The Imperial

“Bushy, swept up, and connected to the cheeks. A mustache with a crown and a foreign policy.”

Difficulty: Hard Maintenance: High Best on: Oval, Square, Oblong

The Imperial is the Handlebar's larger, more aristocratic cousin. Where the Handlebar is curled from lip hair alone, the Imperial incorporates hair from the cheeks as well — the whiskers grow from the upper lip and the cheeks, are swept outward and upward, and…

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 Imperial at a Glance

Style: The Imperial mustache
Difficulty: Hard
Maintenance: High
Best face shapes: Oval, Square, Oblong
Famous wearers: Kaiser Wilhelm II, Napoleon III, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Franz Joseph I of Austria, Otto von Bismarck

About the Imperial

The Imperial is the Handlebar's larger, more aristocratic cousin. Where the Handlebar is curled from lip hair alone, the Imperial incorporates hair from the cheeks as well — the whiskers grow from the upper lip and the cheeks, are swept outward and upward, and finish in bold, pronounced curls or flares. No chin hair is part of the style. In competition terms, it is its own category, and it is judged on volume and upward sweep as much as on the curl.

In practice, the Imperial reads as grand, slightly theatrical, and unmistakably 19th-century European. It is the mustache of emperors, archdukes, and the kind of Victorian gentleman who owned a monocle unironically. It is also, for the modern wearer, a genuinely impressive feat of patience and grooming.

History of the Imperial

The name comes from the French Second Empire (1852 to 1870). Emperor Napoleon III wore a waxed mustache with long, upturned points and a small beard, and the whole arrangement was called the "imperial" in his honor. Over time the word attached itself specifically to the large, upswept mustache portion rather than the chin hair.

The style reached its apex in Germany and Austria-Hungary at the turn of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II's aggressively upturned mustache was so famous that his personal barber, François Haby, sold a product called "Es ist erreicht" ("It is achieved") to let ordinary Germans copy it, and Wilhelm's mustache appears in nearly every caricature of the era. Archduke Franz Ferdinand wore a massive version; Emperor Franz Joseph I combined his with great side-whiskers.

World War I, unsurprisingly, ended the Imperial's mainstream career. It survived as a competition category and a costume staple, and it has returned in the last decade among competitive mustache growers, steampunk enthusiasts, and anyone who looked at a Handlebar and thought, "but bigger."

Famous Imperial Wearers

Kaiser Wilhelm II →
Napoleon III
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Otto von Bismarck →

Face Shapes That Suit the Imperial

OvalSquareOblong

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

🌱 How to Grow the Imperial

Growing an Imperial

Grow the lip and the cheeks. Unlike most mustaches, the Imperial uses cheek hair. Let the upper lip and the area of the cheeks just beside the mouth corners grow untouched for at least 3 months. Shave the chin, lower cheeks, and neck.
Define the shape early. The Imperial's silhouette is a broad wedge that sweeps out and up from the lip. Around week 6, shave a clean line from the corners of the mouth up toward the cheekbone to set the upper boundary. Everything inside that line grows.
Train upward. From week 4, comb the mustache outward and then upward every day. A firm wax applied sparingly teaches the hairs to rise. The goal is volume that lifts, not a thin curl.
Build the flare. By month 4 to 6, the ends should be long enough to sweep up into a curl or flare. Work the wax from the center out, twist the ends, and lift them toward the cheekbone. Unlike a Handlebar, keep the body thick and fanned rather than twisted into a cord.
Be patient on density. The cheek portion grows slower and thinner than the lip. Give it the full 6 months before judging.

A competition-ready Imperial is a 9-to-12-month undertaking. A respectable one takes 6.

Read the full How-To Guide →

✂ How to Trim the Imperial

Trimming an Imperial

Outline. Every 3 to 4 days, shave the chin, lower cheeks, and neck to keep the Imperial's wedge shape crisp. The upper boundary line on the cheek should be sharp, curving from the corner of the mouth up toward the cheekbone.
Lip line. Comb down and trim only the center third along the top of the lip so you can eat and speak. Leave the outer two-thirds; that is the volume that sweeps up.
Ends. Do not cut the tips. Length is everything here. If one side outgrows the other, correct with wax and styling.
Thinning. An Imperial can become unmanageably dense. Once a month, thin from the underside with thinning shears, never from the visible top surface.
Top edge. Clean strays under the nose; leave the natural line.
Splits. Inspect monthly and snip only split ends, a millimeter at a time.

Trim dry, unwaxed, and combed into the upswept shape so you can see the true silhouette. Waxed trimming leads to regret.

🧴 Recommended Grooming Routine

Imperial Care Routine

Morning

Wash and towel to damp. Apply beard oil generously; the Imperial has more hair than almost any other mustache.
Comb outward from the center, then upward toward the cheekbones.
Warm a firm wax, work from center to ends, and sweep the ends up into a curl or flare. A small round brush can help lift the body. Set with a few seconds of warm air from a hairdryer on low, then a cool blast.

Midday