Truth be told, a moustache is sometimes a nuisance. Your moustache may be unruly, have a little more curl than most folks, or you may just have an occasional stray that ends up poking you in the nose hair. Whatever the reason, you’ll eventually want to consider learning how to maintain your moustache to help train and keep it in place.
There are a couple ways to handle straightening your moustache. The quickest way is to get a straightener and a hair dryer. These can be purchased anywhere online, but be mindful you get what you pay for. Start out by prepping and protecting your moustache with some beard oil. This will help keep your moustache from getting damaged as some of the straighteners use high temperatures in order to be effective. Make sure your straightener is plugged in and ready to go. Approach your moustache perpendicular with the straightener, and close it down on the moustache, moving smoothly and with purpose. Be very careful as you can easily burn your lip if you get too close, or heat your moustache completely off if you leave the straightener in place for too much time. Once straightened you can finish it off with an application of moustache wax and comb using a hair dryer for an all day hold.
If you are patient, you can train it naturally, by brushing and combing it regularly over time as it grows to help keep the hairs in place. For men like me, with an already fairly straight and cooperative moustache it’s the best way to go. I prefer to keep it pushed to the sides and off of the lip as much as possible - the training process can definitely be repetitive and borderline OCD - but it works for me. I just take my index and middle finger and put one on top and the other on the bottom and move my hairs outward from the center. Don’t pull, but more of a gentle push. With repetition and time on your side, you can assure that there will be minimal damage done to your moustache because you’re not exposing it to excessive heat or brushing. I have found that the Dry Beard Oil helps keep my moustache in place and still feel natural.
Personally, the longer the moustache the easier it becomes to maintain, within reason. There is a weird middle stage where your moustache will not be in the right place, no matter what you do but trust me; just around the bend from there, life becomes easier. I’m a lucky guy as my moustache goes terminal at a reasonable length. Not too short, and not terribly long. You’ll find your own rhythm as far as length and any straightening needed, don’t be afraid to experiment, and check back in for more advice here on The Beard Mentor.
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Tim says...
Hi Red and White Beard,
Tim here. Thanks so much for checking out the article and for leaving your comment! That is a really smart way to do hot and cold without using the hair dryer and straightener. Thank you for sharing your routine with us!
Take care,
Tim
On October 20, 2021
Red and White Beard says...
Had a good read, got me back into doing more about shaping again.
The hair dryer and the straightener are things I will not allow on my face and I’ve found a different way of applying heat and cold.
I use a hot washing cloth folded 3 times to damp the mustache to relax the hairs for 1 minute, then I comb the stache down to straighten it to apply the hot washing cloth again for 1 minute. Then I shape my stache with the comb from the inside out while angeling the comb to my beardline to follow the beardline up on the last part of the stroke. If the stache has the desired shape I will take the coldest washing coth possible to lock the hair while pressing it to my face like how they do on hot towel shaves. After that I pad dry my stache and apply oil and comb it to shape one last time.
On October 20, 2021
Tim Kramer says...
Hi Skeeter,
Tim from Can You Handlebar here. Thanks for checking out the blog and for your comment. Those whiskers sure can have a mind of their own, can’t they? How long have you been growing the moustache and what kind of training (wax, comb, etc) have you done?
I find that there is usually one or two very unruly whiskers that just need extra attention. Our Secondary Moustache will certainly be strong enough to tame those curly hairs.
Using oil when you are not waxing your stache is ideal. If you use oil on your moustache and then try to wax it, the oil will actually repel the wax making it less than ideal for holding your stache.
Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way.
Cheers,
Tim
- Can You Handlebar
On March 04, 2020
Skeeter says...
I have a mustache that’s pretty long but I have have hairs that just curly an I use wax but it just wont to Conform to what I want
It looks good oh use oil too not all the time
On March 04, 2020