Zohran Mamdani has the most famous mustache in politics — for now

By David Mack, CNN

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani knows the power of maintaining a signature look in politics. When he began his campaign for the city’s top job, he swapped the South Asian collarless tunics, or kurtas, he’d gravitated to in his earlier career in favor of slender-cut suits that helped to balance his platform of democratic socialism with an air of the establishment. Those suits, and his trimmed beard, have remained key features of his style — so much so that it was not uncommon to see many men adopting the look as Halloween costumes this year. (Often with a New York Knicks jersey, to boot.)

So it was something of a shock to see the mayor emerge over the weekend trying something new: a Mamdani mustache.

While handing out water to runners at the New York City Marathon on Sunday, the mayor debuted his new facial hair, shaving his beard off to leave a standalone row of thick black hair above his upper lip. (Evidently, the look was so novel many runners raced past without recognizing him.)

The mayor’s new look made instant headlines. New York magazine’s The Cut dubbed him “Mayor Mustache,” while the New York Post compared “the socialist’s shaving shake-up” to a “random redistribution of facial hair.” Others online debated whether Mamdani was more of a “beard guy.”

Thanks to celebrities like Pedro Pascal and Benson Boone, mustaches have enjoyed something of a cultural renaissance in recent years, but it’s still a relatively rare look in politics. While certain foreign leaders have embraced the style (think ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro or Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan), American male politicians tend to favor either a clean-shaven look or beard. For years, the most famous mustachioed figure in DC was John Bolton, whose rounded facial hair leaned more walrus than Wario.

So was the mayor simply hopping on the mustache movement? Or was he trying to make a silent appeal to New York’s Italian or gay communities, where mustaches have long carried cultural cachet?

The answer, it turns out, lies in men’s health.

In a video posted to social media on Monday evening, the mayor revealed his mustache was in honor of Movember, the annual event in support of men’s health issues, such as prostate or testicular cancer. (Purists will say the mayor should have shaved all his facial hair off and grown a new one in from scratch, but we don’t begrudge Mamdani for wanting to avoid the awkward early days of wispy hair. Just ask Timothée Chalamet!)

Twirling the ends of his new stache, the mayor said he wasn’t just paying “lip service” to the issues, highlighting a $4-million investment in a new prostate cancer center at a Brooklyn hospital.

In addition to raising both funds and awareness, the Movember campaign, which began in Australia in 2003, also allows men like Mamdani to experiment with a mustache for a month before deciding whether to ditch it when December rolls around. So it remains to be seen whether Mamdani’s mo will stick around.

Although one thing seems likely: he’s unlikely to grow it into a longer handlebar mustache. “What do you think?” he asked Council Member Rita C. Joseph, who appeared with him in the video. “Handlebar next?”

“No, you’re going too far,” she replied.

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