Ranking the world's highest-earning mustaches

THE HAIR UP THERE Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is among the world's wealthiest mustache owners

Once a universal symbol of virility and unbridled masculinity, the mustache has never been more out of favor. Though co-opted in recent years by smirking sociology majors in skinny jeans, the lip ornament is an increasingly rare sight in America's halls of power. On Capitol Hill, not a single U.S. senator wears one. And in the world of finance, a mustache glass ceiling has ensured that only the hairless gain advancement. "A friend of mine at a Fortune 500 company was told he had to lose his 'stache if he wanted to rise in the company," laments Aaron Perlut, executive director of the American Mustache Institute, himself the proud owner of a traditional "Horseshoe." "He did, and within a week he was given a promotion." Even outside the workplace, discrimination abounds; one recent poll revealed that half of American women refuse to kiss a man with a moustache.

Still, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, a small cabal of powerful mustachioed moguls have emerged to carry the torch for would-be Sellecks everywhere. Using statistics from Forbes and Fortune, Radar compiled a list of the highest-earning mustaches in the world—those bushy, bristly, unabashedly retro, often sleazy-looking heroes who give new meaning to the term "growth industry."

1. Carlos Slim Helu

THE PAINTER'S BRUSH Carlos Slim Helu

In 2006, Forbes pegged the bearded Mexican telecom giant's net worth at $30 billion—good enough for third place on the magazine's "World's Richest People" list. But by July 2007, Slim leapfrogged Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, his fortune swelling to almost $63 billion, a staggering 8 percent of Mexico's GDP. Most attribute the jump to the rising stock prices of such Slim-held monopolies as Telmex, Mexico's largest telephone company, and America Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone company. But it's worth noting that Slim's meteoric rise to the top of the moneyed heap occurred at the exact time he decided to drop the beard in favor of a sharper "Painter's Brush"–style mustache. Coincidence?

2. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

THE CHEVRON Prince Alwaleed bin Talal

With his three-piece suits and deep Rolodex (Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and George W. are buds), debonair Prince Alwaleed bin Talal means business. A corporate bailout artist, Bin Talal amassed most of his $20 billion fortune buoying cash-strapped Citigroup in the '90s. But it's his immaculately maintained "Chevron" that really makes the svelte Saudi stand out. Sophisticated, yet conservative enough to gel with his devout Muslim upbringing, Bin Talal's lip-tickler plays in mosques and boardrooms alike. No word on whether it's a source of material for the two bedouin joke tellers who reportedly round out Bin Talal's full-time travel entourage.