Toothbrush Mustache

I had fun reading “Becoming Adolf” in November’s issue of Vanity Fair. Rich Cohen, the author, makes some funny observations about Hitler’s toothbrush mustache and interweaves these observations with well-researched historical facts. He ends the piece with his own experience growing and rocking one.

I took particular interest in this article because I’ve always thought it was interesting that Hitler, by virtue of his actions, ensured that his mustache would never come back in style. It seems counterintuitive because no single person, especially Hitler, should have that much power.

The article has a dyno-mite blurb:

Hitler’s Toothbrush mustache is one of the most powerful symbols of the last century, an inch of hair that represents infinite evil.

Other money quotes:

The Toothbrush mustache is the most powerful configuration of facial hair the world has ever known. It overpowers whoever touches it. y merely doodling a Toothbrush mustache on a poster, you make a political statement.

I grew it for the same reason Richard Pryor said the word “nigger.” I wanted to defuse it. I wanted to own it. I wanted to reclaim it for America and for the Jews. My name is Rich Cohen, and I wear a Hitler mustache.

In the coming years, the Toothbrush mustache would belong to just two men, Chaplin and Hitler. The funniest and the scariest. The dialectic of history. For many people, the Toothbrush mustache became no less a symbol of evil than the cloven hoof.

If you dress like Chaplin, you run the risk of being mistaken for Hitler, as, if you dress like Evel Knievel, as I do when it rains, you run the risk of being mistaken for Elvis. The Vandyke, the goatee, the soul patch, these things can become the objects of nostalgia, but the Hitler mustache is never coming back.

I stared into space. When you stare into space with a Toothbrush mustache, you are glowering. You can’t help it.

Galleria

The Vandyke Beard

The Goat

The Soul Patch

A modified version of The Imperial called the Chevalier