How did Kaiser Wilhelm II maintain his mustache throughout his rule?

by DoctorEmperor

A very serious question, I know. Does anyone know how he managed to always have that famous mustache of his? I mean, how did he keep it so consistent? Did he use wax, and was that a common practice for men with facial hair at the time?

kieslowskifan

This is actually a cool bit of historical trivia. The mustache style is called "Es ist erreicht" and was the brainchild of the court barber François Haby. He used a special patented wax which he then sold to his clientele as the Kaiser's wax.

Haby was came from a French Huguenot family from Konigsberg and was a pioneer in celebrity hair styling. his barbershop, which is still in Berlin, is decorated in a Nouveau style and marketed his salon and its products pretty extensively both in germany and abroad.

Here's an example of his advertising from the 1913 Hamburg-Amerika Line catalog: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074396923;view=1up;seq=178