Mustache in Poland were always very popular. Just one look on old portraits it's enough to see that that polish magnates, oligarchs, kings and nobles - all of them had magnificent mustaches. Today however almost every man shaves his face to zero.

Now both: mustache and their historical importance are underestimated. Based on shape of man's mustaches It is possible to perfectly establish the century, when he lived and his social position.

In the earliest times of Poland (the Piast dynasty) luxuriant hairs were in fashion. Later, when hairs were cuted "till pot" (common kind of hair cut. the pot was putted on the head and the hairs were cutted everywhere outside the pot), nobles never comb their hairs and mustaches. Only citizens did that.

Nobles mustache - long and bushy - was easy to distinguish from the peasant or citizen beard. Most characteristic was very long mustache, which was putted behind the ears - so called "kozacki mustache".

Black mustache , sometimes painted with tar, was reserved for the soldiers. Elegant citizens in XIX century had curved and spinned mustache.

photo by Wojciech Piechowski (1849-1911)