Soap operas like Days of Our Lives are almost always in a state of flux. Yes, there is something constant and comforting about a show you can watch five days a week, 52 weeks a year, but at the same time, characters, actors and storylines are constantly coming and going. Sometimes those all gel with the fans, but other times… not so much.

But then, the same can be said about other things like, say, facial hair. Or, if we were going to get more specific: Stefan’s facial hair! His mustache has had a wild ride, and not every viewer was a fan! He first started growing it when he was forced into the drug business by Clyde, only to hop into bed (figuratively and literally) with Ava.

It very much seemed to be a signifier that Stefan was taking a walk on the darker side for a bit without his beloved Gabi by his side.

So it makes sense that the second she got out of jail, Gabi declared that she hated the mustache and it was time for it to go. And go it did! Because by the end of the Monday July 1st episode (you can read the full recap here), Stefan had shaved and the ‘stache was no more. But as we mentioned above, Gabi wasn’t the only one with strong feelings about the facial hair!

Tiff5555 over on the Soaps.com message boards was discussing Cherie Jimenez and Brandon Barash’s chemistry, and couldn’t help but get a dig in: “I think based from this week promo,” they wrote, “they have a chem there! Stefan needs to lose his ‘stache…He looks like a detective to me with that thing on!”

Meanwhile, over on X/Twitter, SuperCoupleGal cheekily refused to acknowledge “Stefan” as being the man on her screen. “There was Stefan,” she tweeted. “There was Jake. And I don’t know who this guy pretending to be Stefan is, but he is nothing like the Stefan I remember with Gabi. That mustache has made him a whole other character.

Well, don’t worry, because the mustache is gone and Stefan is back to the way he was — Gabi and all! And while it can be tough to win viewers over right from the jump when a new actor takes over a role, we have a feeling Jimenez’s Gabi made a whole lot of fans as she returned home with Stefan!

“Big thanks to Gabi for finally getting Stefan to shave that mustache,” brianne1017 tweeted. “Thank heavens Gabi hated that damn mustache and it’s gone now,” Diane Leigh agreed on X/Twitter.

Of course, while Gabi may have won folks over pretty easily, after all Ava’s talk about sleeping with Stefan, we have a feeling all these warm, fuzzy feelings between the happily reunited DiMeras may soon come crashing down. If the truth comes out (which, if we had to guess, would be because of Kristen), rest assured that as much as prison may have changed Gabi, there will be hell to pay.

And once that happens, Stefan may have to consider re-growing the mustache… while he goes on the run! We can just about guarantee that there won’t be a safe corner of Salem once Gabi gets word that he was unfaithful — with Ava no less!

For now, though, it’s time to bid a not so fond adieu to the mustache that divided a fandom — and Stefan’s own wife!