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The World Beard and Moustache Championships is a biennial competition overseen by the World Beard and Moustache Association (WBMA), in which men with beards and moustaches display lengthy, highly styled facial hair.
Since 2004, the WBMA [1] has been the governing body for the championships. This association is fully responsible for awarding the contest to member clubs. Any club may apply for membership to the WBMA and applications to host an upcoming WBMC will be accepted from established clubs.
The first championship took place in Höfen an der Enz, Germany, in 1990. [2]
Since 2007 the official World Beard and Moustache Championships have been held every two years, on odd years only.
On September 1, 2007, competitors of the world's most hirsute faces from the UK, America, Germany and other countries convened for the championships in Brighton. It was hosted by the Handlebar Club with comedy performer Michael "Atters" Attree acting as chairman and master of ceremonies. Facial hair categories were judged by celebrity moustache-wearers including actor/singer Nick Cave and musician/poet Billy Childish. The international event was staged within the Brighton Centres Main Hall. [3] Categories include Dali moustache, goatee and full beard freestyle. [4] [5]
The 2009 event was hosted by the South Central Alaska Beard and Moustache Club [6] from May 19 to 24 in Anchorage, Alaska. SCAKBMC distributed over $16,000 to local charities via the International Lions Club 49A foundation 501C4 and the Miners & Trappers Ball Inc a 501C3 organizations. Anchorage hosted the most ever competitors, eclipsing the previous U.S. venue of Carson City, Nevada. A 50-minute British documentary named Tashalaska followed that year's freestyle moustache (Keith "Gandhi Jones" Haubrich), Chinese moustache (Ted Sedman) and freestyle full beard (David Traver) winners. [7]
The 2011 championships were hosted by the Norwegian Moustache Club of 91 [8] in Trondheim, Norway on May 15. The 12th incarnation of the contest was held near Stuttgart, Germany on November 2, 2013 and was hosted by Belle Moustache Beard and Culture Club. [9] The World Beard and Moustache Championships were held in Leogang, Austria in 2015.
The championships returned to America during the first 3 days of September 2017 when the Austin Facial Hair Club [10] hosted the contest in Austin, Texas, which was the largest world championships to date with 738 registered competitors from 33 countries. [11]
In May 2019, the WBMC was held in Antwerp, Belgium, hosted by Snorrenclub Antwerpen.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 championships were postponed until 2023, tentatively pushing back the previously scheduled 2023 Bristol, England competition to 2025.
New Zealand had to cancel their bid and pull out of the event, leaving it open for proposals. The 2023 championships were eventually held in June in Burghausen, Germany, hosted by Ostbayerischer Bart- und Schnauzerclub.[ citation needed ]The next WBMC will be held in July 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Mad Viking Pennsylvania Beard Club, and the 2027 WBMC will be held in Blackpool, England, hosted by the Sandgrown Beardsmen.
There are three brackets of facial hair: moustache, partial beard, and full beard. Each bracket is broken into individual categories. There are usually 17 categories but there were 18 different categories for the 2009, 2013 & 2015 championships, and a 27 categories for 2017, including for the first time 4 "craft beard" (ladies / "whiskerina") categories. [10] A new category for 1 cm (0.39 in) short carved beards was introduced in 2013 and repeated in 2015 called the "trend beard," which is in its own bracket.[ citation needed ]
A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to start growing beards, on average at the age of 21.
Sideburns, sideboards, or side whiskers are facial hair grown on the sides of the face, extending from the hairline to run parallel to or beyond the ears. The term sideburns is a 19th-century corruption of the original burnsides, named after American Civil War general Ambrose Burnside, a man known for his unusual facial hairstyle that connected thick sideburns by way of a moustache, but left the chin clean-shaven.
A moustache is a growth of facial hair grown above the upper lip and under the nose. Moustaches have been worn in various styles throughout history.
A handlebar moustache is a moustache with particularly lengthy and upwardly curved extremities. These moustache styles are named for their resemblance to the handlebars of a bicycle. It is also known as a spaghetti moustache, because of its stereotypical association with Italian men. The Handlebar Club humorously describes the style as "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities".
A goatee is a style of facial hair incorporating hair on one's chin but not the cheeks. The exact nature of the style has varied according to time and culture.
The walrus moustache is characterized by whiskers that are thick, bushy, and drop over the mouth. The style resembles the whiskers of a walrus, hence the name.
A Fu Manchu moustache or simply Fu Manchu, is a full, straight moustache extending from under the nose past the corners of the mouth and growing downward past the clean-shaven lips and chin in two tapered "tendrils", often extending past the jawline. An expansion of the Fu Manchu sometimes includes a third long "tendril" descending from a small patch on the chin.
