BEST BEARD IN THE WORLD - INTERVIEW

Last weekend we went to the World Beard & Moustache Championships on Brighton beach. This annual competition draws men from all over the world and aims to encourage standards of excellence in the growth, design and presentation of facial hair. To get the scoop on the pogonophilic circuit we spoke to Jack Passion, a 23-year-old American who was just crowned natural beard champion of the world.

Jack Passion being coronated natural beard champion of the world.

Vice: How does it feel to have the best beard in the world?
Jack Passion: I feel about the same, but it's a huge relief to be validated and official about it now. However, people seem a lot less interested when you tell them you're first in the world. When I was third, they seemed to believe it more. Aside from that, though, I'm very happy and proud of myself.

Do you go through any particular preparation?
For months leading up to the competition I took extra care with the beard, brushing it gently, conditioning it, clipping split ends and keeping it wrapped up when I was in wind.

Why did you grow the beard in the first place? Is it extreme laziness, a style thing or do the ladies love it?
I grew the beard not thinking I was going to grow a beard. I had always had big sideburns, and the thing with facial hair is that you always grow out the beard first and then shave it down to whatever style you want. I was going to shave it back into sideburns, but the beard came in so huge and fast and ginger, that I had no choice but to rock it. Beards are the shit, and I had a good one. After a while, it just became such a conversation piece, so I kept it. It's definitely not laziness. I spend way too much time on it or fussing with it to be lazy. And the ladies... after they get over the ticklish first minute or two, then I'd say they love it. I don't know, I mean what do you think of it?

It's impressive. It must get you a lot of attention.
Yeah. I get it a lot. Mostly I get asked how long I've been growing it, which I'm fine answering. Sometimes my friends and I forget that there aren't many beards this long, and if there are, they sure aren't on some guy as young as me. The only public attention thing I don't like is the brainless who just shout out "ZZ Top!" 

Do you get beard groupies?
There are definitely beard groupies. They're either whores who want to cross "Bearded Man" off their list, or genuine pogonophiles who love beards and want to get lost in that face bush. I love them both. But neither are into the "man behind the beard," so just like music groupies, you have to use discretion.

One last thing: any tips for guys out there wanting to cultivate an award winning beard?
Don't listen to a God damn thing anybody says: just grow it. You can't decide if you like it unless it's at least three months old. If it's not you, then hey, shave it. It's a unique part of man-ness that one should experience at least once in their life.

CHARYS ELLMER

Comments

[Bart]

http://www.viceland.com/germany/v1n3/htdocs/barte.php
Something new, please

That is a pretty sweet beard.

I can't believe that dude is only 23. He must've been one of those guys who had a moustache in grade school.

[Tom]

I can't grow a beard. It looks patchy.

[Mr Business]

I saw this dude at a Brewers game two weeks ago and I said to my girlfriend "Man he looks young, I wonder if that dude competes in the World Beard & Mustache Championsip?" Guess I got my answers.

Beards!

[illicister]

i wish every article forever was this one. it makes you feel good.

[Pyotr Mansbridge]

I can't believe they got Jesus to MC the ceremony this year. What a get!

[comments are for kids with flus]

oh man steve zhan made it out this year!

[god]

If you cannot grow a beard, you are not a man! Kill yourself NOW!!!

[senior M]

a beard is a very important , exquisit , manly , part of man.
letting grow it and taking care of it , feeling proud of it and even playing different styles on it its a thing to admire .
this guys makes me feel happy to be a man.
even though mine is quite poor.

[charys ellmer]

glad you guys enjoyed the article. have to say going to that championship was one of the strangest most surreal but utterly brilliant experiences of my life. and youve got to love a guy with a beard. i was swooning.

[Todd Huffman]

I started training a few months ago for the beard competition. Not in time for this year, but the next one. I've started logging my progress. http://www.flickr.com/photos/oddwick/1361409199/

Beards are absolutely awesome. I remember the first time I saw a picture of the Freestyle event. It was a transcendental moment.

[Snoozan]

Thats fantastic x great interview and love the photo x damn my sister for getting married on that day!!! x

[Furface]

The title picture should be the cover of the next issue

[Joelle]

I think I'm a pogonophile! I had no idea there was a name for this obsession... I completely blame all of the westerns I watched when I was little.

[Drake Whalterson]

Fortunately I've been aware of this annual competition for quite some time now, and even though it was refreshing to read this article (I only wish there were more photographs), I must confess a desire I've kept secret since the days I was a tyke sitting on me papi's lap. Of the top three occupations I wished existed, Smelling Beards would be one of them. I would work for very little money at a chance to smell the beards presented at this competition. I am not lying to you. Hard as it is, when I see a grown man with a beard I struggle NOT to approach him with hopes of catching the scent of all the mysteries within that thicket of hair. I'm sure this might be categorized as a personal fetish (and I disagree), but I can only explain this as being an innate feeling inside me. Something that reminds me of my childhood. And it's the different aromas I imagine emanating from beards of all sizes (especially these pictured here) that keeps me dreaming a better life.

And yes, I don't have a beard myself. They itch way too much.

[Me]

If I could rock the 'stache like Sam Elliot, I definitely would. But my moustache is weak. Yahweh! Why has thou forsaken me!

[Kandi]

Agreed! Sam Elliot was my first moustache love, but my pogonophilia has to be traced straight back to Kenny Rogers - when it was that gorgeous, luxuriant, thick, straight-hair beard, not the severely manicured one he got in the 90s. My husband has got a pretty impressive beard now, and even though it's kinda wiry, I love it! Well done to Jack, and well done to the guy coronating him in the photo - he's got the gorgeous locks to go with his lovely beard. HOT!

Check this interview from like a year ago. Slackin Vice, slackin.

http://www.lifelounge.com/The-passion-of-the-beard.aspx

The beard competition takes place every year.

[please, baby baby please]

please let me shoot your culture vulture photos around the world. I promise i will kill it big time (this means something good) and everyone will rejoice. vice consistently has shitty imagemakers on board. let us help each other out

[wordsmith]

'imagemakers?' who says that apart from unemployed wannabe photographer douchebags with a flickr fetish.

a more accurate moniker would be 'point-and-clicker.'

[URGAI]

Why Vice is such a hollow read;

They write a paragraph of nonchalant bollocks to introduce a piece, then dive straight into some poxy interview. Fact; interviews are almost always boring and uninformative. Try excercising some proper journalism and write a story about yor subject. Yeah I know it's only beards, but surely there's a tale there?

[KRA]

A word to Jack Passion...getting called out zztop by the brainless, is a lot better than being called
zz bottom.

[Me.]

From a girl who's only dated guys with beards: Clean them! Scrub them! Wash them! Otherwise they just stink to high heaven and who wants to make out with that? It's like kissing someone's sweaty head...

[Noggin]

Lets skip all the best article since pockets dumb phat was gone.

I can grow a mean mustache in three weeks. Ask any of the guys in Coffin Dancer. The beard and moustache comp. is some serious shit. Like 50's second album, this is a hot one. Glad to see VICE back on the real issuses.

Sizzler fo' suh.

-John Noggin