New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani Shaves Beard Down to Mustache

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has shaved his beard down to a mustache, according to an opinion column published Sunday in The Guardian by Los Angeles-based writer Dave Schilling.

Mamdani "rose to political prominence with a thick, black beard," Schilling writes. The mayor's new facial hair, in Schilling's description, is a "70s-style mustache."

What changed in Mamdani's look?

The column does not give a date for the switch. It describes the result: the beard is gone, and a mustache has replaced it. Schilling writes he will be "monitoring the situation for increased thickness, volume, and contour variation," suggesting the mustache is still developing.

He frames the shift in terms of a historical comparison, writing that it is "like Teddy Roosevelt shaving his own mustache off and settling for a soul patch." The line is Schilling's characterization of how dramatic the downgrade from full beard to mustache reads, not a claim that Mamdani referenced Roosevelt himself.

How does the column describe his previous beard?

According to Schilling, the beard made Mamdani's face "even more 'cool dad' adjacent." He writes that it made the mayor look "both more rugged and somehow more approachable, like the most affable econ professor the East Village had ever known." Those descriptions are the columnist's own assessment, offered as opinion rather than reporting of any official styling decision by Mamdani or his office.

Why does a mustache draw different scrutiny than other changes?

Schilling argues that facial hair changes are treated differently from other celebrity or political appearance shifts. "A famous actor goes blonde and it's headline news for the gossip industrial complex," he writes. "A new piercing or a bit of plastic surgery can launch a thousand memes." A mustache, he contends, is its own category: "A mustache evokes a very particular reaction, considering its association with retired baseball players, sleazy used car dealers, and 20th-century union-busting oil barons." On a politician, he writes, the look is "a bit undignified."

He also cautions other men against copying the mayor. "Don't let GQ or some other style magazine pressure you into following the inevitable Mamdani-led trend," he writes. "You are not him." That advice is addressed to readers, not to Mamdani.

What is the columnist's own history with facial hair?

Schilling frames his commentary through his own experience. He writes that he started growing facial hair early, which he says turned him into "a pubescent villain from a spaghetti western." He says his parents told him not to shave it off, "lest it grow back more furious than before," leaving him, in his words, looking "like a hungover bond trader" through high school.

As an adult, he writes, he grew a full beard and now shaves regularly because of gray hair, joking that his "temples are whiter than the Lakers' starting lineup." He says he is "no class traitor" and is "not fully anti-mustache," citing what he calls "the working person's right to a Tom Selleck special on their upper lip" and a reference to his father, an Air Force master sergeant. The column uses that personal history to frame its reaction to Mamdani's new look, rather than presenting it as independent reporting on the mayor.

Has Mamdani's office addressed the change?

The Guardian column does not include a statement from Mamdani, his mayoral office, or any City Hall spokesperson about the switch from beard to mustache. No additional on-the-record comment confirming a reason for the change appears in the piece. The column is presented as opinion and commentary, not as a statement of the mayor's own explanation for his appearance.

Schilling's piece runs in the Guardian's Comment Is Free section, under the outlet's Zohran Mamdani topic tag, and was last modified Sunday at 9:08 a.m. Eastern, according to the publication's timestamp on the article.

Is the change part of a broader trend?

Schilling frames Mamdani's switch as something likely to spread beyond City Hall. He predicts style publications will push readers toward copying the look, writing that men should "not let GQ or some other style magazine pressure you into following the inevitable Mamdani-led trend." His follow-up line, "You are not him," is addressed to readers weighing their own facial hair, not a comment from Mamdani's office on the mayor's grooming choices. The column does not cite any stylists, retailers, or other commentators discussing a trend tied to the mayor's new mustache, leaving the prediction as Schilling's own forecast rather than a documented shift in public behavior.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.