A story of mustaches, moving to stay healthy and the importance of these things in support of men’s health, one may wonder what the true meaning of Movember and No-shave November is. There’s a lot of misconceptions that people do it just because of trend or to be hip because it’s just a thing that dudes do in November. However, the concept of Movember is much more complex and touching than you think. As previously stated, the true and main goal of this November phenomenon is to advocate men’s health, as there’s multiple things men do not do to help the conversation of men’s health start to roll.
Originally starting over a beer with old friends Travis Garone and Luke Slattery in 2003, the two friends had intentionally started this moustache trend to just bring a fad back that they had seemed to love, just for the sheer feeling of nostalgia. Inspired by a friend’s mother who was raising money for breast cancer, the two masterminds roped their friends in to growing moustaches to support men’s health and prostate cancer. The catch? They also charged ten dollars for the cause as well. With the future help from people such as Adam Garone and Justin Coghlan in 2004, the guys formally supported prostate cancer for this campaign, approached the Prostate Cancer Association of Australia and thus, took off from there.
Fast-forward to modern 2015, and the Movember Foundation has now raised USD $710 million since 2003, has had 5,232,625 participants and has helped fund 1,200 health programs since 2003. Not only does the program advocate growing beards, but it also promotes healthy living and exercising! With the Move challenge, your goal is anything you want it to be. As long as you are tracking your progress, improving and becoming a new person, then that’s the main focus for this project!
All of this is for the good of men’s health, and with the help of millions from the United States, U.K., Hong Kong, Australia, etc.; the talk in men’s health is starting to change on a positive note. Get out there next November, and be the change we need!