The mustache, a thick salt-and-pepper number neatly shaped into a chevron, had survived questions, protests and even Photoshopped ridicule. At least that was the account given last week by the American ambassador to South Korea, Harry B. Harris Jr., as he walked into a Seoul barbershop. He sat down for a clean shave of a bit of facial hair he had held fast to for two years, even as it threatened to escalate diplomatic tensions. Mr. Harris long maintained that he meant no disrespect with his mustache, which he said he had grown for his retirement as a Navy admiral. This weekend, though, he said that the facial hair had become intolerable under the masks he had been wearing in the muggy heat.

Source: New York Times July 27, 2020 11:15 UTC