#the stress took his youth 😔

[kankuroplease]

[castlebyersafterdark]

i like the mike being against the tache idea actually! purely for practical rather than visual reasons (maybe he gets an actual rash?) and that tension and tussle between looks/action could be a good point of drama. is this worth it for how cute will looks vs mike getting uncomfortable, etc. bonus points if the rash isn't just appearing on mike's face! 🤭

ive seen fanarts with tached will getting better and better (kidovna?! amazing) but i still hold the stereotypical judgement unfortunately, of either hipsters, pervs, or military men. maybe those stereotypes were borne of homophobia 😔 if so i hope to work against them! i mean, we could work the military aspect in an au (boarding school au byler grow up to go into the military with their little uniforms, ties and taches and secret sex on the frontlines) but most of all i feel like a moustache would age will about 15 years lmao. not against natural aging, them growing facial hair (hot!) but why look older than you are haha. esp if will is going to go prematurely grey as some people headcanon. i prefer premature salt and pepper mike tbh, but theyve both got such beautiful hair it seems a shame to make them lose the colour soon!

I always say interpretations are valid, as are preferences! Maybe it's like that for me because I personally do find some styles of facial hair very attractive, and Will being sooo cute something about him a little older is extra cute with a specific look? Because he can still be very clean shaven and sparsely haired on body and face but have the neat little stache. It's very hard for me to picture Mike that disturbed by it other than for comedy! So that's ok. But that's my projection maybe!! I'll be the first to admit it.

And maybe partially it's tied into pushback against stereotype and harmful stigma? Because a mustache is a very common look in the gay community - look at Freddie Mercury, look at the classic image of a vintage leather daddy with a handlebar mustache. Random search provided a fun visual example list. It's just been a very consistent look.

I think it's totally fine to have preferences and even give those to fictional characters (I've said before, I like some facial hair on others, I don't like big beards, and I don't like much facial hair on myself - obviously preferences are fine!) but we gotta work past the stigma and generalizations sometimes. Homophobia plays into it, or mainly associating it with old prn (though it does have an association - mostly because a lot of classic prn stereotypes were born out of the 70s because that's just how a lot of people looked then) or associating it with pervs. Always fight against the notion that looks = morality. We're all works in progress!

I agree that maybe so young, it might be odd on Will and could really throw Mike having been used to seeing Will a certain way. There's the fun in playing with the topic of growing up, the boys celebrating that they can grow facial hair now, the novelty of developing a style, grooming habits, what they're attracted to. How attraction and what you're into does change over time. Nuance.

Oooh ok I do big time HC that Will starts going gray kinda young, I've seen people suggest that and I've adopted it, too. All his youthful stress took a toll. Or with that distinctive gray streak like my boy Matty Duffer haha (part of what makes him the hot twin). But Mike with salt and pepper hair is honestly really hot too he would look soooo good.

Anyway- biggest takeaway from all this is how lovely it is we all can play with and imagine how Mike and Will grow and change over time, and how awesome that is that they get to experience that all together for the rest of their lives 😌❤️