The patience and scratching of young American ‘beardsmen’ paid off last week at the biennial International Beard & Moustache Championships, a competition that rewards the best in facial follicular finesse across 17 separate categories.
Held in the alpine town of Leogang in Austria, American men had their beards and moustaches judged the best in the world in six of the categories. In a grooming competition usually dominated by the shaggy and bewhiskered Germans, the close-to-home advantage offered nothing to the Teutonic ‘tache twisters.
Madison Rowley, of Portland, Oregon, left with the awards’ top prize, having earned a perfect score in the ‘Full Beard – Natural’ category.
Madison Rowley, world champion 'beardsman' [Instagram]
The next world championship will take place in Austin, Texas, on the 2nd and 3rd of September, 2017. For those prepubescent men in the Newstalk audience uncertain they’ll be sporting an impressive enough beard by then can wait for the festival to return to European soil for the 2019 championships, which will be held in Antwerp, Belgium.
You can see a gallery of images from the 2015 competition below:
