The mustache, a thick number of salt and pepper perfectly polished to a gallon, had survived questions, protests, and even ridicule with Photoshop. But he has met his rival: the long, sticky days of a Korean pandemic summer.
At least that was the account given last week by the American ambassador to South Korea, Harry B. Harris Jr., when he entered a Seoul barbershop. He sat down for a clean shave of some facial hair that he had held firm for two years, even as it threatened to intensify diplomatic tensions.
Some in South Korea had viewed the mustache worn by Mr. Harris, an American of Japanese descent, as a disgusting reminder of those worn by colonial Japanese governors who ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945, a period that holds traumatic memories in the peninsula.
Mr. Harris long maintained that he was not referring to disrespect with his mustache, which he said had grown up for his retirement as a Navy admiral. However, this weekend, he said that facial hair had become intolerable under the masks he had been wearing in the sultry heat.
“For some people, they can wear a mask and have a mustache or beard. But for me, it’s just uncomfortable in this heat, and I have to wear a mask, “Harris said in a video posted Saturday by the United States Embassy.
The video, which showed him slapping his elbows with a barber at a traditional wood-paneled store before settling in for his shave, was produced in the style of a cheery game show, punctuated by dramatic sound effects and bubble-captioned captions. .
Wrapped in pink towels, Mr. Harris rolled his eyes as the barber lowered his black leather seat back and brought a pale green razor to his face.
“I’m glad I did this. For me, it was keeping the “stache or losing the mask,” Harris wrote in a tweet on Saturday.
Born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a U.S. Navy officer, Harris became an ambassador to South Korea in 2018.
One of the first questions they asked him upon landing in the country was about his mustache, and some South Koreans wondered if it was a calculated insult. In 2019, protesters protesting the cost of hosting U.S. troops in South Korea had Photoshop-whisked placards on their faces.
In an interview with The Korea Times in December Harris said that the mustache reflected his new life as a diplomat after a four-decade career in the Navy that required him to shave most of the time.
He said his ethnicity was unrelated to his work at the embassy, adding: “I am an American ambassador to Korea, not the Japanese-American ambassador to Korea.”
When asked if he would shave to improve his relationship with South Koreans, he said he would keep facial hair.
“You would have to convince me that somehow the mustache looks in a way that hurts our relationship,” he said.
