The Movember Foundation's bid to get schools to loosen up their strict policies on facial hair growth appears to have failed.
An email sent to principals of 178 schools asked them to suspend clean-shaven policies for all of next month.
The annual Movember event aims to shed light on men's health issues, including suicide, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.
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Movember Foundation's country manager Robert Dunne told the schools they had "the power to save young men's lives".
"With one simple act; making an exemption to your school rules, and letting your students grow moustaches for a month," he wrote.
"Men don't like to talk about their health. There is an expectation that opening up about their health is some sort of weakness. And as a result, we're losing many of them far too young."
Many schools rejected the proposal - including Auckland Grammar School, Marcellin College, Onehunga High School and Dilworth School, Fairfax reports.
Rodney College and Auckland International College reportedly said they supported the idea if their students were to get behind it.
The Movember Foundation says its strategy is to get in the places where the message is most needed, and reduce premature deaths in men by 25 percent by 2030.
Newshub.
