Pogonophilia

STEPHEN POFELSKI has dead-straight red hair, which flops over his forehead when he doesn’t push it back. His long ginger beard, which he has been growing for 18 months, is naturally wavy and voluminous. Most people when they spy it, and then see braces supporting his trousers, assume he is a hipster, which he concedes is not inaccurate. “But I prefer to be called a modern-day mountain man with little bit of a trendy edge,” he says. On November 7th, Mr Pofelski’s struggles against the challenges of itchiness and soup were vindicated when he won best natural full beard at the National Beard and Moustache Championship.

The competition was held in Brooklyn, a whisker paradise. Yet few of the competing beardsmen were hipsters, though many were dressed in unusual garb (your correspondent spotted a Viking, several cowboys and a crusader, as well as a few ship’s captains). The smell of styling beeswax hung heavy in the air.

They competed in 18 categories. The moustache contest included the English (where the lengthy ends are styled), the Dalí (as in Salvador) and the Hungarian (no explanation necessary). For the bearded, categories included the Amish, the Fu Manchu, the Musketeer, the Kaiser and the Garibaldi.

Pogonophiles are the most visible outgrowth of a broader trend. According to Mintel, a consultancy, 41% of American men do not shave daily, including half of those aged 18 to 24. Ralph Marburger of Just for Men, a hair-colouring company, says this is partly the result of increasingly casual workplaces, where clean chins are no longer mandatory. In some industries they may even attract suspicion.

That many would-be mates allegedly find men with stubble attractive may also be a factor. A pro-growth study two years ago from the University of New South Wales found that an “intermediate level of beardedness” is most attractive, while fully bearded men are often perceived as being better fathers.

Not only are men shaving less, but those that do are using online shaving clubs, like Dollar Shave Club, to get cheaper razors and blades. Gillette, a razor-maker, launched an online shaving club in June to woo back customers. The bearded take their facial hair most seriously, carefully trimming and conditioning it. Some colour their beards to mask the grey. Mr Marburger says 20% of his company’s beard and moustache-dye sales are to men under 35.

Competitive bearders are even more addicted to grooming. Using tongs, Chris Bates took two and a half hours to transform his massive beard into intricate curls. But he was unable to defeat Adam Gazda who, with the help of a coffee cup, a fizzy-drink can and lots of hairspray, styled his beard into a dizzying array of gravity-defying loops, thereby triumphing in the freestyle full-beard category.