Movember – The Ambassador
At the day of the launch of Movember, the charity that wants to change men’s health by making the moustache the symbol, I dropped in at Honest Al’s Barbershop to witness Tom Rickard – one of the Movember ambassadors in Sweden – getting his shave.
Tom, just like the movement itself, is Australian and is working as head of sales at Hobby Film in Stockholm.
How did you become a Mo Bro?
I did my first Movember years ago, in Australia, both by myself and as part of a team. I once met up with the guys from Movember and told them how amazing it is as a concept. I kept in touch with one of the guys and when they told me they were going to launch over here. I decided to join and help out as one of the ambassadors. I suppose it was kind of nice for them to have someone on the ground who has done it before, who knows how it works.
You shaved off your huge beard. How long did you have that?
Well, normally I have a beard and I trim it, but I started to grow it long in June.
How do you think people will react?
Thank Godness! Some people have said to me, Tom, you really need to shave. Now I get the reaction, ‘Tom you actually look quite nice’, which is always nice to hear but at the same time you’d think people reckon you look pretty ugly when you have the beard…
You have done it before so you obviously know how you look with a moustache?
Yeah, but it has grown in different speeds the last few time. The first time it was horrible, but the last time it grew in ok. This time I’m wondering what style I’m gonna have.
What style have you had before?
I’ve just gone for the straight moustache, and I’ve tried the handlebar. But my theory is the more bizarre it is, the more questions you get about it. So the more obvious you have it with curls and so on – especially in a place like Sweden where moustaches are trendy – you need something to stand out for people to go “man, what are you doing”?
How are you going to make Movember grow in Sweden?
I’m just going to inform people as much as possible. A lot of guys are a bit hesitant to grow a moustache. I want to point out that it’s fun too, people might think people will look at them funny as if they were some kind of weirdo but I know it’s actually a lot of fun doing this.
You think Swedes are receptive to the idea?
I know some Swedish guys who are super excited for it. But when you haven’t done it before you can be a bit unsure. In Australia it has gone on for so long so everyone knows what it is, whereas here people might think ‘what happens three weeks in when the novelty is over?’
Do you think it will reach the mainstream or just become something for a particular group of people?
Obviously it’s the first year, and it takes some time to build up some momentum. I think the hipster crowd will go for it, but they’re bringing in the hockey players, a lot of the sports guys too, to create wider interest. The more people you see with it from different areas, the more people you reach.
How do you involve the guys who already have a moustache?
That’s a tricky one. They’d think ‘do I need to shave it off to grow it back’ and technically, according to the rules yeah, but if someone don’t want to get rid of it, they can just sponsor someone else.
And I suppose they are walking billboards for the whole thing already just by wearing a moustache.
That’s perfect, even if they haven’t signed up as a Mo Bro, they help the cause.
How does it work, you sponsor someone who has a moustache and contribute to the cause?
You get people to sponsor you as you grow a sweet mo. They can either donate to an individual or to a team.
And if you just want to contribute financially how do you do it?
You go into the Movember website and search for a particular person or a team. You search for the profiles. If someone wants to donate to me, they search for Tom Rickard
on the website and they put in their credit card details just like when they buy anything over the net.
See se.movember.com for more info
