Beards do Battle

Saturday morning came all too early. I woke up and waxed the hell out of my stache and then got ready for the morning pre-judging, to see if you fit the category you plan on competing in. Lines and lines of nervous bearded men.There's Toot Joslin (Tim Tran's hero) pre-judging my stache.
And my number to be held during the judging; it felt so much like a dog show for grown men.

I went back and changed into my outfit and then we went over to the local market where they did a little beard presentation with the competitors. Then off to the Dena'ina Center to get our seats and for the competition to begin.American Gothic in the Living Classics Pageant. They allow a little nervous crying, but you can tell they don't like it.
This guy was super cool. Shaved "B" and an "E" on the right side of his face. Then made his goatee into an "A". Then shaved "R" and D" on the left side. For those of you who can't spell, it's BEARD.

They started with moustaches. First category: Natural Moustache.
Keith was in this category and for some reason he brought a fake mouse and was shaking it at people and later stabbed it with his knife. Here are the winners. Keith got second and one of the guys we met the prior night got third. The Dutch guy in the middle took first.

English moustache was next...
Sam got third place.
George Haskins got second place for the second year in a row.And Lutz from Germany got first. His stuffed bear has an English moustache as well, and is his good luck charm.

Then came the Imperial moustache category and Paul's turn to go up before the judges. This was a very competitive category.Alex went up and got all kinds of crazy. Dance moves and egging on the crowd abounded. He was working that outfit too.
This guy was a crowd favorite. Later on at a bar, the management wouldn't let him take his giant "dumbbell" inside, so he decided to stand out on the patio with the rest of us bearded ones and they gave him back his dumbbell. He then hoisted them high above his head and declared loudly "They gave me back my balls!"Paul was a bare knuckle boxer and had contemplated bloodying up his knuckles for effect, but decided against punching the sidewalk a bunch of times. These three won. I'm not sure of all their names, but all three were from L.A. so that was pretty good. Guy in the middle got first, guy on the left got second and he's part of the Bristly Chaps chapter of Beard Team USA. Alex got third and he's showing the camera his better side. When they were interviewing Alex on stage, he stopped what he was saying and said "I want to say this guy over here should've won. He has the best Imperial moustache out of all of us" and he was pointing at Paul. He said it over and over and Paul just kept turning more and more red. Later on, Alex told us that he thought that Paul had the best Imperial that was actually an Imperial while all these other guys were just trying to imitate a true Imperial... he also said if Paul could find a hacksaw before the night was over he would saw his third place Gold Plate in half and give half to him. We didn't find a hacksaw, but not for lack of looking.

Here are the Wild West Hungarian moustaches. How did they associate the wild West and Hungarians? I have no idea.
This is Nick. I talked to him for a while in the registration line at the picnic. He moved to Alaska a few years ago and hates it. As soon as he can get out he plans to. Also, up until a few months ago he had a full beard, but decided he had a better moustache. Nick took first and the guy next to him is Gunter from Germany and he won last time in Brighton, but was awarded second this year. The guy next to him is also German. When interviewed on stage what had inspired him to grow his moustache, Nick replied "I just hate to shave."

Next on the roster is the Dali. Devon (one of the twins) had planned to enter this category, but he wasn't allowed because the edges of the moustache are not allowed to go above your eyebrows, which his do exponentially.This is Max from Germany and he just couldn't help from schmoozing with just about everyone in the convention center once on the stage. He also won first prize in this category in Brighton. He just paraded around like a true gentleman.
This is Jeff and he and I talked for a while during the parade. This is his fourth World Beard and Moustache Championship and he even won third place in the Dali last time.
The guy on the left won third and said that he thought he was going to place last time, but didn't so he got so frustrated and shaved off his moustache and he just started growing it back a few months ago. Max took second and was elated. Tony from Germany won first place.

And finally (for the moustaches), the freestyle category.Here's Devon. You can't really tell from the picture, but he curled one half of his moustache to go under his lips and the other half to go above, kind of like a backwards S made of facial hair.
This is Keith Haubrich, aka Ghandi Jones. He styled up one side of his stache to be a fork and one side to be a spoon. I went to the restroom on the second floor (which they had closed off for contestants only for styling) before the competition and he was sitting on the counter with his legs up styling himself. He had a big jar of black stuff and some wax and he was telling the girl who must've been documenting him that he needed some scissors. Someone in a stall yelled out that he had some and slid them across the floor for him to use. We're all class at the World Beard and Moustache Championships.
Well Ghandi Jones got first and Devon got second. They were definitely the real standouts this year in the freestyle. Luk from Beglium got third and he just had really nice, defined, large curls.

That's it for the moustache competition. There's still partial beards and full beards to go. Sorry this is so slow, but there are so many pictures to choose from and the ones that do make it take a while to upload. Bear with me.