The International German Beard Championship wrapped us last week. Some 200 participants from all over Europe showed off their elaborate, and sometimes bizarre, whiskers. If you missed the hairy competition, don’t worry, you can catch some more close-shave action at the upcoming World Beard and Moustache Championship, scheduled for September 1, 2007 at The Brighton Centre. (Tickets are available now.) The biennial event will take place in Anchorage in 2009.
With beard and moustache clubs the world over, the general categories for such hair-raising contests include: Moustache; Partial Beard; and Full Beard. Each umbrella category then has sub-categories falling beneath it.
In 2005, Beard Team USA’s Toot Joslin took top honors in the Sideburns category, while 21-year-old rookie Jack Passion finished third in the highly competitive full beard natural category, which many consider the marathon of the WBMC. These men are working hard to earn their places in history in September.
If you want to learn more about the efforts of these and other whiskered fellows, check out BTUSA’s blog, which claims, among other things, that John Bolton was recently invited to join the team. Also, don’t forget to reserve your copy of Splitting Hairs, the documentary about the 2005 World Beard Championships.