There was a time when French gendarmes were inseparable from a very distinctive sign. Their uniform? Not only that. Their annoying tendency to score fines all the time? Today perhaps, but not in the 19th centurye century. No, we should rather look at the hair side.
For more than a century, the national gendarmerie has in fact maintained a very singular relationship with… the mustache! Sometimes shunned, sometimes codified, it was obligatory for decades, to the point of becoming almost an integral part of their uniform. Explanation.
Watch out, mustache at the report
The love story between the mustache and the police is worthy of a chaotic romance. A “I love you neither” that drags on. It all starts at the beginning of the 19th centurye century, when the mustache became a true symbol of order.
In 1832, it was simply compulsory for all soldiers! The start of a romance… which ended a few years later. In 1836, gendarmes were no longer obliged to wear it. Do you see the rest coming?
In 1841, again, the mustache became obligatory again. With a small nuance: it is forbidden to wear the fly, this small tuft of hair just under the lower lip. Here, we are talking about a bushy mustache, which sweeps in the wind above the upper lip.
In 1846, the mustache-gendarme relationship stabilized and the rules of their cohabitation were refined. An instruction specifies that their mustache must be “brush cut”, that is, oriented downwards. Why is it important? Because some then wore it in a “croc”, raised upwards. What nerve!
Mad love, then scissors
In 1848, the love is at its peak. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, then president of the IIe Republic, adds a new rule: officers and non-commissioned officers must wear a mustache… accompanied by a fly! A historic comeback for this long-snubbed fly. The beard is not so lucky, it remains prohibited. Ten years later, the dimensions of the mustache are framed: it must extend over the entire length of the lip. Everything is precise, constrained, love becomes toxic and it’s the beginning of the end.
In the second half of the 19th centurye century, the relationship between the mustache and the gendarmes fades, something breaks. In 1877, the beard was authorized in times of war (with authorization, don’t be kidding), before a little less than a decade later, it was tolerated and the mustache became… optional. The end of a world.
There was indeed a surge in 1914, on the eve of the First World War, when the mustache once again became compulsory for all soldiers. But the heart is no longer there. The fly is allowed, the beard too. Everything is going to waste. The mustache begins to disappear little by little among the gendarmes, until the ax falls.
In 1933, it was the scissors cut! The general discipline regulations are modified and all hair – mustache, head and beard – becomes optional. This time, we’re there: the breakup is definitive. It will simply be necessary to resolve a few points, as in 1971, when wearing a beard was subject to slight requirements of hygiene, safety and compatibility with equipment, but the situation will no longer change. The police are definitively saying goodbye to the mustache requirement.
Symbol of masculinity
In fact, the original question was not answered: why was the mustache imposed on the gendarmes all this time? The answer is simple: according to the standards of the time, the mustache symbolized their masculinity and authority. For the State, she embodied the very image of the gendarme, who was thus immediately identifiable.
Society visibly quickly followed suit and, when the gendarmes passed by, those who committed misdeeds could launch “be careful, the mustaches are coming!”to warn their comrades. A sort of “be careful, there are the hendeks”Second Empire version.
And if the gendarmes had to take out their mustaches to this extent to show their virility, it is perhaps to slightly compensate for their lack of credibility. It must be said that their heritage is heavy: originally, the word gendarme comes from the medieval expression “gens d’armes”, which designates a heavily armed soldier belonging to the noble cavalry of the time.
We were then far from a baton and a ticket book: the men-at-arms of the XIIe and XIIIe centuries belong to the kingdom’s armored military elite. The modern meaning of the word gendarme will in fact merge with that of the constabulary, a force created in the 14the century, responsible for monitoring the roads and suppressing banditry. During the French Revolution, the constabulary was abolished and the national gendarmerie was created. Less armor, but more mustache.
