Adults Star Malik Elassal Stole Jack Innanen’s Mustache

If you’ve noticed a surge in skinny little mustaches recently, you’re not alone. We dug into the trend last summer when we noticed a whole bunch of handsome A-listers—Charles Melton, Benson Boone, and Timothée Chalamet—were growing a little fuzz above their upper lip. It all came to a head when the Hulu series Adults premiered. The break-out comedy, about five 20-somethings navigating their lives in New York City, co-starred Jack Innanen, a TikTok comedian with a tidy little mustache. Amid the trio of male leads, the mustache stuck out because of the clean-shaven faces of co-stars Malik Elassal and Owen Thiele.In an amusing turn of events, Innanen’s mustache—a staple of his for the last six years—is now part of a larger beard for the actor, and a thin strip of hair has found its way onto Elassal’s upper lip. During recent press for the second season of Adults, Elassal has been rocking an exact replica of the facial hair that had been the calling card of his co-star. (In an interview with GQ, Innanen said that he had started rocking a mustache in 2020, and it just so happened the butt of one joke in the series.)Jack Innanen's (left) infamous mustache has been overtaken by a full beard with co-star Malik Elassal (right) taking over as the sole mustache wearer in the Adults cast. Frank Micelotta/Getty ImagesWhy does this mustache have a chokehold on a wave of young male stars? For one, the skinny little mustache is daring. It says, “Hey, I have strong opinions on French cinema, which may or may not be accurate, but I fully stand behind them.” It’s also sultry, flirtatious before the wearer can even open their mouth. Kirk Riley, master barber and co-founder of the New York City-based barbershop chain Otis & Finn, even gave the mustache—one defined by the way it extends from each corner of the mouth, trimmed as not to allow the hair to grow past the lip—a name: the playboy mustache.This look is a distinct departure from the bigger, bushier mustaches of the ‘70s and ‘80s worn by sex symbols like Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck, but it does mark a recent trend for men who are letting their hair grow free all over their body. Chest hair’s back in, as is longer hair on the top of the head. The Adults co-stars are defenseless to this particular facial hair’s charms. Sooner or later, the skinny mustache comes for us all.