Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Who knew the secret was Grandpa's Wonder Pine Tar soap?

I think Pop Candy has had a post or two about the World Beard and Mustache Championships that took place in Brighton, England a few days ago. The Seattle Times today had a profile of the winner Burke Kenny:

It was a fascination with his father's mustache that motivated Burke Kenny to grow world-class facial hair.

The 22-year-old from Olympia, who had always admired his dad's hirsute experiments, set out to grow something unusual — maybe even exotic — on his own face.

After four years of nurturing his full beard and mustache with a meticulous daily regimen (which includes scrubbing it with Grandpa's Pine Tar soap, paddle brushing and trimming split ends), Kenny's own facial hair was deemed some of the best on the planet.

On Saturday, the Evergreen State College student won top beard honors at the World Beard and Moustache Championship in Brighton, England.

Kenny's sculpted Octopus-shaped facial hair beat out international "bearded friends" to take top honors in the full-beard, styled-mustache category.

The top prize? An engraved beer mug with a mustache guard.

Kenny avoided donning a costume, as many competitors do at the biennial competition, saying, "I love to let the beard speak for itself. I don't like all the frills and gimmicks."
The next championships don't take place until 2009 in Anchorage, Alaska. I figure, that's ample time for Wild Willie to fashion a few trial beards before growing out and styling his piece de resistance for the contest. C'mon, dude--you know you want to do it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oddly enough, I would love to, but my beard is not of the championship quality I am sure they look for. Unfortunately, my beard hairs tend to get split ends rather easily, and I have spots where three or four hairs love to grow out of the same folicle thus creating a really think hair that doesn't match the consistency of the rest. It sounds kinda gross. You would never notice it unless you got a close up, but I think they might get close up for a contest.

Dutch said...

Kenny avoided donning a costume, as many competitors do at the biennial competition, saying, "I love to let the beard speak for itself. I don't like all the frills and gimmicks."

So the hat is everyday attire?