Historians and sociologists have long noticed the importance of mustaches and beards as a markers of identity and status and yet, surprisingly little has been written about the long career of facial hair in the Ottoman and post-Ottoman Middle East. A first step filling this lacuna, this paper aims to explain the growing popularity of mustaches around the turn of the twentieth century. The study is based on the examination of hundreds of photos from the late 1870s to the demise of the Ottoman Empire. The personal details of the individuals photographed (date of birth, place of birth, occupation etc.) have been analyzed in order to demonstrate not only when mustaches began to gain popularity, but also, if this trend can be associated with particular social groups. I use contemporary publications, diaries and memoirs alongside the photos, in order to explain this phenomenon and place it within relevant contemporary discourses. Based on all these materials I argue that while mustaches were certainly not unknown in the region before the late nineteenth century, they became increasingly more prevalent, especially among young people who graduated from Ottoman schools between the 1890s and WWI. These people began to assert their place in the cultural and political spheres through a wide range of organizations, from literary clubs, through newspapers and on to political parties. The mustache, I contend, brought together new ideas about masculinity and the importance of youth for the 'progress' of the Ottoman nation. Indeed, the notion of progress (terakki, takkadum) was fundamental here. On the most general terms, this notion implied a rather new understanding of history as a universal timeline along which different nations race for progress. The effort of the young and educated to identify themselves with the 'modern' thus had clear political ramifications: they belonged to the 'new era' and were thus best able to lead society 'forward,' into 'modern civilization.' Such ideas were especially prevalent in post-1908 texts about the 'new generation' (nesl-i cedid) and its responsibility for the future of the empire. Mustaches, I argue, became an important marker of this generational identification and the related self-consciously 'modern' worldview. They allowed one to literally wear his identity on his face, to distinguish himself from his Others, and to identify other members of his group. In short, during this period mustaches grew, or were grown to be political.