There were men with Fu Manchu moustaches. There were contestants with long, flowing Gandalf beards. And there was the reigning world champion: German Karl-Heinz Hille, whose gravity-defying sideburns look a bit like an upturned bucket.
About 220 contestants from all over the world gathered in Berlin, Germany, on Friday ahead of Saturday’s biannual world beard and moustache championships. The participants, including eight from Britain, will do battle in several different moustache and beard categories on Saturday afternoon, including musketeer, Wild West, imperial Austrian, English, Dalí and freestyle.
”The beard has to be well looked-after and, of course, it has to suit the person who is wearing it,” Jürgen Draheim, the deputy president of Berlin’s beard club, and the reigning European champion, explained on Friday. ”We have a lot of entries in the full beard category.
”People who grow beards come from all walks of society. We have simple workers and we have academics. I started growing mine as a revolt against my parents. My mother still tells me to shave it off.”
Contestants are allowed to use artificial gels and hair sprays, except in the natural-moustache category, Draheim said. Several entrants in the freestyle section had turned up supporting Christmas-tree beards, he said.
But has the war on terrorism made life more difficult for bearded people?
”I don’t think so,” he said. ”But the whole point of a beard is to make you stand out from the crowd.”
About 40 American and British contestants went on a tour of the German capital on Friday ahead of the championships, which are being held at a lakeside hotel. They had previously spent a week at Munich’s Oktoberfest beer festival.
”It’s all about meeting up with friends. The competition is secondary,” Ted Sedman (67), the president of the British Handlebar Club and owner of a Fu Manchu moustache, said.
”I sleep with mine under my pillow,” said Don Martin, from San Francisco.
Other entrants have come from Australia, Hong Kong and Kuwait. A jury made up of hairdressers and beard experts will pick the winner in 17 different categories before electing an overall winner.
The reigning champion (65), who used to work as a gentleman’s outfitter in KaDeWe, Berlin’s famous department store, said he spends an average of an hour a day grooming his hedge-like sideburns.
The next world beard and moustache championships will take place in Brighton in 2007. — Guardian Unlimited Â