Canada.com – BodyBreak’s Hal Johnson grows his moustache back

Canada.com – BodyBreak’s Hal Johnson grows his moustache back

 

BodyBreak’s Hal Johnson grows his moustache back

BodyBreak's Hal Johnson grows his moustache back

 

Published: September 4, 2013,

The most famous couple on the Amazing Race Canada may have been eliminated from the show halfway through its run. But the contest provided the BodyBreak couple with enough inspiration to last the rest of their lives.

Among other things, their involvement in the show inspired Hal Johnson to grow his moustache back after a decade of largely living without it.

Hal Johnson

PHOTO: Courtesy of Hal Johnson
Hal Johnson on Sept. 4, 2013

A poll conducted through the latter half of August at the BodyBreak website found 63 per cent of visitors in favour of the idea that Johnson should bring back the facial hair he sported in televised fitness segments with wife Joanne McLeod produced between 1988 through 2003, when he decided to shave it off.

Of course, that also meant 37 per cent liked his upper lip to stay smooth.

BodyBreak poll

The growth originated when the Canadian national baseball squad that Johnson played for decided to grow Fu Manchus in 1981 for a game against Japan — as part of a team effort to look tougher and older than they actually were.

But then he decided to tame and maintain it for more than three decades.

Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod

Hal and Joanne with and without the moustache

Johnson explained to Canada.com that changing his face after the first 15 years of BodyBreak led to some double takes when he went out in public although he could easily trick people into thinking he was actually Hal’s clean-shaven brother.

Still, he remained synonymous with the moustache, to the point that the Movember fundraising campaign recognized that even a temporary regrowth would be worthy of national attention.

During the cross-country production of the Amazing Race Canada, friendly rival Pierre Cadieaux — the member of the Alberta Rockies Gay Rodeo Association along with his partner Jamie Cumberland — encouraged Johnson to consider a longer-term regrowth.

Now, the moustache will be part of any appearances by the BodyBreak duo in the next 16 months, including at the Grey Cup in Regina, the city in which they were eliminated from the Amazing Race in dramatic fashion.

Johnson has pledged to keep the facial hair through all of 2014 — the year in which BodyBreak will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the airing of its very first broadcast break, April 28, 1989.

Source : o.canada.com

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