Historically, moustaches have been worn by military men and the number of nations, regiments and ranks were equalled only by the number of styles and variations. Generally, the younger men and lower ranks wore the smaller and less elaborate moustaches. As a man advanced in rank, so did his moustache become thicker and bushier, until he ultimately was permitted to wear an ever fuller beard.

In Western cultures women generally remove facial hair, though many are capable of growing it and have done so, usually in the form of thin moustaches. The artist Frida Kahlo famously depicted herself with both a moustache and a unibrow.

An English moustache was formerly used in melodramas, movies and comic books as a shorthand indication of villainy. Snidely Whiplash, for example, was characterized by his moustache and his cape. It should be noted that stock character 1920s male attire is generally a top hat, a handlebar moustache, and a monocle.

In some countries, it was obligatory for soldiers to grow moustaches. The British Army, for instance, forbade the shaving of the upper lip by all ranks from the 19th century until the regulation was abolished by an Army Order dated 6 October 1916.

The moustache forms its own stage in the development of facial hair in adolescent males. There is a definite order in which facial hairs appear on the face during puberty :

The first facial hair to appear grows at the corners of the upper lip, It then spreads to form a moustache over the entire upper lip,
This is followed by the appearance of hair on the upper part of the cheeks, and the area under the lower lip, It eventually spreads to the sides and lower border of the chin, and the rest of the lower face to form a full beard. As with most human biological processes, this specific order may vary among individuals.