Weekend Read: Movember is for Mustaches

Tomorrow is November 1st and that means it's Movember, the annual event where men grow mustaches to raise awareness for men's health issues, the hockey world has embraced this and has become popular in Hungary as well.

With men's facial hair becoming popular in everyday life more and more men have mustaches in general but Movember is different. Men who feel they do not like good or attractive with a mustache can experiment with it. During this month a man can compliment each other on having a nice or full mustache without feeling strange or awkward, it is a joyous festival of male bonding.

Movember is really about something more, it is to raise awareness of men’s health issues such as depression, prostate cancer, testicular cancer and other cancers as well. The goal is to raise money for charities and foundations that support the battle against these health issues. The idea of the mustache is that with it a man changes their face and therefor they are changing the face of men's health as well.

Facial hair for a special occasion is not uncommon in sports, one of the time honored traditions is growing a beard, for the playoffs as players will shave when the playoffs start and not shave again until their team is eliminated or if they are the last team left and are crowned champions.

Since men are usually macho after a certain age, unless they have a broken leg they do not go to the doctors until it's too late or they are not familiar with the symptoms of certain diseases. The movement also encourages men to live a healthier lifestyle and to look into the family's history as well. The NHL and the NHL Players Association is also supporting Movember and encouraging people to donate money for a good cause. In the past a number of NHL teams did their own event as well as NCAA teams as well.

Movember has been around since 1999 when it was started by a group of guys in Australia, and it became an official movement in 2004. In the past ten years Movember has become known worldwide and has gain popularity in Hungary in the past couple of years as well.

Movember is also fun because it also is good for team bonding, plus its always great to laugh at how ridiculous everyone looks with a nice lip warmer.

One does not simply grow a mustache, there are rules for Movember as well.

1. Each person participating must start with a clean shaven face

2. Each participant must grow and groom a mustache for the length of the month.

3. No faking it, no beards, no goatees, no fake mustaches

4. Use the power of the mustache to create conversations about men's health

5. Each participant must conduct himself as a gentleman

There are a number of Hungarian players that will be growing mustaches, some because they want to others because they “have to” in the Swedish Eliteserien originally players started to do in by themselves but like in the NHL the league has taken it over. “You can say it has become a tradition, in the U20 team we had to grow one and if you couldn’t or did you had to pay a fine.” says Linköping forward Vilmos Galló, he also says that this year he will be coloring his since because it is hard to see it.

In the MOL League Debrecen defenseman Bronson Kovács will be sporting a must

ache, “For me I've know a couple people very close to me that have battled cancer, all kinds of cancer, breast, prostate, any chance you can show some support it's always a great thing to do. The last four years at college one of the fraternities would always make Movember t shirts with different logos every year which was a great way to raise money for a good cause.” also adds on “the just little things you can do to show your support for others that have to battle this disease.”