having seen many pictures of fighter pilots having big moustaches (Robin Olds comes to mind amongst other). if the sealing myth really had any thruth to it, wouldn't the aviation authorities have long ago forbidden beards?
The UK AR5 'Whistling Handbag' (the noise made by the fan in the seperate housing which held three gas mask cannisters and was worn, rather daintily over the shoulder in the manner of a man bag!) covered the entire head in a rubber bag (parents look away in horror!) thus negating any folicle challenge to either the British 'Stiff Upper Lip' or the Royal Naval 'Full Set'.
Airline flying isn't flying, its driving a bus for the comfort of the passengers and hoping nothing goes wrong. The best day at work is when nothing happens and the aircraft monitors your flying on the managers behalf. Break a limit and the printer rebukes you before the 20/20 hindsight of the junior manager tells you what you should have done, what the SOP says you should have done and what the corrective action should have been whilst being 1000+ miles away from what happened and not having a clue about the extenuating circumstances and the environment on the day.
Flying is operating an aircraft for the purposes of achieving an aim whilst using the aircraft as a tool to achieve that aim utilising the entire flight envelope and, occasionally, a bit more. It's fun, exciting, exhilarating, thought provoking and not a little dangerous. Airline flying is none of that except when the brown stuff really hits the fan and we really start to earn our wage. Then and only in those rare situations does the 'professional pilots' profession really come to the fore.
In those circumstances then I would still consider myself a professional pilot. Some of the drones, who I have come across, who 'graduate' from the 'zero to hero' flight sausage machines need a long, long time to get to that point but, hey, they are the Captains of the future so give 'em time.
Could I have flown Airliners since my early 20's? Possibly, would I want to? After having flown a wide variety of other types/aircraft? Not a hope. If you want real flying, look outside of the airlines and go have some fun.