The competition was thick—and hairy—at the 2005 World Beard and Moustache Championships (WBMC) in Berlin. The Germans, as usual, made a near clean sweep of the competition. They won the gold in 14 of 17 categories—including the “Dali moustache,” “wild west moustache” and “freestyle goatee.”

It was to be expected. The Germans started the WBMC, a biennial event widely considered the Olympics of beard and moustache competitions.
In 1990, the first WBMC was held in Höfen/Enz, Germany—a village in the Black Forest. The local First Höfener Beard Club organized the event.
They designed all the rules and categories, and their countrymen have dominated the competition ever since.

But watch out! Emerging from the shadows is Beard Team USA, led by its self-appointed captain, Phil Olsen of Tahoe City, California.
In Olsen’s headshot, a twinkling set of eyes and ruddy cheeks peep above a perfectly U-shaped, russet-colored beard. Since he entered his first beard competition at the 1999 WBMC in Sweden, Olsen has been a one-man ambassador of facial hair appreciation.
He maintains a Beard Team USA website and blog and, to date, over 150 people have joined his team.

In 2003, Olsen took the WBMC out of Europe and into the United States for the first time. His ambition was to make the competition more inclusive and to embrace showmanship and character. Olsen considered changing the strict categories, but “there were many people in Germany who said, ‘If you don’t have my category, I’m not coming,’” he recalls. A WBMC without the Germans would have been a diplomatic catastrophe, so Olsen relented. But he still managed to cause a stir when he instructed the judges to make their decisions on a “purely subjective” basis—an utter controversy at the rules-obsessed event.

A major upset for the normally infallible Germans occurred when Gary Johnson from Olalla, Washington, showed up at the Carson City competition with a beard that didn’t quite fit any category. He had a moustache and a pointed goatee.
“So I put him in the ‘musketeer’ category,” Olsen says.
Unlike the others in his heat, Johnson was not wearing a 17th century French costume. Instead, he was dressed like a character from the Wild West.
“But he was the most outgoing person at the whole event,” Olsen says.
“He went and shook hands with all the people in the auditorium.”
Johnson’s big personality won him the big prize: first place.
“The Germans were quite upset about that,” Olsen says.

Just as the dramatic Carson City competition was under way, a young Olympia, Washington-native and facial hair enthusiast named Burke Kenny was traveling through Germany on his post-high school Euro trip. He heard about the WBMC unfolding half a world away in his native U.S.
“And I was like, ‘Darn!’ I vowed to grow my beard for the next one,” he said.
Two years later, Burke was competing in the 2005 Berlin WBMC with Olsen’s Beard Team USA.

“I was just like, ‘Wow, this seems like a cool thing to do, and I want to meet all these bearded guys,’” Kenny says. “But I could feel it in the air—the tension. This macho ‘I’m not going to shake your hand ‘cause you’re my competition.’ I try to stay out of the controversy. I’m just there to meet people and have fun.”

In Berlin, Kenny became hotel roommates with a ginger-haired Californian named Jack Passion. They were both musicians and both exceptionally young competitors. Kenny was 20, and Passion was 21. The two became best friends.

For his cascading, chest-length beard, Passion is called the “Great American Hope” of beard competitions. He began growing facial hair when he was just 13, had mullet chops by 14 and boasted his first fullfledged beard at 19.
With his rock star swagger and charismatic way with words, Passion is out to prove that big bushy beards are sexy.

“Beards are cool,” Passion says. “I think I definitely embody that. All the German guys are old. When I show up, and I’m young—that represents. The ideal man has become emasculated—skinny, hoodie-wearing. Beards are coming back in style, but I only wish they were more big. I’m like, dude, take a stand. The hormones that made me sprout this beard are the same hormones that let the ladies know I’m a White Stallion. This is a sign of health. I can provide shelter.”

Olsen concurs. “In nature, the males of most species are blessed with ‘glorious plumage’ while the females are stuck with a more drab appearance,” he says.
“Among humans, the beard is the male plumage. Women envy their mates’ ability to grow a beard, so they require them to shave, making them look more like women.”

To “dedicated beard wearers” like Olsen, Passion and Kenny, the thought of parting with their facial hair is as preposterous as the thought of removing a mane from a lion. Olsen refers to shaving as “scraping your face.”

At the Berlin WBMC, Passion won the bronze in the ultra-competitive “full beard natural” category. Kenny came in fifth place in the “full beard, styled moustache” category. But more than the competition, it was the German contenders’ use of products to mold their beards into “crazy styles” that captivated Kenny.

Back in the States, Beard Team USA took part in the May 2006 New York City Beard and Moustache Championships. At the hostel, Kenny found himself sharing a bathroom with the man who would become the overall winner of the competition: a German by the name of Heinz Christophel.
“He had all these hair spraying products lined up on the mirror and this blow dryer with all these different settings,” Kenny says.
“He styled his beard for like an hour and a half, and I’d just watch him.”

Kenny was inspired: “When I learned how to style my beard all crazy, it was like, ‘Wow, dude.’ It’s magical and mystical, and it’s surreal.
I feel like I’m a walking piece of art.”

Two months later, he and Passion attended the High Sierra Beard and Moustache Championships in Lake Tahoe. Kenny showed his friend his newly acquired product-aided styling techniques—and Passion won the competition with a heart-shaped beard. When Passion rose to the podium to accept his $500 cash prize, he took a sincere moment to thank Kenny. “The fire of our friendship burns strongly,” Kenny says.

For the High Sierra competition, Passion used styling products. But, he says,
“For the World Championships, I go natural. When you style up a beard, it ceases to be a beard competition. It becomes a styling competition. People always say, ‘Shave off your beard, let’s see your face.’ I’m like, ‘This is my face.’ A beard is an extension of yourself. The judges are judging me as a person.”

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29-04-2005 om 00:00 geschreven door Guy