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The following is a guest post submitted by Chris Clemens.
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On Saturday, August 17th the Rochester Beardsmen Society hosted the Northeast Regional Beard and Moustache Championships at Water Street Music Hall in downtown Rochester, NY. Competitors from the U.S. and Canada assembled to show off their facial hair and compete in 17 in different categories to determine who’s facial follicles could produce the top ranking tufts…

The first World Beard and Moustache Championship took place in 1990 in Germany and allowed a subculture of facial hair donning men to show off amongst one another. Since then there have been a number of like-faced competitions and clubs that have formed to celebrate all the different styles of facial hair.

More recently, the sport has made its way into the common household thanks to a reality tv show called Whisker Wars , the Mo-vember Campaign , a documentary called Growin’ A Beard , and the worldwide traipsing of World Championship Full Bearder Jack Passion . (By the way, Mellitus from the Austin Facial Hair Club, often featured in the show ‘Whisker Wars’ was here to compete in the Donegal event, but I didn’t get to meet him.)

The competitions are intended to be friendly and as fun as possible, but it’s no secret that some of the bigger personalities in the world beard competitions have clashed. In fact, there would probably be some people who would be very put off by my even mentioning Jack Passion, and more so for crediting him for helping to move the sport along.

Nonetheless, the sport and competition are growing way faster than the beards themselves, and the culture that goes along with it has found itself a large following.

At first glance it may seem like the regional competitions are just a reason to show off a visual representation of one’s testosterone levels, drink beer and hang with like-minded tattooed friends–but ultimately the events are philanthropic. This event in particular was held to raise funds for both the Villa of Hope and the family of Jack Schifano , a Rochester Beardsmen Member who recently passed away.

The competition served as an opportunity to come out on top, but it didn’t seem to matter who won or lost, the sportsmanship was one of support, fun and camaraderie. Though I could’ve competed in the ‘Less Than 2 Inches’ category, I chose to keep my beard in the audience and meet people who had traveled from all over to attend.

Congrats to all of those who competed, and to the Rochester Beardsmen Society and Water Street Music Hall for hosting such a great event!

See the final results of the competition at the Rochester Beardsmen Society website

Competition Categories

Mustache

• Fake mustache realistic
• Fake mustache creative
• Natural mustache
• Styled mustache
• Reverend Harrington’s Mustache

Partial Beard

• Chops
• Donegal/Whaler
• Partial beard natural
• Partial beard freestyle

Full Beard

• Full beard natural 0-2″
• Full beard natural 2-8″
• Full beard natural 8-12″
• Full beard natural 12 – infinity and beyond
• Full beard natural with styled mustache
• Fake beard realistic
• Fake beard fantastical
• Freestyle full beard

Related Links:

Facebook page for the Rochester Beardsmen Society

The Philadelphia Beard Club

Facebook page for the Boston Beard Club

Austin Facial Hair Club

About Chris Clemens:

Chris Clemens is a Rochester native with a degree from SUNY Brockport in Health Science. While spending nearly all his free time in research and exploration of curious landmarks, he is half of the blogging duo responsible for the Exploring The Burned Over District blog. Checkout the blog on Facebook !

Tags: Austin Facial Hair Club, Beard and Moustache Championships, Chris Clemens, Growin’ A Beard, Jack Passion, Jack Schifano, Mo-vember Campaign, Rochester, Rochester NY, Water Street Music Hall, Whisker Wars

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 21st, 2013 at 11:46 am and is filed under Art + Culture, Events, Reader Submitted Stories, Rochester News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.