I’m almost a week into my fourth Movember campaign. There’s always been something oddly horrifying about a moustache, at least in the last 20 years or so. You just don’t see them in business, and you almost never see the middle classes sporting one, which is probably the same thing.

The only colour you can get away with for a genuinely ‘free standing’ moustache is grey. Ideally you need also be a retired army colonel. Otherwise people look at you funny, or assume you’re from out of town, or both.

I’ll tell you what’s so attractive about the Movember campaign. It’s the easiest way to raise money. You simply don’t shave a particular area of your face for a month.  In fact, when you look at it that way, do you less work and you raise money. It certainly beats running a marathon.

You also get a certain frisson wearing a moustache in public, since you are effectively absolved – and even lauded – for looking ridiculous.

A few years ago I was getting ready for a sales meeting in London with a senior guy and a couple of colleagues.  It was mid-November and I decided the right thing to do was to shave it off for the meeting and start again mid-month.  My colleagues said ‘Hey, where’s your mo?’ When I explained, they were in adamant agreement that I should have left it on, as it would have been a good ice-breaker and isn’t that the whole idea of Movember anyway? They were right of course. You’re drawing attention to something you feel strongly about.

I’m off to think of a business idea that’s as easy as growing a muzzer for chiridee…