Body hair or androgenic hair is terminal hair that develops on the human body during and after puberty. It is different from head hair and also from less visible vellus hair, which is much finer and lighter in color. Growth of androgenic hair is related to the level of androgens and the density of androgen receptors in the dermal papillae. Both must reach a threshold for the proliferation of hair follicle cells.
A Shenandoah, also known as an Amish beard, a chin curtain, a Donegal, a Lincoln, a spade beard, or a whaler, is a style of facial hair.
The Beard Liberation Front (BLF) is a British interest group which campaigns in support of beards and opposes pogonophobic discrimination against those who wear them. It was founded in 1995 by socialist historian Keith Flett who continues to organise and represent the organisation. Apart from its numerous campaigns in support of beards and against pogonophobia in the workplace and discrimination against those who wear beards as part of their religion, it currently hosts the annual Beard of the Year award.
The Handlebar Club is an association of aficionados of the handlebar moustache, based in London. The club's sole requirement for membership is "a hirsute appendage of the upper lip and with graspable extremities"; beards are absolutely forbidden. The club engages in activism to assuage discrimination against the handlebarred as well as competitive facial hair tourneys, and has inspired the foundation of transatlantic and Scandinavian counterparts. The club declares itself to be at war with a society that demands people choose "the bland, the boring and the generic"; a club chant includes the proposition that being kissed by a smooth face is akin to "meat without the salt".
Fur Rondy has been held in Anchorage, Alaska during the late winter since 1950. It is a celebration of the time when trappers would return to the city to gather and share stories, sell their furs and antlers, and to socialize. It also commemorates the start of the Iditarod. One part of Fur Rondy is the Miners and Trappers Ball, which is a fundraiser for the Lions Club's of Alaska. The Miners and Trappers Ball has a yearly theme focused on one part of Alaskan life. The highlight of the Miners and Trappers Ball is the Mr. Fur Face beard contest. The contest is sponsored by the South central Alaska Beard and Mustache Club.
Facial hair is hair grown on the face, usually on the chin, cheeks, and upper lip region. It is typically a secondary sex characteristic of human males. Men typically start developing facial hair in the later stages of puberty or adolescence, around fifteen years of age, and most do not finish developing a full adult beard until around eighteen or later. However, large variations can occur; boys as young as eleven have also been known to develop facial hair, and some men do not produce much facial hair at all.
Jack Passion is an American rock musician, author, and entrepreneur. He was the principal focus of the IFC television series Whisker Wars.
Facial hair in the military has been at various times common, prohibited, or an integral part of the uniform.
A regular haircut, in Western fashion, is a men's and boys' hairstyle that has hair long enough to comb on top, a defined or deconstructed side part, and a short, semi-short, medium, long, or extra long back and sides. The style is also known by other names including taper cut, regular taper cut, side-part and standard haircut; as well as short back and sides, business-man cut and professional cut, subject to varying national, regional, and local interpretations of the specific taper for the back and sides.
Self-Portrait with a Sunflower is a self-portrait by Anthony van Dyck, a Flemish Baroque artist from Antwerp, then in the Spanish Netherlands. The oil on canvas painting is generally between 1632 and 1633. His successful ventures in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy propelled van Dyck into a career as court painter. Van Dyck was serving as "principal Paynter in order to their Majesties" at the court of Charles I of England when he created this self-portrait. The symbolism behind the sunflower and gold chain have been a point of contention amongst various art historians. Van Dyck's dedication to capturing the likeness of his models was the basis for his strong influence over the art of portraiture long after his death in 1641. His portrait technique evolved into what is referred to as his Late English period as seen in Self-Portrait with a Sunflower. This work is now in the private collection of the Duke of Westminster, housed at Eaton Hall in Cheshire.
Since 1976, the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) have maintained a strict appearance policy, specifying that players' hair must not touch their collars and that they may have mustaches but no other facial hair. The policy came from then-franchise owner George Steinbrenner, who believed that regulating his players' appearance would instill a sense of discipline. Steinbrenner began noting which players he believed needed haircuts when he took over the Yankees in 1973, but the policy was not codified until three years later. Steinbrenner's policy remains in place after his death, and has led to a number of dramatic appearance changes for players who come to the Yankees from other teams, such as Oscar Gamble, as well as pushback from players who prefer long hair and beards. In 1991, Don Mattingly was taken out of the Yankees' lineup for a day when he refused to cut his hair.
