Right out the gate, I want to state that there is nothing wrong with having a light mustache. Some people’s facial hair comes in blonde or light brown and that’s perfectly fine. It all comes down to genetics.
Other people’s facial hair comes in darker but it takes a longer time to get there, so their mustaches feel too light early in the growing process. This can be just so annoying, especially when you are eagerly waiting and checking the mirror every day to see what happens. Surely there has to be something you can do, right?
There are a number of options for us when it comes to darkening our mustaches. However, they range from simple to complicated, from quick to slow, from free to expensive, and from safe to potentially dangerous. If you have a blonde mustache then the only way to darken it is to dye it, but most mustaches darken naturally as they grow. You just need to make sure that you give yours this time. Changes to how you shave, groom, and eat will all benefit your mustache and help it to grow in (and thus darken naturally).
Stick around to learn about these tricks. We’ll talk about how waxing can help your mustache to look darker, how dyeing is a quick fix for those with too much blonde or gray hair on their upper lip, and how lifestyle changes can speed up the process.
How to Darken an Overly Light Mustache
Growing a mustache takes time. Most people don’t want to admit this to themselves. Everyone is always looking for the quick fix answer, but it just doesn’t exist. Sure, you could get a facial hair transplant, but we’ll talk about why you shouldn’t later. For now, let’s consider the typical growing period of a mustache.
Before you hit puberty, there are nearly invisible blonde hairs on your upper lip. Everyone has these all over their bodies until puberty when they start to grow thicker. Notice that I said thicker and not darker. This is because these hairs don’t necessarily darken for everyone. When you start to grow a mustache, there are two big things that keep them too light for some people’s taste.
Reasons For A Light Mustache
The first is that your facial hair may come in blonde like those tiny hairs were. You don’t even need to have blonde hair for this to happen, as the color of your beard and your hair aren’t always the same. So, if your problem is that your beard is too light because it is blonde, then the secret is to dye it.
Dying your mustache might sound a little silly, but hundreds of thousands of men have done it. Purchase a facial hair dying kit and not one designed for the hair on top of your head. For one, you’ll get a proper brush for applying to your mustache or beard this way, but more important is the fact that it is better for you.
A lot of hair dyes can harm the skin if you aren’t careful with the application, but these brands are designed specifically for facial hair and so they limit any possibility of damaging the skin—you can’t hide the skin on your face nearly as easily as that on your head.
If you have never dyed a mustache before then don’t worry, it’s almost laughably simple as this video shows:
The bigger issue for people is when their facial hair is dark but their mustache doesn’t come in fully. The thin and patchy style can make a dark mustache look light even when it isn’t. Since it’s already dark, it can’t be fixed with dye. So what options are available?
Not many, really. The biggest one that I recommend is using mustache wax to create the illusion of a darker mustache. You can find out more about this approach in this article. In brief, what wax does is help keep your mustache together, so it looks thicker and therefore darker. This doesn’t actually change the hairs or darken them.
But the biggest letdown of all is that the only way to really get a patchy, thin mustache to darken up is to let it keep growing. If the hair is already dark, then the problem isn’t the color but that there isn’t enough of the color. Only time can fix this, unfortunately. However, lifestyle changes and dieting will help you to drastically speed this process up. Find out more about which foods are best for facial hair growth below.
I’m Considering a Facial Hair Transplant to Darken My Mustache. Any Advice?
A facial hair transplant is never worth it. You might think that the only way to get a darker mustache is with this medical procedure, but I am going to strongly recommend against it.
To begin with, a facial hair transplant costs thousands of dollars. It is such an expensive procedure that doesn’t really work how people think it does. They think they get the transplant and they’ve got a full beard or mustache, good to go.
But the first beard you get transplanted will fall out a little while later, so don’t get too attached to it. From there, the hairs should continue to grow, but they’ll never look quite right. People claim these transplants are impossible to spot but everyone can tell you got a hair transplant—it’s never a secret.
There are also a lot of possible health risks that come up once you start doing transplants and turning to medical science in order to grow your mustache. You might think it’s never going to grow and that you have no other choice. But a facial hair transplant isn’t going to instill confidence or change your life. It’s just going to cost a lot of money and make you look silly. Avoid them, please.
Can Lifestyle Changes Help Me Grow a Darker Mustache?
Absolutely. One of the problems with getting your mustache dark enough is getting the hairs to grow in the first place. The hair on our heads continues to grow at a steady rate but our facial hair grows at its own pace, as discussed in length here.
One of the biggest things you can do to speed up the process is to eat better and exercise enough. Diet is very, very important to facial hair growth. You can find some delicious foods that help beard growth in this video:
The big changes that will help is to drink more water, eat less salt, and reduce how much caffeine you are drinking. If you are a smoker, then quitting may speed up growth by cutting out nicotine which reduces the blood flow to your hair, something they really do need to grow.
Other lifestyle changes that will help is to vastly reduce your sugar intake and the omega 6 in your diet. You’ll want to in turn increase how much omega 3, vitamin C, vitamin D and selenium you are eating. If you follow these tips, you’ll see faster facial hair growth.
I’m Going to Wax and Wait. Anything Else I Should Know?
It is important to understand that while having a darker mustache is important to you, the rest of the world doesn’t care. This isn’t to say that people won’t think it looks nice, simply that people aren’t walking around and thinking, “Wow, that guy has a terribly light mustache.” Nope, just doesn’t happen that way.
We ourselves are the ones that are invested and care about our facial hair the most. If you have a light mustache, that is only a bad thing if you feel that it is. Understanding that the negativity you associate with your mustache comes from you and not outside can be a powerful tool. It is important that we remember that our facial hair isn’t a replacement for confidence.
Waiting might sound awful but with a little mustache wax, you’ll see that it doesn’t look nearly as bad as you thought. Mustache wax won’t speed up the growth—but it’ll make the waiting easier to deal with.
I’m Going to Go With the Coloring, But Which Brand Can I Trust?
Coloring your beard is easy to do these days and I would even recommend doing it at home, unlike many of the other treatments that we’ve discussed here on Beard Guidance. Just make sure that you are careful, as it is easy to dye the skin under the hair in the process.
When picking a brand, you can’t go wrong with Just For Men. They come in a variety of colors such as dark brown, or their brown and black Touch of Gray series. When it comes to men’s dye, they are dominating the market.
Some people, myself included, aren’t big fans of the ingredients they use. It’s not that they’re harmful but rather that they could be more environmentally friendly. Clearly I’m now alone in this, as Grizzly Mountain sells their own organic and 100% natural beard dye. They come in a variety of shades, but you should use it in conjunction with their Organic Base for the best effect. This companion product gives you more control over the dye.
Conclusion
A light mustache might not be the style you wanted to rock, but there are options available to help darken it. Light hair can be dyed darker and mustache wax can be used to style a mustache to have a darker appearance, but the biggest secret is that a dark mustache takes time and patience to grow.
If you have a light mustache, take a moment to consider what you don’t like about it. If you think other people are judging you for it, then know that this isn’t true. If you think that it looks bad, maybe ask a few others to see if it really does or if you are making it a bigger deal than it is. A lot of the time, the latter is the case.
If you can’t wait, the wax doesn’t work, and your hairs are too dark naturally, perhaps you should stop worrying about keeping a mustache and start looking into other beard styles you can rock that don’t require much fixing. You might find that it was the style that caused the real issue and not the color.
