Cowboy moustache
the chevron grown out past the mouth
A cowboy moustache is a chevron allowed to keep going. Thick, wide, covering the top lip and continuing past the corners of the mouth, with the ends left to hang rather than waxed or curled.
It also goes by the Dallas moustache, and it is the moustache most people picture when they picture a moustache at all.
At a glance
- Also known as
- Dallas moustache
- What it is
- A wide chevron grown out past the corners of the mouth.
- Length
- Medium, one to two inches
- Growing time
- 6 to 10 weeks
- Trim how often
- Every week or two
- Best face shapes
- Square, Long
- Moustache
- Yes
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The width is grown, but the lip line underneath it is cut, and that is the edge people actually notice.
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The variations
The same shape, worn differently. What changes is length, density and how much you take off at the edges.
Will it suit your face?
Where a style puts weight, and where it takes it away, is what decides whether it suits you. The table below is the short version.
| Square | Ideal | A strong jaw carries the extra width without looking top-heavy. |
|---|---|---|
| Long | Ideal | Weight running out past the mouth breaks up a long face. |
| Oval | Works | Sits well, though a plain chevron is tidier on a face with nothing to correct. |
| Round | Avoid | Adds width where a round face already has plenty. |
| Diamond | Works | Fills out a narrow jaw. |
| Heart | Avoid | Can make a narrow chin look narrower still. |
How to cut one, in four steps
- Grow it past the corners6 to 10 weeks, with no trimming at the sides at all. The width is the whole point and the corner hair arrives last.
- Set the widthComb it flat and decide where it stops. Anywhere from the mouth corners to half an inch past them reads as deliberate.
- Clear the lipTake the bottom edge back to the lip line so it does not end up in your mouth. Scissors, a few hairs at a time.
- Leave the rest aloneThe style wants a little weight and a little irregularity. Trimming it perfectly even turns it into a chevron.
Full detail, tools and the common mistakes are in the guide below.
What makes it a cowboy rather than a chevron
Length and reach. A chevron stops at or just past the corners of the mouth and sits above the lip. A cowboy runs wider than the mouth and long enough to cover the top lip completely, often hanging slightly over it.
What it is not is a horseshoe. A horseshoe drops two vertical arms down past the corners of the mouth toward the jaw. A cowboy stays horizontal and stops.
It is also not a walrus, which is longer and bushier again and generally covers the mouth entirely.
Who it suits
Square jaws and long faces. The width is the point: a cowboy runs horizontally across the middle of the face, which adds width where a long face wants it and softens a strong jaw by putting bulk above it.
Coarse, dense hair. This is not a style for fine or sparse growth. There is no line work to make it read as deliberate, so it relies entirely on mass. A thin cowboy just looks like a moustache that needs a trim.
It is a poor choice for a round face, where the horizontal weight widens a face that is already wide.
Growing it
Six to ten weeks, and the last few of those matter most, because the hair at the corners of the mouth is the slowest to arrive and the width is what defines the style.
Do not trim the sides while it grows. The temptation at week four is to tidy the ends, and it is how men end up with a permanent chevron.
The top lip fills in first, the corners last. Judge it at eight weeks, not four.
Trimming it
There is less to do here than with most moustaches, which is the appeal.
Trim the bottom edge along your lip line, taking out anything that reaches into your mouth. That is the only cut that is really required, and it wants doing every week or two.
Leave the ends alone unless they are genuinely straggling. The hang is the style.
Comb it down and outward before cutting so you see the real shape. Combing it flat first is what stops you cutting a curve into what should be a straight line.
Do not thin it. Bulk is the entire effect.
Trim on dry hair. Wet moustache hair hangs noticeably longer than it really is.
Keeping it
Weekly along the lip line. Daily combing once it is long enough to have a direction.
It does not need wax. A cowboy that has been waxed into points is a handlebar and a different commitment entirely. If yours will not lie flat, a very small amount of balm is enough.
Wash it. At this length and in this position it collects everything you eat and drink, and a moustache is the part of any facial hair that discolours first.
Where it goes wrong
Trimming the width off. The commonest error. Every tidy takes a little more from the ends until it is a chevron again.
Waxing it. Different style.
Growing it fine. If your moustache hair is sparse, a lampshade or a defined English moustache reads far better than a thin attempt at bulk.
Letting it grow into your mouth. The one maintenance job, and the one people put off.
Other moustaches
Same shape, different length or moustache.
If this one is too much work
Same idea, less of your morning.
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