These Swedish Guys Want to Protect Your Moustache

Having an abundance of facial hair can be a challenge. It's like your face is a flypaper mat clad with Velcro, welcoming all the scraps and grains of the world to literally come and sit on your face. And not in a sexy way. It's a tough world for all the hipsters and yuccies out there.

Eric Calderon from Gothenburg, Sweden got tired of the daily challenges furry-faced people are faced with. Being, himself, a hairy-faced man with a strong moustache and an unapologetic beard, Eric and his two friends Adam and Oskar, with whom he runs a small design company, decided to do something about the everyday problems of the world's stache-faced population. With a new take on an old invention for moustached gentlemen in the 1800's, they developed the Stache Shield – a modern accessory for people who want to keep their staches pristine and clean. Two weeks ago, Eric and his friends launched a kickstarter campaign in order to develop "the Greatest & Most Multifunctional Moustache Protector your upper lip has ever seen."

I reached out to Eric to discuss the importance of modern day stache protection.

VICE: Hi Eric! What prompted you guys to develop the Stache Shield?
Eric Calderon: Well, shields and protective hairnets for moustaches are old inventions. This whole thing actually started with an old protective moustache shield that we found in Adam's [Eric's friend and business partner] grandfather's attic. Adam's grandfather has rocked a moustache since the 1940's. We were looking around his attic and found this weird "sock" called the Kaiser mustache trainer that his grandpa had used in his younger years. We also found an old teacup with a metal moustache protector attached to it. That's when we were like: wow, we need to bring this back.

This all sounds like the perfect story to sell moustache shields.
I know but it's true! Adam's grandfather is even in some of the promotional pictures for our shield. And since he's going through prostate cancer right now, we decided to give away 10% of all our Stache Shield-earnings to the Movember foundation.

Do you feel like there's a serious need for moustache shields today? Are we as a society lacking the proper tools to deal with the new waves of hairy-faced men?
Yeah, I think we are. I personally have a lot of facial hair and it can get pretty messy. Sometimes my girlfriend finds pieces of food in it. A lot of things tend to get stuck in my face.

Like what?
So, I love drinking healthy, green smoothies. That stuff sticks and discolours the moustache. Even drinking out of a beer glass can be tricky, so I've resorted to drinking beer out of bottles. Well, that was before we made the shield. Now it's all good.

What's the worst thing that has gotten stuck in your moustache?
I love egg and caviar sandwiches. And because it's a pretty well-built sandwich, the caviar almost always gets stuck in my moustache. And the thing with caviar is that it smells more the longer it's out in the air. It smells pretty gross and it's not nice to walk around with that smell right under your nose all day.

Do you also recommend the shield for cunnilingus activities? I saw a picture of you with it on, pre-oral sex.
That's actually my girlfriends legs in the picture! Yeah, I mean, it's not a major problem to have a moustache when giving head but it can get pretty sticky. That's another motivation for making this product – people with moustaches go through loads of napkins everyday just to wipe our facial hair. With this shield you're doing our environment a big favour by not wasting too much paper.

Great. I want to go back to the shield and the oral sex: Have you actually used it in bed?
Yeah, we tried having oral sex with the shield on, but my girlfriend said the steel was pretty cold against her skin. So yeah.

So yeah indeed, Eric. Good luck with the shield!