So Smith grew his own over the next month. On the afternoon he pronounced the mustache complete, Hertzfeld recounted, Whitney called Smith into his office and made him a full-fledged engineer.
"Old-time Silicon Valley engineers did tend to favor facial hair," Hertzfeld said.
Young engineers are paying quirky homage to the past.
At San Francisco start-up Lefora.com, early employee Dan Bragiel is growing a beard and engineer Andrew Seaman is growing a mustache until Monday, when they plan to roll out a product that lets people create online forums. Turns out it's a great promotional technique.
"You have an excuse to tell people why you are doing it," Bragiel said.
Powerset engineers' fuzz is getting buzz, too, ranging from bemusement to ridicule to prickliness, the latter mostly on the part of prospective dates and significant others.
Employees insist their new facial hair has generated camaraderie and comedic fodder (one engineer jokes about a study of the relationship between productivity and unique mustaches conducted by "Selleck, Reynolds, Brimley, et al" ) in a way that other possibilities they entertained -- including cornrows, hair dyes, mullets -- couldn't have.
Powerset co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Barney Pell is growing a beard as the team sprints for the finish line. As a graduate student at Cambridge University, he vowed not to shave or cut his hair until he finished his doctoral thesis.
He thought it would take three months. He finished a year later.
"When you decide you are going to grow some facial hair up until launch, you want to make sure you are really going to launch," he said.
What began as an inside joke at Powerset is now considered "a sign of dedication," software engineer Abhay Kumar said. About half of the initial two dozen abandoned the pursuit. Some of the engineers who have maintained facial hair complain of itching and find themselves fantasizing about hot towels, white foam and sharp razors.
"As part of the Powerset launch, all the engineers are growing out stupid mustaches and keeping them until we have a public product," software engineer David Fayram wrote in the Powerstache blog's first post in January. "I think I've made a terrible mistake."
But those who have held out say it has been worth it to bond with one another and, unexpectedly, with mustachioed strangers who nod when passing on the street.
"It's like you are part of this bizarre club," Kumar said.
The company won't say when it plans to release the search engine. Powersetters haven't yet decided if they will all lather up en masse to shave their mustaches when that happens.
Product manager Mark Johnson is counting the days. He says the "untidy bush growing on my chin and upper lip area" has distressed his mother and stunted his social life.
"Frankly, I can't wait until we launch our product," he said.
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jessica.guynn@latimes.com
