Burbank firefighter Chris Piligian’s mustache has served as more than just a dinner conservation piece for the past few weeks.
“It’s a good way to get the conservation started,” Piligian said of his unruly mustache.
He joined more than three-quarters of the Burbank Fire Department and Burbank Firefighters Local 778 in growing their mustaches for November to raise awareness and funds for prostate and testicular cancer.
“When I get asked why I am doing it, it gives me the opportunity to bring up the cause,” Piligian said.
The Fire Department and union have so far contributed $1,000 to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Lance Armstrong Foundation, organizations dedicated to fighting the cancers affecting adult men, Capt. Ron Bell said.
Firefighters were free to display their finest mustaches, as long as they began with a clean shave Nov. 1, according to the official guidelines.
Other rules bar combining the mustache with any other facial hair, such as sideburns or a beard, talking about Movember — a combination of mustache and November — outside of this month and failing to maintain a clean shave on any area of the face aside from the upper and lower lips.
“We’ve taken a lot of shots from the police, from nurses,” said firefighter Mike McDonald, who plans to shave his handlebar mustache at month’s end. “You hear, ‘What, are you going back to the ’80s?’”
Mo Bros. (slang for mustached brothers) have sprung up across the country since a group of Australian natives, inspired by breast-cancer awareness month in October, first brought their movement to the United States three years ago.
Among the organization’s rules is the following disclaimer: “The Movember Committee accepts no responsibility for lost jobs, lost girlfriends/boyfriends, rashes to you or your partner or any such mishaps caused by a Movember Mo.”
Despite the tongue-and-cheek approach, the cause is serious, organizers said. About one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.
For most of the firefighters, a line of work once identified as keeping alive bushy sideburns and mustaches, this was their first mo. Photographs of each of the department’s about 150 members reveal only about 25 mustaches.
Bell, who for years sported a mustache, said pressure from wives and girlfriends will likely keep that ratio intact.
Firefighter Frank Quinones agreed as colleagues poked fun at the sparse patch of hair.
“I actually started Oct. 27,” he said to laughter. “And I can’t wait to shave it — no, wax it — off.”
