in a last frontier fashion ...: May 2009

Was I in heaven or was I at the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Anchorage Alaska last weekend?

Really, I couldn't tell.

So many amazing fellas sporting fuzzy faces I couldn't help but feel a bit twitterpated. I actually met (and got a photo with!!) previous "natural beard and styled moustache champ" Burke Kenny from Olympia, Washington. He didn't place this year at the championships but he won the Alaska Beard Team's "Black Bear" award.

Burke and I

Lots of other fashionable males were present at the event including Moses, Santa Clause, Claude Monet and plenty of Alaskan fishermen, whalers, trappers and miners.

The bi-yearly event had more than 300 competitiors and 50 of them were from Alaska--I knew I moved back to the right state.

And hilariously enough, Bob Gengler, the president of the South Central Alaska Beard and Moustache Club, said that most Alaskans are so independent so they don’t want to join any team--even a beard team!! I just imagine all those potential beard champions in the Alaskan Bush too wild to organize, hiding out with rifles and "get off my land" threats.

On Friday, there was a beard parade and then this rad band from Australia called The Beards played. Their whole schtick: songs about beards for people with beards. The hits: "If your Dad doesn't have a beard you've got two Moms" and "Beards don't kill people, People with Beards kill people." Wowza.

Listening to the band I almost felt like I was in a magical dream world--kind of like in Harry Potter but replace the magic with lotsa facial hair.

I'm still feeling a little whimsical about the whole thing and wouldn't object to any guys with beards and/or 'staches pinching me to make sure I'm not dreaming! ha!

Freestyle Beard Champion and Ultimate World Beard Champion David Traver