This blog is the second installment of my Movember Moustaches series featuring historical moustaches to coincide with the Movember campaign to raise money for prostate cancer. To find more about Movember, please click here.
You may not ever meet a man more in love with his moustache than Salvador Dali. It is reported that the Spanish artist was once carrying around a silver bell, and when asked why he had the bell, he responded “I carry it and I ring it so people will see my moustaches.” Note that he said moustaches which is not at all a misnomer if you take a look at the pictures below. While Dali is primarily known as a surrealist painter, I would like to add moustache master to his list of artistic accomplishments.
As if his meticulously manicured moustache didn't attract enough attention, Dali had his own unique fashion sense. He often walked around in a long cape with a walking stick at his side and at one party thrown in his honour, he arrived wearing a glass case on his chest containing a brassiere. On another occasion, he arrived to deliver a lecture wearing a diving suit adorned with a jeweled dagger, with a pool cue in his hand, and two Russian wolfhounds by his side. Now that would have been an exciting lecture. Professors, please take note.
At one point, Dali decided that he needed a pet to compliment his flamboyant personality. Naturally, he chose an ocelot. Babou the ocelot became Dali's favourite companion, even accompanying him into restaurants and on trips.
Despite his oddities, Dali was a superb artist, challenging norms and inspiring future generations of artists. The legacy of his moustache is almost as great as that of his artistic output, and yet this generation does not seem to find inspiration in his follicle mastery. The time to do so is now, men of Movember!
Each morning when I awake, I experience again a supreme pleasure - that of being Salvador Dali.
- Salvador Dali
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