Photo: Jeff Foxworthy (2004), photo by Maj. Sean L. Clark, U.S. Army, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Mustache Style Encyclopedia

The Chevron

“The Tom Selleck. Thick, wide, and confident. The default setting for a man who means business.”

Difficulty: Easy Maintenance: Medium Best on: Oval, Square, Round, Oblong, Diamond

The Chevron is the mustache most people picture when they hear the word. It is full and thick, covers the entire upper lip, follows the line of the mouth, and angles slightly downward at the corners like a military chevron turned upside down. No curls, no wax,…

About History Famous Wearers How to Grow It How to Trim It Grooming Routine

⬆ I Wear This Stach ✂ Stach Care Guide 📖 Read the full How-To Guide →

📌 The Chevron at a Glance

Style: The Chevron mustache
Difficulty: Easy
Maintenance: Medium
Best face shapes: Oval, Square, Round, Oblong, Diamond
Famous wearers: Tom Selleck, Burt Reynolds, Freddie Mercury, Keith Hernandez, Nick Offerman and more

About the Chevron

The Chevron is the mustache most people picture when they hear the word. It is full and thick, covers the entire upper lip, follows the line of the mouth, and angles slightly downward at the corners like a military chevron turned upside down. No curls, no wax, no theatrics — just dense, healthy hair doing its job.

If mustaches were trucks, the Chevron would be a well-kept pickup. It is the style of 1980s detectives, firefighters, ballplayers, and every dad who ever grilled in a driveway. It works on almost every face, needs modest upkeep, and carries a quiet authority that fancier styles sometimes strain for.

History of the Chevron

Full, natural mustaches have been around as long as razors, but the Chevron as a named style is largely a 20th-century American phenomenon. It rose with working-class and service-trade culture in the mid-century — police, firefighters, pilots, mechanics — where a thick mustache read as masculine without being fussy, and where regulations often allowed a trimmed mustache but nothing more.

The 1970s and 80s made it a superstar. Burt Reynolds wore one to the top of the box office. Freddie Mercury turned a Chevron into rock-and-roll iconography. And then Tom Selleck's Magnum, P.I. arrived in 1980 and the Chevron became, for a decade, the single most imitated facial feature on television. Baseball gave it a second home: Keith Hernandez, and a thousand relief pitchers, wore the Chevron like a uniform patch.

After a lean couple of decades, the Chevron came roaring back in the 2010s through Movember, retro-cool fashion, and the simple fact that it is the easiest "serious" mustache to grow. It remains the bread and butter of mustache culture, and the style MrStach considers the gateway to everything else.

Famous Chevron Wearers

Face Shapes That Suit the Chevron

OvalSquareRoundOblongDiamond

Face-shape guidance is general. Every face is the right face for a mustache if you commit hard enough.

🌱 How to Grow the Chevron

Growing a Chevron

Grow everything for 4 weeks. Do not shape anything. Let the full upper lip fill in so you can see your natural density and the width of your growth.
Define the width at week 4. The Chevron should extend to the corners of your mouth — no further, no shorter. Shave any hair growing out beyond the corners toward the cheeks.
Keep the top natural. Do not shave a hard line under the nose. The Chevron's top edge is wherever your hair naturally stops, cleaned of strays only.
Let it cover the lip. By weeks 6 to 8, the mustache should hang slightly over the top of your upper lip. That slight overhang is the signature. Too short and it becomes a Lampshade; too long and it becomes a Walrus.
Build density. If your growth is patchy, give it 10 to 12 weeks before judging. Brush it downward daily to train the hairs to lie flat and close the gaps. A beard brush with boar bristles is ideal.
Check your thickness. A Chevron lives or dies on fullness. If you can clearly see skin through it after 3 months, consider the Pencil or Lampshade instead, or simply give it more time.

Most men have a respectable Chevron in 6 to 8 weeks and a great one by month 3.

Read the full How-To Guide →

✂ How to Trim the Chevron

Trimming a Chevron

Comb first, always. Brush the mustache straight down with a fine-tooth comb so every hair is in position.
Lip line. Using grooming scissors or a trimmer with no guard, trim the hairs along the bottom so they just meet or barely cover the upper lip. Work from the center outward, then repeat on the other side. Aim to cut a little at a time; you can always take more.
Corners. Trim the outer corners so they stop at the edge of your mouth, angled slightly downward. This is what gives the Chevron its name. Do not round them and do not let them hang past the lips.
Top edge. Shave or snip only the stray hairs under the nose; do not carve into the body of the mustache.
Bulk. If it is getting bushy, run the trimmer with a 6 mm to 9 mm guard over the whole mustache, combing against the grain first. Start longer than you think.
Frequency. Every 5 to 7 days for the lip line, every 2 to 3 weeks for bulk.

The Chevron is forgiving. Over-trim once and you are a week or two away from recovery.

🧴 Recommended Grooming Routine

Chevron Care Routine

Daily

Wash with a gentle beard or face wash; plain bar soap dries the hair and the skin under it.
Towel dry, then comb downward and slightly outward.
Apply 1 to 2 drops of beard oil, working it down to the skin to prevent the "mustache dandruff" that plagues thick styles.
Optional: a light balm to keep hairs lying flat and to tame flyaways.

Weekly

Lip-line trim.
Brush with a boar-bristle brush for 30 seconds to distribute oils and train direction.

Monthly

Bulk trim if needed.
Exfoliate the skin beneath the mustache with a soft brush or mild scrub.

Pro tip: Rinse after coffee, wine, and anything with turmeric. A Chevron is big enough to stain.

Grooming content is educational and not medical advice.

Legends Who Wear the Chevron

All Celebrity Staches →

The Chevron

About the Chevron

History of the Chevron

Famous Chevron Wearers

Face Shapes That Suit the Chevron

Growing a Chevron

Trimming a Chevron

Chevron Care Routine

Legends Who Wear the Chevron

🎬 On Screen: Characters With a Chevron

Community Chevrons

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Rocking a Chevron? Prove It.