Just curious as to when they banned facial hair. Seeing the ole Mustache Petesand all.

i think this was pretty much a myth brought on by the donnie brasco movie....some families may have had it but not all.

I know guys like Tommy Pitera wouldn't aloow his guys to have facial hair since he felt it respresented whiskers from a rat

scarpa clearly had facial hair. this pic is def from the 70's early 80's

A lot of guys in Philly had facial hair too. But that was more the exception.

The facial hair thing has always been fascinating to me, I've thought of some reasons as to why there's some Mob edict regarding it. It definitely seems there is an edict regarding having facial hair. Though I've thought that it has a lot to do with a lot of wiseguys having legit day jobs, or an appearance to keep up for a no-show job, i.e. the early mob's fascination; Maranzano and Masseria with the American working stiff, the 'Boss' title, which is more American than anything else.

IMHO, the men we call the Mustache Petes were basically representing the style of that day. A lot of men looked like that 100 or more years ago.
When the books were opened in the 50s, men looked differently. Not many men wore overgrown mustaches.

Is it possible that the so called mafiaban on wearing mustaches actually is a myth?
Maybe. I think it was a matter of looking proper and avoiding the resemblance of a bum. A large majority of these guys, after all, were extremely vain.

This thread reminds me when Pacino told Depp to take off his mustache in Donnie Brasco.

Carlo America and Joseph Piazza of the San Jose Mob both were made members and had beards all through the 70's and 80's. Carlo is still alive and has a long beard.

Charles Carneglia of the Gambino Family rocks a beard now.

Funny this just came up because i was wondering the reasons behind it myself. One thought is that if the LCN is based on the old Roman empire days, then it would follow that facial hair wasn't allowed because the Romans rarely grew out beards unless in time of mourning (I believe). So I think it was just an offshoot from that. I think it was Emperor Hadrian was the first of the Caesars to actually have a beard.

Cool; you have pictures of this?

I have a picture of Piazza from 1974. Limey from the real deal has two pictures of Carlo. About the picture of Charles Carneglia, just look at the recent chart of the Gambino family.

Phil Testa from Philly also had a mustache.

I'd love to see those of the San Jose guys

The thing is this...in Italy, most men like to be clean shaven. It really is few and far between that you'll see Italian men with facial hair. They see it as dirty or unkempt. Same goes for tattoos. Unless you're in jail, a biker or a footballer, there's still a lot of hangups on that. So, it's not so much as it's not allowed in Cosa Nostra as it is a cultural thing. They still see facial hair as sloppy. And when you look sloppy, you act as such. I believe the same applies to Italo-American mafioso.

Thanks,Carmela

Thank you Carmela,

That makes alot of sense I know when I had a beard my attitude was different I was more laid back felt like a old hippy lost in the the twilight zone.

The mustache/beard ban is a fairy tale.

Even today , acting consigliere of the colombos Thomas farese has a moustache , and look at pics of Harry riccobene he looked like Santa Claus ha ha

I don't think the mobsters were that sophisticated. It was just an attempt to look like legit businessmen.

The ban is a fairytale. It only applies to an administration official, capo, or soldier who does not like facial hair and orders his underlings to be clean shaved for the American mafia. The Italian counterpart, it is seen as how Carmela described it.