A Guide to Bizarre & Magnificent Moustaches of Hindustan

Bangulzai

23 Apr 09, 15:44

A Guide to the Bizarre Beards and Magnificent Moustaches of Hindustan

The splendid variety of India's moustaches and beards has been captured in a new book
Picture: Chris Stowers/PANOS

Britons Richard McCallum and Chris Stowers travelled across the country to take hundreds of photos of people for their book, A Guide to the Bizarre Beards and Magnificent Moustaches of Hindustan
Picture: Chris Stowers/PANOS

The unusual work divides facial hair into groups including "the chin strap", "the soup strainer", "the wing commander", "the walrus" and "the Danish" (pictured here)
Picture: Chris Stowers/PANOS

Among those pictured are both the world's longest beard, measuring six foot long, and the world's longest moustache, at 11 foot six inches
Picture: GETTY

The record-breaking moustache is a big earner for Ram Singh Chauman, 54, who charges modelling fees and whose whiskers have starred in Bollywood films and even had a cameo in the 1983 James Bond film "Octopussy"
Picture: AFP/GETTY

But the stars of the book are perhaps the ordinary stall-owners and rickshaw drivers showing off moustaches and beards that are cut, dyed, waxed and preened in an endless variety of shapes and sizes
Picture: AFP/GETTY

Sikhs, for whom "kesh" (uncut hair) is a religious principle, feature heavily in the book, and moustaches remain a professional requirement for the doormen of five-star hotels
Picture: GETTY

But otherwise the traditional belief that facial hair is a sign of virility appears to be facing the chop
Picture: AFP/GETTY

"Young people don't want an itchy moustache or beard which they think makes them look old," said Lalan Singh, 40, a restaurant doorman in Delhi's Connaught Place and the owner of a handlebar moustache that took three years to grow
Picture: AFP/GETTY

Bangulzai

27 Apr 09, 22:16

A Guide to the Bizarre Beards and Magnificent Moustaches of Westerners