When did you start wearing a mustache?
In 2008. My barber in L.A. told me I needed a gimmick. He said, “You should grow a handle bar mustache.” And I just did it. I remember my dad telling me about them when I was a kid.

How do you feel about the process of growing a mustache from scratch?
It is rough. It’s so much harder than doing it with a beard and letting it happen around that. 

The preferred method, then, is to grow a beard, and then shave off the beard, while letting the mustache remain.
That, to me, would be the easiest way to go.

That has also been the way I’ve achieved a mustache in the past. But we are in Movember, and the stipulation is that you cannot just shave the beard and have a mustache remaining. You need to go whole hog. All the way back to the beginning of everything.
Right. 

When was the last time you had no facial hair on your face?
It was a Samson moment in the summer of 2010. It was my first summer back in New York after living in L.A., and it was so hot and humid. I cut off all my hair, my beard, and my mustache. And I was like, “Never again!”

Even for charity?
The problem for me is that the beard and mustache function as plastic surgery. I’m really afraid to do it, but I’m going to do it.

How do you care for your mustache?
Probably not the way I should. I have a mustache comb—I’m obsessed with mustache combs—and I try to comb it in the morning. It’s pretty unruly, so it’s all about the wax. 

What’s your wax of choice?
Well, Clubman or Breuer—but Breuer’s not sticky enough, so sometimes I mix the two. And I just got one from Palmer Trading Co., which is their house brand with the little mustache guy on it, but it’s really hard.

You gotta warm it up.
You gotta warm it up.

What other kinds of mustaches—other than the handle bar—do you think are excellent mustaches?
The Tom Selleck, full-on mustache. But it’s like hairstyles: you have to have the right face.

How do you feel about overly groomed mustaches? Now, you take care of your mustache, so I mean no offense. I’m referring to overly shaped.
Oooh, not good.

Not good.
Like those pencil mustaches?

The John Waters.
Yeah, no.

Not good.
Can’t do it.

Nobody can do it.
Also off limits: the toothbrush mustache, which is closely associated with …

Charlie Chaplin?
Well, yeah …

When some people grow a mustache, they also go soul patch. Soul patch and mustache, no beard. What’s your stance?
[Pause] It’s all about a face. The minute you say no to something, someone pulls it off. You might see someone rocking the soul patch and doing it great. For me, no soul patch. 

For all those people who are trying to grow a mustache, for charity or vanity, what are your words of encouragement?
Stick with it. With anything like this—growing your hair long or whatever—you’re going to want to cut it, but don’t quit before the miracle.

Ed. Note: If by some freakish oversight you're not following us on Twitter and Tumblr, and don't already know, the men of Park & Bond are growing mustaches for the month of Movember. Help us in the fight against prostate cancer by making a donation here. And be sure to check back every week for updates on how our facial hair is filling in.