wore only his trademark olive-green military fatigues or the standard dress uniform for formal events and special occasions, emphasizing his role as the perpetual revolutionary, but in the mid-1990s began wearing dark civilian suits and guayabera in public. At over tall with a few inches added from his combat boots, Castro usually towered over most foreign leaders he met with, giving him a dominating presence in any room or photo that was taken, which he used to his advantage (for comparison, Abraham Lincoln and Charles De Gaulle, both well known for their tall heights, stood at 6'4 and 6'5 respectively). Until his uprising against Batista, Castro typically kept a pencil-thin moustache along with combed back hair, typical of Upper-class Cuban men in the 1950s but grew out both during his years as a guerrilla fighter and retaining them afterwards. Castro also disliked worrying about his appearance and hated shaving, making the beard and uniform all the more convenient for him. His uniform was also kept simple, he never wore any medals or decorations and his only marker of rank was the Comandante El Jefe insignia stitched on the shoulder straps. Until the 1990s, he wore combat boots, but due to orthopedic issues, abandoned them for sneakers and tennis shoes instead. Around his waist, he often carried a 9mm Browning pistol in a brown leather holster with an additional three clips. His personal weapon of choice was a 7.62 Kalashnikov AKM which Castro occasionally carried with him during the 1960s but was later kept stored in a suitcase carried by one of the members of his escort or kept placed between his feet while driving along with five cartridges; he frequently used it during shooting exercises and practice. Castro had a lifelong love of guns and was considered an expert sharpshooter, impressing foreign visitors and even holding up against members of his own elite bodyguards who engaged in frequent competition with him. Castro's most iconic public feature eventually became the Cuban cigar that he smoked on a daily basis. Introduced to it by his father at the age of 15, Castro continued the habit for almost 44 years with the exception of a brief period during the 1950s while a guerrilla fighter and boycotting against Batista linked tobacco firms. Castro claimed that he quit around 1985 during an anti-smoking campaign promoted by the Communist Party. Sánchez disputes this, saying that his