Tank's Moustache March Blog

So I have no problem sharing the fact that I am a big fan of Justin Bieber. He is talented, you cannot deny it.  So I got pretty excited when I was looking on twitter and found the following…

Apparently his 17th birthday on March 1st inspired him to join the world of the moustached. I think that he really wanted to increase his male 18-88 demographic. But I am more excited that his nearly 8 million followers are now aware of Moustache March.

If you would like to try see what Bieber looks like with a ‘stache (as I did to the right) head on over to the Justin Bieber Mustache Builder and enjoy.

What a wonderful day this first day of March is! Twitter and Facebook are alive with moustache talk.  I wish that I could post to the blog with every thought/experience I have during the month but a lot of the time I get bogged down with the logistics behind the scenes.

That is why I am putting out to you to help make this blog what it should be.  If you have something to say about Moustache March, whether it be an event, a personal experience or just some general opinion, I would love to get it up on the blog. (I would especially love some of our women supporters to share their support)

If you are interested head on over to the Moustache March Contact Page and send me a note letting me know what you would like to talk about.

Well Moustache March is just around the corner and I don’t know about you but I am getting excited.  I was actually out of commission for a while with some lovely kidney stones (Actually a huge misnomer, they should be called Kidney/Ureter Jagged Crystal Destroyers), I wouldn’t wish them on Moustache March haters.

Anyways the new shirts are on order and I am really excited about the two designs:

1. Kiss Me I’m Moustache Shirt – The idea actually came from lifetime member Raymond Baehler.  A perfect mix of Moustache March and St. Patty’s Day.  Head on over to the store and get yours ordered.

2. Moustache is not a Crime – A play on the classic shirt that did wonders for skateboarding.  We need to make the moustache alright with everyone. Head on over to the store and get yours ordered.

The store also went through a major update and we are restocked on some of the other shirts including XL and XXL for the girl’s shirts.  Those things run really small.

You might also notice the blog looks a little different.  It has been moved to WordPress which works really great.

The new website is also getting close and should be up in a few days.

Thanks and live the ‘stache!

I constantly get questions about what Moustache March is, why we do it, etc. Well in the past I wrote a F.A.Q on the website that you can find here. But I thought I would write a little more here to help people understand.

The question I probably get most often is, “how can I get involved?” What a loaded question! One thing that we are trying to do this year is have our site be the spot where you can find all the different groups that are doing activities during the month. I hear all the time about different events happening and am hoping to connect people up to honor the ‘stache.

Which brings me to my next thing, honoring the ‘stache. That is our most important mission. There are a lot of groups out there that think you need to be clean shaven at the beginning of March, but my problem with that is that I would only have a moustache for the last few days of the month. So I started in October so that I would have a showing that would truly honor all that is the moustache.

The other big dilemma is the Moustache vs. Mustache debate. When we started we didn’t even think about it, we went with the moustache spelling because it is more traditional and the World Beard and Moustache Championships spell it that way. There is a great site at www.mustachemarch.com, the only problem is I haven’t heard anything from them since 2005 and it seems that they have given up, sad. I do support both spellings because it just makes sense.

So after my rambling here is a summary of what we want you to do to get involved:

• Grow a moustache, duh!
• Go to www.moustachemarch.com look around get motivated and get involved
• Take pictures, make videos, make music and get it online. Send it to us and make it fun. Whether it’s you by yourself in front of a mirror or 100 moustaches taking on the white house just do it.
• Network! Get people involved, get involved with events, motivate people, entertain people.
• Go to www.moustachestore.com and buy some stuff!
• While at the store become a lifetime member and show your support.
• Join the mailing list on the site so you know what is going on.

I am a little late on getting this news to you but I have just been bogged down with my fortune and fame. I am so bogged down I am just posting what I sent out to all the members of the Moustache March Mailing List. What’s that you say? You’re not on the mailing list? Well get on it now. Any ways on to the good stuff:

Yesterday I was on the local news for the American Cancer Society event. “Out and About” with Drew Carney did several segments for the 5-7am news. They actually posted most of the video here. You will also notice they used my mermaid picture for the link to the article here.

My true moment of glory, along with my dog’s, didn’t make the website cut, so I posted a poor video of my TV copy on youtube here.

