This week is the 10-year anniversary of four teenage boys from the UK coming together on The X Factor to form the band that would soon to be known as One Direction. The now-defunct group plans on commemorating the milestone with a compilation video and immersive fan experience website; only one of them is marking a full decade passed with a new, highly divisive form of facial hair.
Harry Styles debuted a full-blown ’70s-style moustache while visiting chef Massimo Bottura at the restaurant Casa Maria Luigia in Italy recently, a very different vibe from his usual baby-faced look. The “Watermelon Sugar” singer was spotted with a short, scruffy “quarantine beard” back in April, so it seems he’s since refined the facial hair into a proper ‘stache.
can u believe harry styles just invented the mustache pic.twitter.com/0vcZnudbzK
— coly (@harryzstan) July 17, 2020
Leave it to fans to find a tweet from way back in 2011 where Styles expresses a desire to make a look just like this one happen. “I’ve decided that I want a moustache…But not like a cool guy moustache… I mean like a Mario moustache :{ Oh Yeaaahhhhhh!!,” he wrote nine years ago, referring to the Mario Bros. character.
I’ve decided that i want a mustache…But not like a cool guy mustache..i mean like a Mario mustache :{ Oh Yeaaahhhhhh!!
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) June 16, 2011
Although it’s apparently a bucket-list item scratched off for the singer, the internet seems to be in hot debate over the facial hair — so much so that “THE MOUSTACHE” was trending on Twitter in the United States. Some fans are praising the transformation; others are calling for the immediate return of his fresh-shaven appearance. “We can’t be friends if you don’t like harry’s moustache,” one wrote, while another said, “petition for harry styles to SHAVE HIS MOUSTACHE.”
we can’t be friends if you don’t like harry’s mustache
— Ornella (@hsftheaven) July 17, 2020
petition for harry styles to SHAVE HIS MUSTACHE pic.twitter.com/mbdrOdyrt2
— ei ツ (@littlefairyay) July 18, 2020
i love you harry’s mustache pic.twitter.com/pDK8Aq3kjG
— steph (@adoresnflwr) July 19, 2020
Whether you’re Team ‘Stache or not in this viral debate, there’s something symbolic about marking a decade of 1D with new facial hair. Because what better way to celebrate your journey from boy-band superstardom to rugged rockstar than with the facial hair you wanted to grow out at the start of your career?
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