Lester Holt gave Conan O'Brien the scoop Thursday on whether he plans to grow back a mustache, his signature look while working in Chicago in the 1990s.

"I don't think so," Holt said. "The gray got to be an issue with it and then trimming it and trying to make it even, it was just..."

Holt, who now anchors the "NBC Nightly News," said he shaved off his mustache in 1999 after being demoted from the 10 p.m. news at WBBM-Ch. 2.

"I was at this point in life, what do I want to do? And I said, 'I'm going to go find another job.' So I knew that I was going to get this break. And normally what we do, you don't want to mess with your appearance, whatever you got going, you stay,'" Holt said.

Holt said he interviewed with MSNBC execs, who asked him about the mustache. He told them "if you hire me, it's your choice. And they said, 'No, we like you without the mustache.'"

Facial hair fans can see Holt with the mustache in a video for jurors at the Cook County Courthouse.

"Conan" airs 10 p.m. weeknights on TBS.

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