Top Gun: Maverick is currently flying at the top of the box office. The Joseph Kosinski-directed film, which is a sequel to Tony Scott's 1986 OG flick, sees Tom Cruise reprise his role as the above-the-rules pilot who the sequel is named after. For his second outing, the Hollywood vet is rejoined by the likes of Val Kilmer, while Jon Hamm, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Miles Teller.
And sure while most people are likely tuning in to see Cruise back in action as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, over on TikTok it isn't the 59-year old actor's cockpit skills that have got people talking. Instead it's Teller's facial hair, with #topgunmustache amassing over 50,000 videos over the weekend.
TikTokers across the globe have reached for their trimmers and have shaped their own facial hair to match the 'stache Teller sports in the film as Rooster, with self-trimming 30-second clips with captions such as “sees Top Gun once" and “just watched Top Gun with my wife and I have no other option" doing the rounds.
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Intended to closely resemble Anthony Edwards' Top Gun character Goose, who is his fictional late father, Rooster sports a thick mustache that looks a bit like you might see on Eighties pornstars. Profuse and bushy, and shaped with a perfect downward curve, Teller's facial hair works perfectly with his face, softening his strong jawline and acting in balance with his brows.
While some TikTok attempts are spot on, there's more bad ‘taches than good out there. Fortunately for anyone wishing to reach for the clippers in the wake of seeing Top Gun: Maverick, facial hair expert Joe Mills can show you how to get it right.
“First off, as simple as it sounds, you need to grow out your mustache. Some people find it easy to grow the whole beard out and then shave it in, but you'll need to give yourself at least two weeks to get it up to a good level of growth," Mills explains. "If you have a full beard, you're going to need some decent clippers to get through it. I strongly recommend using the King C Gillette beard trimmer for this, and the key to getting it right is in taking your time.
You start by shaving everything that's not a mustache. “You want the moustache to start at the crook of the mouth. That being said, most people’s faces are not symmetrical, so this is best achieved by sight and lining up in your mirror. I would recommend starting almost with a handlebar moustache and then working your way up," he says.
The idea is to not take off too much at once: start slow. “Start by marking the two low edges of your moustache with the clippers and remove all the beard hair you don’t need. Afterwards, clean it down. Next, you're going to gradually bring each side up in length until you get to around the crook of your mouth. Don’t go too high as it changes shape completely.”
Once you've figured out the best shape, deal with density. “The last key thing is to reduce any bulky remains of your mustache. This is achieved with the same clippers. You want to work one side, then the other, by coming down into it as opposed to working up the face. Again, take your time, as depending on how much facial hair you have, more work will be needed.”
