Ron Swanson Mustache: Nick Offerman Says Shaving Felt 'Sacrilegious'

Ron Swanson's mustache has become a TV legend in just four seasons of "Parks and Recreation." In "Ron and Tammys," an early Season 4 episode of the series, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) ditched the mustache at the behest of his first ex-wife, Tammy 1, played by Patricia Clarkson.

Offerman told EW he was treated differently when he appeared clean shaven and that "everyone was really freaked out."

"There was a real sense of having shorn Samson of his locks," Offerman told EW. "And it really felt sacrilegious. That was by far the hardest, strangest thing I’ve had to do as Ron Swanson." Maybe it was predicated by the scene in [the season 3 episode] 'Ron and Tammy II' when Ron lost half his mustache and had to get cornrows. To have him be clean shaven, wearing an Easter shirt, and turned into a little boy was so bizarre and foreign."

Offerman said it was hard to say dialogue as Ron Swanson without that big, brown 'stache. "Certain consonants didn’t feel right without a huge bristle brush impeding their exit from my mouth."

Offerman hasn't been shy about talking facial hair. The Hollywood Reporter asked Offerman about having a hot topic adorning his upper lip, and Offerman said, "Sadly, our country has become so emasculated that a national audience can be astonished by a man merely growing whiskers, as though I were growing diamonds on my face."

The scene-stealer told GQ he was encouraged to wax his body hair when he first started in Hollywood. Rather than do that, he experimented. The Ron Swanson look is something he had rocked in real life. "Twenty years ago, I had that mustache, and casting directors said, 'You are going to play a lot of cops someday,'" he said.

"Parks and Recreation" returns to NBC Thurs., Sept. 20 at 9:30 p.m.

For more from Nick Offerman, click over to EW.