This tactic proved itself until 1944 when the Red Army finally succeeded in pushing German troops back into central Europe and ultimately ending Hitler’s hopes of rising to power.

Unfortunately, the Toothbrush Mustache, to this day, arouses certain uneasiness to most westerner’s, which has resulted in the near extinction of this style. There are hopes that one-day, the Toothbrush Mustache will rise again and claim it’s rightful place as facial hairs most daring and striking choice. Until that day, however, let us join together as lovers of facial hair, in the hope to find a style as memorable as this.