I am really excited to attend the celebration event tonight with the ACS crew. Should be good times and hopefully I can score some sweet prizes and get my ‘stache shaved by a proffessional barber!

Sorry for all the heres here…

For those of you in the know, you will realize this is a picture of me next to a poster from the hottest thing from Broadway, Wicked. Each March I like to take in some theater, last year it was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Several months ago my wife was proactive and secured us some seats for Wicked‘s limited engagement in Portland. I think all of the shows have since sold out.

Now for those of you that have no clue what I am talking about, Wicked is the story of Oz from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective. Now this is a musical, but I happen to be fond of the genre, yes I enjoyed Evita. It actually is a pretty fun story and a pretty entertaining show. Makes you take a good look at the perspectives you have in your own life.

So for all of you that think my March is only filled with beer, babes, bars and ‘staches, maybe this will show you that there can be, and is more to Moustache March.

I was contacted in late February about a new Moustache Wax in the game, Hndlebars Moustache Wax. They like what we are doing for the Moustache at MoustacheMarch.com and sent over a sample of their product. I just got to the point this week where I needed some Moustache management and decided to give it a go. It comes in two containers, a classic tin or the chapstick style travel tube.

The instructions included said that it was best to ‘warm’ the wax first either in your pocket or in some warm water. When I opened the product I realized this is a very good suggestion since it is a pretty firm wax. So I warmed up the tin and gave it a go. So far so good. Due to it’s very firm consistency it is ready to go the long haul. It works into the Moustache well and with a good brushing I was ready to go.

I had just trimmed my ‘stache and got several comments on how nice it looked, mostly due to the fact that the Hndlbars kept my wild ‘stache under control all day. Hndlbars is made on the east coast and definitely has a hard east coast feel to it. The wax that I used last year was a small town west coast wax and was definitely a lot softer.

On their site they have some links to some great handlebar clubs, etc. so it is definitely worth a visit!

They have some good March-madness deals going on in their online store so I suggest you head on over and pick some up!

Check back later in the month when I get a true Handlebar going and can give this wax a true test.

So it is no secret the economy is not real strong at the moment. In my opinion, it all boils down to everyone being greedy and making poor money decisions. Now I am not exempt from this (see last post), but I am doing my part to help. I am hearing about some “Stimulus Package” that I don’t think I will get a penny of. While the government is paying out insane amounts of money to people that make insane amounts of money and have given insane amounts of money to people that couldn’t payback those insane amounts of money, I have a plan…

See in the past for Moustache March we have had shirts and said shirts were sometimes $12, sometimes even $15. But desperate times call for desperate measures. So I decided to make sure this year that didn’t lack in amazingness, but did lack in cost. Yeah that’s right, when is the last time you only had to pay $8 for a new and exciting tshirt? And better yet, when is the last time you could get a new, albeit last year’s design, shirt for only $6?

So while we suffer through these tough times, I thought I would do a little something to let you splurge on a tight budget. So head on over to the MoustacheMarch.com official store and pick up a shirt or two and some other reasonably priced good stuff.

Side note, when I was discussing this blog post with my wife she asked why this wasn’t a bailout plan for us…well to be honest I didn’t think that was the right thing to do…I mean I have made a habit of pooring too much money into Moustache March over the last several years and, if I know anything, now is not a time for change.

March 31st, 2008 seems like forever ago. It has been a long year and not necessarily an easy one for most. But that is why I am glad March 1st is finally here. The time when men around the world unite and enjoy all that is Moustache!

On the site, moustachemarch.com, we have a whole new look and new theme for the new year. Our own Mike coined the phrase “When Moustaches are Outlawed, Only Outlaws will have Moustaches,” which we decided to develop our year around.

I hope for your own sake that you will join us in this time of global uncertainty and honor something that is certain, the amazingness of Moustaches.

So, Sir David Baehler, one of our faithfuls and an uber MacFanBoy like myself pointed out something truly amazing to me. The guys at Sortuva Company (priceless name by the way!) have developed in my opinion the best iPhone/Touch App yet. ‘Stachetastic takes any picture and allows you to add over 15 different facial enhancements to it, most of which are sweet moustaches that I could never grow myself.

I decided what better picture to use as an example than my ‘single tear’ picture from April 1 last year(My wife is lucky I didn’t have a better portrait of her on my phone…)

Link to ‘Stachetastic in iTunes…