From long to short, to soft, fuzzy, and bushy, students saw an increase of facial hair around campus during the month of November. Most know it as No-shave November, a time when students capable, or not capable, of growing facial hair put away their razors for thirty days.

No-shave-November, or Movember, is a month long awareness campaign for men’s health issues, particularly prostate cancer. The Movember foundation, run through Movember.com, is an organization that sells Movember apparel to raise money for their campaign. Of course, they also promote growing facial hair.

While some students participate just for the fun, and others for the Movember cause, for junior Robbie Diaz, it’s both.

“It’s a fun thing to do, for a whole month you don’t need to worry about shaving,” Diaz said. “I also think that it’s really cool because it’s a fun interesting thing to do for health issues.”

According to the Movember foundation the charity started in 2004 in the US and went international in 2007. Since 2011 Canada is the largest contributor to the organization. In 2012, the Global Journal listed The Movember Foundation as one of the top 100 non-government organizations in the world, based upon impact, innovation, and sustainability.

History teacher Mark Cowherd, said that he did not really notice a change in his classroom during the month of November

“Let’s be honest, a vast amount of students cannot grow a beard…They can pour milk on their face and a cat could lick [their beard] off.”

Cowherd said that his students could have tried to grow a better beard than him if they wanted to try.

Movember is a growing tradition on the Internet. It started in 2003 with a group of “30 Mo Bros” to over one million participants in 2012, according to the Movember foundation. In 2012 alone the charity raised over $145 million dollars, with that money going toward testicular and prostate cancer research.

Sophomore Jackson Parker said it is something that in the future, he would participate in to raise awareness.

However, it is not just about bros. On the female side, the organization Mo Sistas helps support awareness by trekking through the month of November by not shaving their arms or legs, according to the Movember foundation.

The goal of the Movember foundation is to “change the face of men’s health” according to their website.

Diaz said now that has December hit, he will restart with a fresh clean shave.