Steel City

Beards for Beasts: 1/10k Parade and Facial Hair Competition for Charity 

October 5, 2013 Pittsburgh, PA

Steel City Beard & Mustache Club 

I have been looking forward to this competition for a really long time.  I met some of these guys in Ohio and had a blast.  They through one hell of a competition.  

The raffles were awesome, the contest ran smoothly and quickly.  Props to some awesome judges, a great DJ and MC, and RVA rolled deep into Steel City and did really well.  We came back with 6 trophies and some really fuzzy memories.

I participated in the largest category, <9″, and took home first against some impressive competition.

I had a great time, as expected, and cannot wait for the next competition.  Looks like Wilmington, NC, but not 100% sure yet.

3 Month Wrap-up

Wow, I neglected this site for 3 months.  Things have been pretty crazy.  New job, first of all.  And yes, they have been really cool about the beard.

After Greensboro I traveled to Philly and Ohio.  We also hosted the 2nd Annual Mid-Atlantic Beard & ‘Stache Championships.  This was a huge success.  I was honored to have come in 3rd out of quite a few people (50-ish?).

Ohio was a small competition but a lot of awesome people and the Brew Kettle is an AMAZING place to stop and drink.  It’s like Mekong and Buzz & Ned’s had a bastard child.  Oh, and I got 3rd in full beard natural <12″

June 1 I hit my yeard.  Yup, year-beard.

We already have the date set for the 3rd Annual Mid-Atlantic Beard & ‘Stache Championships.

From here, it is Nashville, Jersey, maybe NY, and Fredericksburg.

Fredericksburg

Taylor Gehring, aka Beardimus Maximus, is putting together an awesome competition in August to raise a QUARTER MILLION dollars for charity.  Note: almost all (grumble, nationals, cough, bastards) competitions raise money for charity, but 250k is insane.  Props to Taylor for being so passionate about this.  Definitely check out his blog and the event page for more info.

Next two months are gonna be crazy, but looking forward to the trips.  Beard on.

2nd Annual Carolina BAM Competition

This weekend the RVA Beard League was very busy.  Friday night 4 of us went up to Fredericksburg for Fredericksburg’s Beard Appreciation Night at Brock’s Riverside Grill.  This event was put on for a local man who is being documented by MTV’s True Life.  The crew also came down to Greensboro for the big event, and will hopefully be coming to RVA in April for our event. The event was a lot of fun, and it an unconventional competition, but enjoyable nonetheless.  3 of us ended up being in the top 5 for Fredericksburg’s Best Beard, and Chad and I took 2nd and 1st respectively.

Me & Chad

 

 

 

Me, Chad, Robere, and Travis

Saturday a group set up a booth at the Church Hill Irish Festival. Another 8 of us made the trek down to Greensboro, NC for the 2nd Annual Carolina BAM Competition. This was so much fun, and the best-run competition yet.  It ran smoothly and was over hours before any others, which allowed us to go out and have a blast afterwards.

 

Overall the RVA crew did very well.  Steven Brown won 1st place in the styled moustache category, Chad Roberts won 1st place in Freestyle and 2nd Place in Best in Show, and I took home 1st place in Full Groomed.

 

 

Steven, Chad, and me.

We met a ton of great people, and look forward to seeing them in Philly, Cleveland, and most importantly in RVA APRIL 27TH.  It’s my birthday weekend.  There will be PBR, celebrities, facial hair, PBR, and it’s only $10 to get in, and this event will sell out.

BeardNJ.com’s 2nd Annual Garden State Beard & ‘Stache Competition

On January 26th, the Richmond Beard League traveled 8 deep up to Asbury Park NJ for the BeardNJ.com’s 2nd Annual Garden State Beard & ‘Stache Competition.

 

Having never participated in a competition, I was definitely a fish out of water.  Turns out the whole weekend was a lot of fun.  We got to go out with a group to take pictures of abandoned buildings, drink with people from all over the east coast, discover malort (don’t do it), and overall had a great time.

A few of us traveled a few miles to Kane Brewery, which is a small operation with a lot of solid beers.  We did a flight, and I got a growler of their Single Fin and a bottle of their 365 to save for a later date.

Everyone that came for the event was a lot of fun.  It’s refreshing to be around people who ask a lot of questions or judge one way or the other about facial hair.  We all had it, now let’s drink and have fun.

The competition was set at Asbury Lanes and featured burlesque, a rock band, and some sideshow entertainment. The place was completely packed, and we held it down for about 8 hours or so (from what I remember).

The RVA Beard League represented well.  Half of our group placed.  I was shocked to nab gold in the short groomed category.  A partial list of winners is below, with RVA in bold.

Natural Stache: Justin Vitti – 1 Robere Del Follicle – 2 

Styled Stache: Nick Ackermann
Partial Beard: Jim Daly – 1 Dan Roberts – 2 
FTW Beard: Jeff Langum – 1 Vic Martinson – 2 Wally Lutz
Fake Stache: Chelsea D. Easterling – 1
Look I have a Beard Too: Josh Black – 1 Adam Lichtman – 2
Freestyle: Chad Roberts – 1 Travis Oliver -2 Brandon Biggins – 3

Chad won with a crazy spider man getup 

 

All in all, it was a great trip.  I am looking forward to CT, PA, and NC this spring, and of course the 2nd Annual Mid-Atlantic Beard & ‘Stache Championships.