![\"Beard](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Beard_04.jpg\")
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Long Beach Beard Advocate founders Kevin Woody (right) and Kay Wantuch (left). Photos by Brian Addison.<\/em><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a Whaler or a Napoleon III Imperial. Come all ye Hungarians, Hulihees and Handlebars, there\u2019s a place for you, too. Actually, it doesn\u2019t even matter if you\u2019re a man or a woman; if you have a beard or you\u2019re just a supporter of wooly-faced men, the Beard Advocates of Long Beach will take you in with open arms.<\/p>\n The club, which was formed by Kevin Woody and Kay Wantuch about four years ago, was inspired by the dearth of places for facial hair-toting men in Long Beach to congregate. When it was determined that the Los Angeles Facial Hair Society<\/a> and Orange County\u2019s The Gentlemen\u2019s Beard and Mustache Coalition<\/a> were too inconvenient to frequent, the Long Beach Beard Advocates were born.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought to myself, how come there\u2019s no Long Beach club?\u201d Woody said. \u201cThere\u2019s one in LA and there\u2019s one in Orange County and both of those are awkwardly difficult to drive to. Just barely too far that it\u2019s kind of annoying.\u201d<\/p>\n What Long Beach was also lacking prior to last year was its very own beard and mustache competition. But when the Folk Revival Festival invited Woody and his hirsute hoard to host the first annual beard and mustache competition, they were all over it.<\/p>\n This year\u2019s Folk Revival Festival<\/a> marks the group\u2019s second year as hosts of the competition. Three new categories have been added, doubling last year\u2019s count (natural, full beard styled stash, partial beard, natural stache, styled stache and Whiskerina) with the inclusion of a kids beard and mustache competition. Judges will also have a lot more time to analyze beards and mustaches for symmetry, fullness, style and a variety of other parameters to determine who is the owner of the best beard in each category. Judges will hand out scores from 5 to 10 points with the winner from each division taking home prizes including beard grooming products, gift certificates to local businesses and even a trip to Catalina.<\/p>\n As one previous judge put it, some beards are kind of like a Monet, \u201cgood from far, but far from good.\u201d The expansion of the competition to a full hour (last year\u2019s was squeezed into a 20 minute window) will be important to give each competitor a fair shake. Besides, serious questions need to be answered about some very serious facial hair.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year we had to move real fast,\u201d Woody said. \u201cGet them off stage, collect the judges votes and do something in between. With as many people as we had, we just squeezed it in. Now we\u2019ll be able to take a little bit more time. We\u2019ll be able to introduce people by names instead of just numbers and be able to give everyone a little bit more credence. So you can strut your stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n Woody hasn\u2019t been clean shaven in nearly a decade. In fact, this will mark his eighth \u201cbeardiversary\u201d, a milestone that he celebrates annually with a themed party at his home. The yearly shindig is an open invitation to all his friends, bearded or not, to celebrate another year of being part of the facial-hair fraternity.<\/p>\n But unlike the Gentlemen of Orange County, which strictly prohibits women from attending beardly functions, the Advocates foster a more family-friendly atmosphere. Girlfriends, wives and even children are part of their bewhiskered crew, sometimes even dawning the most impressive beards.<\/p>\n![\"Beard](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Beard_07.jpg\")
They now meet the last Thursday of every month at Beachwood BBQ<\/a>, where they revel in beers and beards, something that one member joked is the intersecting point of the venn diagram of their group\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n![\"Beard](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Beard_08.jpg\")
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![\"Beard](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Beard_06.jpg\")
The newest member of the Advocates, Nathan Rosales, sat around the conversation pit outside Beachwood with his wife and child. He discovered the club after he decided to get serious about his own facial hair. He\u2019d originally posted an inquiry to join the Los Angeles club but received a more expedient response from the Whiskerinas that run the Long Beach club.<\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Screen_Shot_2014-09-11_at_2.36.23_PM.png\")
They don\u2019t actively recruit, but there is the casual public acknowledgements doled out by one bearded man to the next. Woody described it as a sort of awkward dance, almost a Fight Club-type silence where both men know their part of the bearded fraternity but don\u2019t want to be the first to broach the topic. As an employee at a bank (and a cartoonist [picture left]), it\u2019s not uncommon for Woody to have encounters with other beard toting and mustachioed men, which usually ends with a kind of a tip of the hat to their well-manicured masterpieces.<\/p>\n