Ladies are getting in on the whisker wars.
"They're called whiskerinas," Rocky Mountain Beard and Moustache Club president Eric Brooks said. "They're all over the U.S. and all over the world. They usually have their own competitions. We like to include them in our competition because we think that, you know, they love us for our facial hair and we want them to have the same fun that we do."
Now, when we talk about bearded ladies, we're not necessarily talking about actual bearded ladies. Although there are some whiskerinas who do truly grow their own, most whiskerinas have to get a little more... creative.
Like the rhinestone-encrusted beard Kelly Hausman made for her Elvis-inspired costume. It's hot and heavy she tells fellow whiskerinas inside the green room at the RMBMC's recent Beard Bout in Loveland, Colorado.
This is Hausman's second beard competition. For the first one, she made a beard out of beer bottle caps. Earning a third place finish, she was hooked.
"The best thing about it is kind of being a part of a brotherhood, even though, I'm a sister."
But how does a woman find herself competing in a beard competition in the first place?
"My boyfriend," Hausman said. "He competes. So I was going to the beard competitions anyway so I was like, I might as well try this."
Hausman's boyfriend, Justin Muse – nicknamed Tennessee – is sporting a long, bushy beard, red long johns and a pair of denim overalls. He looks every bit the mountain man.
Since first growing it for a Halloween costume, he’s become quite attached to his beard.
"I've had nightmares where someone has shaved it off," Muse said. "I've woken up and not thought it was there. It's just a man-thing to me, I reckon."
Man-thing or not, he likes sharing the bearded spotlight with Hausman.
"The more she can be in this with me and do this with me, I love that," he said. "I want her to be right there beside me."
These two aren't alone. Beard competitions are becoming a kind of couples sport.
For whiskerina Victoria Larson, competing is part of a benefit to doing business. She and her fiancée own Roughneck Beard Company, a St. Louis, Missouri-based company that makes and sells facial hair oils, balms and waxes.
For Larson, the competitions are an opportunity to work, and compete, side-by-side with him. It also provides insight into what her soon-to-be husband deals with every day.
"I understood what it was like to eat with a beard now," she said. "That was really hard. Crumbs everywhere."
There's also another part of this man-thing: the bonding.
"The best thing about it is kind of being a part of a brotherhood, even though, I'm a sister. You know what I mean?" she said. "It's pretty cool. Everybody supports everybody."
Larson's fiancée, Brad Jackson, supports his wife's bearding but said, in some circles, the whiskerinas have become a little contentious.
"The World Beard and Moustache Association, they don't acknowledge the whiskerinas as like, as a world category," Jackson said. "There are a lot of people who think, truly, that the women shouldn't have any part of it. A lot of the time, whiskerinas will win best in show. And a lot of the men get their feelings hurt because they think, why should a woman win best in show at a men's beard competition?"
At first, Megan Johnson kind of agreed. The competitor thought it looked "really weird." But just like Loveland whiskerina Kelly Hausman, it didn't take long for her to be lured in.
"Because bearded men are gentlemen," Johnson said. "Like, they are the cream of the crop. You wouldn't believe it by looking at it, but they are the kindest, most generous, friendly guys you'll ever meet."
You can see that as her husband, Craig, helps her affix a half-dozen stuffed kittens to a wig for her 'crazy cat lady' costume. Obviously, this is a labor of love for them both.
"I couldn't believe that she was going to be a part of the bearded community and embrace it wholeheartedly," he said. "And it also meant that I was probably going to be able to keep my beard a whole lot longer 'cause that was one of our rules. If she ever said it had to go, then I would end up shaving it off. But she's embraced it and I don't see it going anywhere."
That's just another benefit of couples sharing this unique experience, said RMBMC president Eric Brooks.
"There's kind of a mystique about facial hair. You know, like, it kind of makes the man and the man makes it, you know," Brooks said before he started laughing. "Or woman."
