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Lip Spinach: ThePhoenix.com's Mustache Blog

It began, as most bad ideas do, while stumbling blindly across teh internets. Somehow we came across this video, in which fans of an as-yet-not-quite-famous emo band don fake facial hair for what we assumed was a fake holiday called "Cinco de Mustache." Much later, over many beers, a discussion of said video veered into a drunken challenge to the male staff of the Phoenix to grow mustaches for a month. Stupidly, the male staff somehow agreed. And now there are rules, sort of: the boys are growing 'stashes for exactly one month, beginning April 5 and ending, of course, on Cinco de Mustache (a not-completely-fake holiday, it turns out). We excluded staffers with pre-existing facial hair. We stipulated mustache-only growth -- no goatees, no full beards -- to encourage maximum embarassment and ridiculosity. And we made everyone promise to document the progress of his mustache on a daily basis.

If you are foolish enough to join us -- or if, like these people, you already have a mustache -- we encourage you to upload your cookie duster to our gallery (you can also submit photos to our extra-fancy Boston mustache group on Flickr here). By doing so, you will be eligible to become the object of our fascination, ridicule, and honor by becoming our "Mustache of the Day." And everyone who submits will get first dibs at attending our first-annual Cinco de Mustache party (details coming soon in this space).

The growing . . . . has begun. The two jokers below jumped the gun, and we're punishing them by posting their photos early. We'll have the official starting-day photos of all the contestants tomorrow. And stay tuned to our sister station, 101.7 WFNX, where the Sandbox guys have shaved existing facial hair in order to play along on the radio.