By Brittany Burke

In October, women post secret and confusing Facebook statuses about the color of their bras or where they leave their purses. The color pink is prominently displayed, even on professional football fields, all in the name of breast cancer awareness.

Now that October has come and gone, it is time for the women to step aside and to let the men take center stage. The month of November isn’t about posting statuses, it’s about putting down the razors and letting the facial hair grow.

While October is dedicated to breast cancer, the next month is all about raising awareness for cancers that affect men, most notably prostate cancer.

In past years I’ve heard about the “No Shave November” movement, which challenged men to grow beards (something usually reserved for NHL playoff season), but this year it seems to be all about growing mustaches and renaming November to Movember.

Being able to grow facial hair is usually something men pride themselves in, or at least from what I’ve heard from my guy friends and 17-year old brother, who can have a full beard in less than a month, so it makes sense that to raise awareness from men they’d go scruffy for 30 days.

The men who participate are most notably called Mo Bros. The idea that began in Australia has spread quickly throughout the world, garnering more and more attention. It seems that having multiple men with moustaches is doing the same thing as the confusing Facebook statuses were, which is getting people to ask questions.

So far there have been over 1 million participants and $174 million rose in the effort to garner awareness for men’s health since 2003. The United States Movember foundation funds charities such as the Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

What makes this movement so strong is that it’s not just for men like breast cancer awareness month isn’t just for women. Larry Fitzgerald and multiple athletes and professional organization cast stereotypes aside and donned pink for awareness and in November there can also be Mo Sistas.

No, this doesn’t mean to stop shaving your legs or something crazy like that, that doesn’t help anything. Instead, being a Mo Sista means putting up with a month of beard burn, supporting the Mo Bros and speaking about the cause.

It’s vital with causes like the ones in the past couple of months, to be creative to draw even more attention. NHL goalie, Jonas Hiller has started to wear a new mask in honor of the cause. The mask was created with his Duck teammates’ portraits on it, but all the pictures have drawn-on moustaches. At the end of the month Hiller plans to auction the mask off and donate the proceeds to prostate cancer research.

You don’t have to be a professional athlete to make a difference, every conversation and dollar helps in trying to rid the world of cancer.