Movember: 'tache of the Titans - getting lippy

I feel I need to defend my face.

“It’s for charity,” I thought, “people will be supportive”.

But in reality the start of Team Tulkinghorn’s quest to grow a moustache for Movember has been marred by schoolboy taunts and playground competitiveness.

Due to my top lip being slightly less hairy than those of my team mates, I have been likened to a newborn baby, heckled by female colleagues (what do they know?) and labelled a “billiard-ball face”, “bum fluff hero” and “savaloy lip”.

But this isn’t fair! I didn’t shave until lunchtime on Sunday, 2 November, a full day-and-a -half after my so-called team mates, leaving me lagging behind on the hairy lip stakes.

It’s amazing how quickly people turn on you when the hairs aren’t there.

As an otherwise hairy man, I thought growing a ‘tache would be easy. The task of achieving something by simply not shaving my top lip should be like taking candy from a hairy baby. But my forgetfulness has cost me dear – never before have I wished to look like Burt Reynolds quite as much as I do now.

Things will change, though - this is not a sprint, it’s a hairy marathon.

I’m already catching up and come Monday I’ll be back in the race. All those unbelievers will soon be staring at a nose skirt that would make Guy Fawkes green with envy.

Tom Phillips is special reports editor and a member of Team Tulkinghorn: four journalists growing moustaches for Movember, a international charity scheme set up for everyday people to become ’70s footballers and raise some money for prostate cancer sufferers. Read the team’s Moustache Manifesto here.

If you would like to sponsor Team Tulkinghorn for The Prostate Cancer Charity, please click here. For more information on prostate cancer and The Prostate Cancer Charity, click here.

And if you too are taking part in this excellent charity initiative, don’t forget to let us know.