ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260089
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
FORMER BEDFORD COUNTY Sheriff Carl Wells bristled at facial hair, but new Sheriff Mike Brown thinks it's all right. Suddenly, mustaches are sprouting up everywhere.
At first glance, you might think the Bedford County Sheriff's Office had a visit from the mustache fairy.
"It's like somebody came at night and sprinkled hair," Sheriff Mike Brown said. "All of a sudden, there's an outbreak of mustaches."
Former Sheriff Carl Wells, who retired last year after 22 years in office, didn't allow his deputies to have facial hair unless they were working undercover. But the clean-shaven Brown revoked the rule, and as soon as he took office Jan. 1, the mustaches started growing.
About half of the 75 men working for the Sheriff's Office, including two of the three lieutenants, either have mustaches or are trying to cultivate them.
Asked exactly how many have them, a sheriff's investigator joked, "It'd probably be easier to count how many don't have mustaches."
"The very first day, there were guys who started growing them at 12:01 a.m.," said Lt. John McCane, himself a mustache wearer. "That first week, a lot of guys were walking around with stubble on their upper lips."
Sgt. Ricky Gardner, a familiar face from the investigation of the famed Derek and Nancy Haysom murders, now is sporting a thick, black mustache reminiscent of Wild West gunslinger Wyatt Earp.
Gardner had a mustache when he was hired in 1979 and somehow didn't manage to hear about the facial-hair ban. He had been on the job for two weeks when he bumped into Wells for the first time.
"He looked at me funny, and said, `I thought I told you to shave that,''' Gardner said. "We lobbied him a couple different times, tried to catch him when he was in a good mood, but he just didn't like mustaches."
Brown said his tolerance for facial hair probably stems from his days as a military policeman in the U.S. Army. "You could have a mustache, but it needed to be trimmed no further than the corners of your mouth. That's the guideline we're following," he said.
"I just don't see anything wrong with it. It adds character to some people." In fact, Brown himself once had lots of character, in the form of a mustache and goatee, which he wore working undercover for the Washington, D.C., Metro Police in the 1960s.
"The problem I have with growing mine is the color. It just doesn't match," said the silver-haired sheriff. "But I've also noticed some of [the deputy's new mustaches] have turned from salt and pepper to black overnight."
Brown's decision to allow facial hair may have been helped by the fact that McCane, one of his new top-ranking officers, already had a mustache before he was hired.
McCane wasn't so lucky with his ponytail, though.
A former Lynchburg police officer, McCane had worked as a private investigator before joining the Sheriff's Office and grew his hair long so he didn't look like a lawman.
"I asked the sheriff if I could tuck it under my hat, but he said it had to go," McCane said. "With me losing it on top, I thought I'd try to keep it growing below."
At least one deputy had to shave to get a mustache.
Mike Mehaffey worked undercover in narcotics before Brown promoted him to investigator in January. Before then, Mehaffey had long hair and a big bushy beard.
"Everybody used to call me 'ZZ Top' when I had a hat and sunglasses on," Mehaffey said. "I got real good at dressing down."
Now he's clean-cut, with a neatly trimmed brown mustache below his aviator sunglasses and Dale Earnhardt cap. "I think my wife liked the fact that I had to clean up a bit," he said.
"All kidding aside," McCane said, "I think it's been a morale booster. The sheriff has set some guidelines. As long as it's within reason and nobody's walking around with handlebars or a Fu Manchu, it's a matter of personal choice."
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Bedford County Sheriff's Officeby CNBofficials sporting mustaches are from right: Lt. John McCane, Deputy
Steve Pittman, Sgt. Ricky Gardner, investigator Mike Mehaffey and
Deputy Jeff Quarles. color.