I wish I had an invention to go with this link, but I can't think of a way to improve on the original idea, which surely must have already received a lot of press that I managed somehow to miss:
The World Beard Championships!
I'm thinking about heading out to NYC in May. Maybe I'll catch the 2006 competition.
And I can't wait to see the this documentary, Splitting Hairs.
And I guess I'll have to start reading the blog.
It is interesting. I hated beards as a child, and even as an adult I've never been very drawn to bearded men. But then I thought my ex-husband's beard thingy was cute, and now that more and more of my friends are sporting them, I've lost my aversion. So, let's hear it for beards, as well as flexibility within one's own aesthetic standards.
Those are some pretty amazing beards. I don't find men with beards particularly attractive (my dad is the guy with the beard, and I'd prefer to leave it that way), but if I was a man, I'd definitely want to grow one.
The Holiday Neck Beard website.
And Jon Nichols received a very lovely product from these folks, who offer a service for those of us congenitally or tempermentally unable to grow facial hair of our own.
Hey, and check this out--
http://www.oregonwildhair.com/index.htm
it's kind of like gourmet lipstick, but for moustaches.
I find their sartorial choices also very interesting, as if one must dress the part--period costume/period facial hair. Of course these fine Herren may wear Lederhosen all the day long, but I doubt it. When I was in Berlin I saw an amazing collection of very elaborate women's wedding hats from the 1800. There are folks who dress in this historic costume in bavaria, you can see a photo at http://sabineotto.de (hit the Sabine Otto Fotograhie) then at the pop up hit Unisono) there are several interesting photos here. but the women in the red dresses seem to be of the same period as the bearded men. I prefer to wedding hats to the beards. I am not a big facial hair fan either on my man or on me.