A toothbrush moustache is a bushy moustache, shaved at the edges, except for three to five centimetres above the centre of the lip. The sides of the moustache are vertical rather than tapered.
This moustache is most famous for having been worn by German dictator Adolf Hitler, although it was worn earlier by movie star Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin took advantage of this unlikely similarity between the two men for his role parodying Hitler in The Great Dictator. The style is now unpopular in the West due to its strong association with Hitler. According to an essay written by a fellow soldier who served with Hitler during World War I, Hitler had a longer mustache in the "Kaiser" style, but was ordered to clip it so that it would fit under the respirator masks worn during mustard gas attacks. The prosaic explanation comes in a new biography of the writer Alexander Moritz Frey, In China a trimmer version of this moustache is viewed as a stereotype of Japanese people, especially of Japanese soldiers from the Second World War. An extreme variant of the toothbrush moustache narrows it to the philtrum only. Robert Mugabe is noted for this style. Notable people known to sport a toothbrush moustache include:
- Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov
- Merle Allin
- Hovhannes Bagramyan
- Charlie Chaplin
- Sepp Dietrich
- Tav Falco[1]
- Ludwig von Mises
- Gottfried Feder
- Max Fleischer
- Adolf Galland
- Oliver Hardy
- Martin Heidegger
- Heinrich Himmler
- Adolf Hitler
- Friedrich Kellner[2]
- Fumimaro Konoe
- Ron Mael
- Zoltán Meskó
- Robert Mugabe
- Julius Kambarage Nyerere
- Hermann Obrecht
- Marcel Pilet-Golaz
- Karl Plagge
- Sayyid Qutb
- Fritz Sauckel
- Julius Schreck
- Jan Syrový
Well-known fictional characters who sport a toothbrush moustache include:
