‘Stache-advocacy group AMI launches workplace mustache survey

If your workplace and your whiskers are at odds with each other, the American Mustache Institute (AMI) wants to hear about it.

Better yet, it’d like you to take a survey and help it get a beard (sorry, bead) on the state of facial hair in the U.S. work environment. The humorous mustache advocacy group says it plans to release the results of its Workplace Mustache Study (sponsored, appropriately enough, by the Wahl Clipper Corp.) in mid-November.

The way the AMI folks see it, there hasn’t been an in-depth examination of facial hair in the workplace since “Effects of Cranial and Facial Hair on Perceptions of Age and Person,” (Michael S. Wogalter and Judith A. Hosie) was published in the Journal of Social Psychology in 1991.

But you won’t need to wait for next month’s State of the ‘Stache address to find out some of the nation’s most mustache-friendly firms and bristle-embracing businesses. Based on what the group refers to as “positive feedback from Mustached Americans,” it has compiled a list of lip-spinach-loving employers that includes, among others, the U.S. Postal Service, Ford Motor Co., Harley Davidson Motors, the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, MLB’s Cincinnati Reds, Limited Brands and Pizza Hut.

To promote awareness of and participation in the survey, members of the AMI are embarking on an eight-city tour of what it calls the U.S. “Mustache Belt,” (not coincidentally home to many of the above-mentioned employers). The tour, which kicks off Wednesday, will hit St. Louis, Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland, wrapping up in Pittsburgh on Oct. 26, where it will host its annual charity fundraiser called the Hairy Halloween ‘Stache Bash.

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adam.tschorn@latimes.com