Composition by Oil City: Casper Skyline (National Beard and Moustache Championships, Facebook); Beard Competitor (Shutterstock)
CASPER, Wyo — Start trimming your Donegals and Fu Manchus: the 2022 National Beard and Moustache Championships are coming to the Ford Wyoming Center November 12.
The event will be hosted in conjunction with Visit Casper and the 2022 Booze and Bacon Festival, said Beard Team USA®, which has hosted and organized the championship event since 2010.
There will be a range of related events held locally during the week leading up to the championships, including an amateur competition, Visit Casper Business Development Manager Luke Gilliam told Oil City Friday.
Gilliam said the event is estimated to bring about 1,500 people, including 500 competitors: “It’s going to bring a lot of cool, fun people to the town,” Gilliam said.
“The purpose of the Nationals is to find and honor the best facial hair in America, but beardsmen from all over the world are invited to compete,” said Beard Team USA®.
There are dozens of classes among four categories (mustache, partial beard, beard, full beard, and craft), with detailed rules on length, growth area, and allowed styling products available here.
Competition is not limited to authentically grown facial hair: the craft category invites participants to fashion their own beards and mustaches (opting for either creativity or realism) out of craft material or the hair on their own heads.
Gilliam said Visit Casper first touched base with the event’s organizers at a trade show last year, and they agreed that Casper, firmly rooted in the Mountain West culture, was an authentic fit for the competition.
More information is available here.
