By Daniel Davies News Online

John Powell's moustache is in the early stages of its life...

John Powell is doing his bit for the much-maligned moustache by growing one in a good cause.

But his efforts to encourage colleagues at a mid Wales college to follow his unshaven path have run into problems.

It seems that their grooming style still owes much to the likes of Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck, who wore their upper lips proud and hairy in decades gone by.

...but photographic trickery lets us see the John of the near future

"I'm trying to get other members of staff to grow moustaches, but being lecturers a lot of them already have them in the classic 1970s Open University style," said Mr Powell.

He is cultivating his face fuzz in support of Tacheback, a month-long stunt to raise money for testicular cancer research.

And if the college staff are proving difficult, the students are offering even less fertile territory.

"I'm also trying to get students to get involved," he said. "Although many of them haven't started shaving yet."

Mr Powell, an internet development officer at Coleg Powys, Brecon, started growing his on 1 September.

People always claim that it is unsightly because you get soup and breadcrumbs in your moustache but I certainly didn't find that when I had a beard John Powell

During the month it will be possible to check on its progress via a special website that allows sponsors to donate money.

The campaign could mark the start of a return to style for the moustache.

Moustaches have been associated with bounders and cads

Viewed in recent years by some as slightly naff and outdated, its image was damaged in the 1940s and 1950s when it was associated with black marketeers, spivs and middle-class bounders played by the likes of Terry Thomas and Leslie Phillips.

In recent years, the moustache's reputation has not been helped by devotees such as Saddam Hussein.

But style bible GQ magazine, which is supporting the campaign, reckons moustaches are due for a comeback, and has branded it "the must-have fashion accessory of the year."

Celebrities recently spotted out and about with a 'tache' include George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Jamie Theakston.

Salvador Dali is one of John Powell's inspirations

Soup strainer

Mr Powell, who used to sport a beard, believes facial hair has long had a bad press.

"People always claim that it is unsightly because you get soup and breadcrumbs in your moustache but I certainly didn't find that when I had a beard," he said.

He hopes to cultivate his own "soup strainer" in the style of Terry Thomas or surrealist artist Salvador Dali.

"I've got a book on moustaches and there are lots of different styles that I can consider developing over the next month," he said.

"I hope that I will have an outstanding example of lovely facial shrubbery by the end of the month."

The charity that moustache growers are backing is Everyman, the cancer charity run by the Institute of Cancer Research which helps raise money for testicular cancer.

This disease is increasingly afflicting men between the ages of 20 and 35.