Hitler was once ordered to trim his mustache
We now know the reason for Hitler's mustache. According to a recent biography of author Alexander Moritz Frey, who served in Hitler's Bavarian Infantry Division. Hitler reportedly desired a full Bavarian mustache, the type of ostentatious chops on which to hang a hat. His commanders in the Bavarian Infantry Division, however, instructed him to trim his mustache so that his gas mask would fit correctly over his mouth. "A pale, towering figure rushed down into the cellar after the first shells of the daily evening bombardment had begun to fall, dread and wrath burning in his eyes," Frey wrote of his first meeting with Hitler in 1915. "Because he was so slender at the time, he appeared tall. A long mustache, which had to be cropped later due to the new gas masks, concealed his mouth's unattractive slit"
Historians sometimes refer to Hitler's renowned mustache as a "toothbrush mustache," a popular kind of facial hair in the early twentieth century, notably in Northern Europe. The trimmed-down design was a modernist departure from Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany's broad, sweeping whiskers. Hans Koeppen, a dashing German soldier and racing car driver, donned the toothbrush mustache, which was described as "typical of his class" in a 1908 New York Times story. During the 1910s, German Crown Prince Wilhelm wore a toothbrush. In 1925, a young Walt Disney developed a toothbrush mustache to appear mature in commercial meetings. According to popular belief, the toothbrush mustache fell out of favor when it became inexorably associated with the dreaded Nazi leader. However, there is a problem in this historical account: Hitler's mustache was not a traditional toothbrush. His whiskers were bushier and narrower, and might best be described as a "variation of the toothbrush style." Even at the height of his power, many Germans considered Hitler's facial hair to be completely outmoded.
Today, any facial hair arrangement that even remotely resembles the Hitler mustache is ridiculed in public. Michael Jordan was constantly mocked for sporting a tiny mustache in a Hanes underwear commercial. He finally went back to his original mustache. Mockery, however, has not deter Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. He proudly sports a mustache and has dubbed himself "the Hitler of our time."
