February 2022. While chatting around the coffee machine, Louis Linel and his colleagues challenged each other to grow a mustache. "We thought it would be funny and, one day, I woke up with a line in the middle of my face," laughed the 29-year-old Parisian. Except that once alone in front of his mirror, the media relations manager regretted it a little: "The mustache was poorly trimmed and I had just met a girl at work who I liked! Clearly, I hadn't maximized my chances of success."

Three years later, his colleague is now his girlfriend and Louis refuses to give up the facial hair he's become so attached to. "I've been told it balances out my face," said the son of a head nurse, who is always clean-shaven. Rather full and "drooping like an inverted U," his mustache matches his vintage double-rimmed glasses and emphasizes his '90s style: "I love this period, it takes me back to my childhood!" And never mind if his hair gets in the way when he goes diving in Vincennes once a week. "It sometimes gets stuck inside my mask and causes water leaks... It's a small sacrifice!" admitted the diving beginner.

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