Look what’s on the comeback trail — the mustache

Newsman John Stossel says growing his signature mustache was a turning point. As someone who always looked younger than his years, it was the mustache, maligned as it may be, that got him some respect.

Suddenly people took him more seriously — and women started paying attention.

“The mustache changed my life,” says Stossel, who was born to a Jewish mother in a Chicago suburb, raised Protestant by that same mother, and then rediscovered his Judaism in his 30s (he married a Jewish woman and began engaging in Jewish rituals, practices he reportedly maintains to this day).

“I had always looked younger. When I was 21, I looked like a teenager. When I was 19, I looked 14 — and it sucked.”

Stossel, 63, the former host of ABC’s “20/20” and now with the Fox Business Network, grew his signature ’stache back in the ’70s, around the time Burt Reynolds had his in “Smoky and the Bandit” but before Tom Selleck was “Magnum P.I.”

Now that the mustache is the facial hair preferred by hipsters, there are Facebook fan pages dedicated to Stossel’s mustache as well as Reynolds’ and Selleck’s.

More than a few male fashion editors filled the front rows of this season’s catwalk shows sporting a mustache, and Bloomingdale’s featured a mustachioed model in one of its spring ad fliers. Jimmy Fallon staged “Ultimate Mustache Fighting” on his late-night show between Stossel and another Jewish newsman, Geraldo Rivera.

Stossel, who wrote a short piece for the 2007 book “Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother,” knows that mustaches have fallen in and out of favor — and he doesn’t really care. “I have heard that it had gone out of style, but if you hold on to something long enough, it’ll come back,” Stossel says.

So many years into a TV career that has earned him 19 Emmy Awards, it’s an asset because it gives him a recognizable look, he says. People pass him on the street — even when he’s riding his bike, complete with helmet — and say, “There’s John Stossel.”

The look isn’t for everyone, though, says Kayleen Schaefer, grooming editor for Details magazine. Men especially need to pay attention to the thickness and width, as well as an overall polished appearance.

“The thing with the mustache is, it’s a classic. A guy can always wear a mustache. But it’s still tricky and potentially fraught with peril,” she says.

Those who have done it right, Schaefer says, include Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo Raine in “Inglorious Basterds” and James Franco as Harvey Milk’s lover in “Milk.”

She also says that pencil-thin and unruly thick ones aren’t the looks people are talking about when they say mustaches are returning as a trend, and that hair shouldn’t hang over the lip.

When caring for mustaches — and beards, for that matter — Julie Vargas, educator and director at Sport Clips, a 670-store men’s grooming franchise, recommends using a scissor-over-comb or clipper-over-comb technique to remove any bulkiness. Then clean the edges with a trimmer, and use a moisturizer to soften the texture and keep the skin underneath hydrated, Vargas says.

And grab a look in a full-length mirror. “A guy in a mustache looks best dressed up in a suit. A track suit and mustache won’t help your look. You need to look groomed and polished,” Schaefer says

Stossel is more a jeans-and-navy-blazer guy. He updated his wardrobe when he made the switch to Fox from ABC last September, parting with some well-loved, oft-worn, slightly outdated sport coats.

It was part of a conscious effort, he says, not to end up looking like Will Ferrell’s cheesy and mustached lead character in “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

Over almost four decades, Stossel only shaved his ’stache off once, about 25 years ago, at the request of his then-new bride. “Right after I did it,” he recalls, “ she said, ‘Now grow it back.’ ”