• Question: can everyone have mustaches

    Asked by meganmcg to Angela, Gabriele, Karen, Maria, Shane on 15 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Shane Mc Guinness

      Shane Mc Guinness answered on 15 Nov 2013:


      Hi Megan,
      Firstly, we have hair follicles in almost part of the outside of our bodies. In some places, this grows thicker and darker, like the faces and upper lips of some people!
      Though we all appear to have moustaches in our photos today, no not everyone can get full moustaches. Men are more likely to be able to get thick hair on their upper lip than women (though some men can’t grow one and some women can!). We’re not quite sure why we have facial hair, but it’s probably a remainder of what we used to look like when we our ancestors were more closely related to apes, which have thick hair all over their bodies. Some believe that the reason men have different hair from women is so that we can recognise each other when it comes time to having children. This is called “sexual dimorphism” and is seen in many species! Think of how different males lions look to female lions. Bird feathers are really good for this purpose too!

    • Photo: Angela Stevenson

      Angela Stevenson answered on 15 Nov 2013:


      Hi Megan! Unfortunately no, otherwise I would have a mustache like Rudyard Kipling who wrote my favourite book “the jungle book” and who had a GREAT mustache (check it out! ). 🙂 The hormone testosterone is responsible for the facial hair (like Rudyard’s wonderful mustache!) that you see on men. Women have a lot less testosterone than men so we may have peach fuzz on our upper lip, but we ll never be able to compete with men in a mustache competition as we just simply can’t grow them. However, millions of women do have mustaches, but that’s a medical issue caused by the overproduction of testosterone – which isn’t normal in women. Hope that helps!

    • Photo: Karen McCarthy

      Karen McCarthy answered on 15 Nov 2013:


      Hi Megan,

      Testosterone, the male hormone, is really important in triggering hair development during puberty – which is why boys begin growing facial hair. Women only have tiny amounts of testosterone in their bodies – hence we don’t produce as much facial hair as boys. If women are exposed to higher levels of testosterone, such a bodybuilding steroids for example, as a side effect they may begin to grow and develop thicker, darker facial hair too.

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