Rarely do we ponder the power invested in the human face. But this month, we should.

And no,… Rarely do we ponder the power invested in the human face. But this month, we should.

And no, we’re not talking about attaching weights to someone’s cheeks or President Barack Obama’s smiling with Indian leaders last week — no, it’s more “stubble” than that. In fact, tens of thousands of men around the world are taking the month of November to express their facial powers by growing moustaches for charity.

The event is called “Movember,” and it’s a global campaign to promote awareness about illnesses commonly affecting men — specifically prostate cancer, testicular cancer and depression — and to raise money to end these diseases. So just when you might have thought the busy cancer awareness season ended after October, or Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when the color pink even invaded the Cathedral of Learning’s ground-level fountain, think again.

Movember, if you didn’t get it yet, combines the words moustache and November to create one smashingly popular fundraiser organized by the Movember Foundation. Just last year, the campaign involved more than 200,000 ’stache-growers and raised more than $40 million for charities like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Livestrong.

But here’s the clincher: Like in charity marathons or walks, participants raise money by soliciting friends or businesses to sponsor their moustaches. They’re not just growing hair and calling the result a community service.

Whereas other “awareness” campaigns convince participants they’re contributing by having them perform some random deed — don’t forget how the words “I like it on the …” made it onto your friends’ Facebook statuses in October to supposedly “support” breast cancer awareness — Movember has clearly produced tangible results and therefore has earned our praise.

Don’t take this as thought The Pitt News prefers rugged over clean-shaven — in our honest opinion, a little upper-lip scruff can really strengthen some faces, while it can be an unquestionably bad decision for others. The issue here, however, is the way awareness outreach is conducted these days and what average people consider “serving a cause.”

In essence, trying to get people to simply know that issues as pervasive as cancer exist is not a good use of time. And giving well-meaning people the false impression that they’re substantially helping anyone by posting a status a certain way or donning a specific color of clothing is misleading. In many cases, it’s also counterproductive.

There are thousands of causes out there, many fighting against discouraging odds to solve real problems and improve life for real people. If Americans are actually interested in contributing something substantial toward such a cause, they should commit their time only to what produces real results. Instead of fumbling through their closets for pink or gray or green or — fill in your favorite color — sweaters on the designated awareness day, people ought to donate to a charity, volunteer in a hospital or go to graduate school to become a disease researcher. And apparently growing a ’stache wouldn’t hurt, either.