CARSON CITY, NEVADA USA

Cafeterias, diners, restaurants and steakhouses across Carson City, Nevada will be closing off their buffets and salad bars on Saturday, November 1st, 2003 as the World Beard and Moustache Championships invade the Silver State's capitol to coincide with it's annual Nevada Day parade.

Founded in 1990 by the First Höfener Beard Club (1. Höfener Bartclub) in their hometown Höfen/Enz, Germany, this year's World Beard and Moustache Championships will mark the first time a competition amongst the elite in facial hair will be held on American soil. Five years lapsed after muted beginnings in the heart of Black Forest before the 1. Höfener Bartclub hosted the second World Beard and Moustache Championships in the nearby city of Pforzheim. Since then the Championships have been held every two years, traveling to Trondheim, Norway in 1997 and Ystad, Sweden in 1999 before returning to Schömberg, Germany in 2001. Berlin has already been granted hosting privileges for the 2005 contest with London’s Handlebar Club hosting the 2007 Championships.

Willi Chevalier Hometown: Singmaringen, Germany Team: Swabian Beard Club Category: Partial beard, freestyle 2001 World Champion

In the Carson City Community Center a panel of judges from across the bearding world and beyond will determine which hairpieces take top honors in seventeen separate categories. Top marks in each category will garner a grower the championship trophy as well as the coveted title of World Champion. Special prizes will also be awarded to the youngest contestant, the contestant who traveled the farthest to attend, and the people's favorite. Among the distinguished judges this year will the all-time U.S. Men's Downhill World Cup skiing champion Daron Rahlves and well-liked Nevada Supreme Court Chief Justice Deborah Agosti who was once voted "One of America's 100 Young Women of Promise" by Good Housekeeping Magazine. Carson City Mayor Ray Masayko will also sit in on the panel along with former Carson City resident Mark Twain. Gambling men are no doubt placing their bets on Twain's vanity in championing Italian Marco Salvetti in the natural moustache category, hoping that his Paisano take on the American writer and humorist is received as flattering and undeniably charming. In the Wild West Moustache category all eyes will be on Bremerton, Washington's Bruce Roe, a skinny sort of Wilford Brimley and top dog at the The Bremerton Whisker Club. Roe is the first and only American ever to win a trophy at the World Beard and Moustache Championships, taking home hardware in both 1999 and 2001.

Marco Salvetti Hometown: somewhere in Italy Category: Moustache, natural

Despite facial hair's slow growth in the US sporting world, American's are expected to make a strong showing at the 2003 Worlds, representing their home turf with homages to compatriots like Abe Lincoln, Grizzly Adams, Charles Manson and maybe even Lungfish's Daniel Higgs. Entrance into the competition requires a paltry $25 application fee and event staff will be taking new entrees until only a few days before the contest, allowing indigenous beard growers to sign up in record numbers.

All told more than one hundred ausländers are predicted to join the Yanks with locks of coarse face fur expected from contestants representing Germany, Switzerland, Austria, England, Italy, Sweden, Norway, the Ukraine, Turkey, Canada, and Mexico. Stateside followers of the Beard world, which functions a lot like the equally fluffy and fanatical world of dog grooming, are hoping for a large turnout of bearded and moustached Americans to compete against the predominantly German former World and European Champions. The Krauts have had such a vice-like grip on the Beard and Moustache circuit since they invented it over a decade ago that even in Carson City the event will be presented in an Oktoberfest-style atmosphere, complete with beer, bratwurst and oompah music by the Al Gruber Band.

Stefan Gölz Hometown: Mannheim, Germany Team: Palatinate Beard Club Category: Partial beard, freestyle

The most notable of the non-German competitors will be Ted Sedman, the current President of London’s Handlebar Club. Sedman is of a weighty stature in the UK, where he was once mentioned in the Guinness Book as having Britain’s longest moustache, a photo of him stretched to full wingspan, his lippy strands extending beyond his fingertips.

Rheinhard Mitterhofer Hometown: Switzerland Category: Full beard, natural

LAS is officially throwing its hat into the ring in support of Memili Rüştüoğlu, a rough-hewn looking fellow from Istanbul, Turkey. Rüştüoğlu will go for top honors in the Freestyle Moustache category and will be a clear favorite to repeat his 2001 First Place showing.

Memili Rüştüoğlu Hometown: Istanbul, Turkey Category: Freestyle Moustache 2001 World Champion

According to Phil Olsen, organizer of the World Beard and Moustache Championships, the contestants will march in front of 40,000 spectators as part of the annual Nevada Day parade on the morning of November 1st before hunkering down at the Community Center at 851 E. Williams Street that afternoon. A spectator pass to the event (and what a spectacle it is sure to be!) is only $10 and the doors open at 2:00 in the afternoon with the elimination rounds beginning an hour later. By 7:00 most of Carson City is sure to be on hand for the final judging as the torchbearers for handsome, hairy men are crowned for another two year reign.

Alois Plettl Hometown: Salzweg, Germany Team: East Bavarian Beard Club Category: Full beard, natural Third place, 2001 World Championships

More information about the different classes including illustrations and a list of the 1999 champions can be found here.

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SEE ALSO > 2001 World Beard and Moustache Championships results