Slideshow | Beard and Moustache Contest<\/a>]<\/p>\nThe Naughty or Nice party started three years ago as a replacement for the JAHC\u2019s annual mini golf event. The council added the Beard and Moustache contest to the holiday party last year as part of an effort to draw young people into Juneau\u2019s art scene, said JAHC board president Eric Scott.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things we realized we weren\u2019t getting as much as an organization was fundraisers that targeted a younger demographic,\u201d Scott said. \u201cOne thing we know is that as Alaskans, we value our facial hair, so it\u2019s a way to celebrate something that\u2019s sort of uniquely Alaskan in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alaska\u2019s claim as a hotbed of facial hair was a popular topic amongst spectators and contestants. Whether Alaskans grow them as mosquito protectors in the summer, or \u201clong johns for your face\u201d in the winter, consensus was that beards are beautiful \u2014 and hipsters be damned \u2014 Alaskans do them best.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a phenomenon down South to look more natural,\u201d said Jeannette St. George, who competed in the full beard category. \u201cI think it makes people look better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Gemmell sported by far the longest and oldest beard. His dark, Rasputin-esque beard is at least a foot long, he estimated, and two-and-a-half years old. He thinks facial hair\u2019s resurgent popularity is just another case of those from Outside stealing Alaskan style.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone just wants to be Alaskan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gemmell didn\u2019t have a name for his beard, but Scott, noticing its salt and pepper vigor, correctly described it as a \u201cFidel Castro\u201d look. In an upset victory, Gemmell didn\u2019t win the full beard category. Instead that honor went to Jeff Boehm, whose distinguished, bushy gray beard looked like it could have sprouted wings and carried him to Valhalla. Boehm has been growing his beard for about 10 months. Never trimming, he lets it grow as \u201cnaturally as he possibly can.\u201d He does, however, shampoo and condition daily.<\/p>\n
In his previous work as a machinist in a power plant, Boehm couldn\u2019t wear a beard. He\u2019s let it go since moving to Juneau, where he says beards are more accepted. Though he agrees facial hair has made a comeback, he\u2019s quick to point out it still carries a certain stereotype.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still kind of a stigma out there that people with a beard or moustache might be a little on the shady side, a little untrustworthy,\u201d said Boehm, founder and advocate of the Beard and Moustache Discrimination Society, an organization he recently made up. \u201cI just got run out of a purse store in Seattle. I told the guy, \u2018I could buy your store, man.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Beards may be back in style, but Parish reminded the audience that, as unconventional as President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy has been, he\u2019ll keep executive tradition in at least one manner: It\u2019s been over a hundred years since a U.S. president has worn a beard.<\/p>\n
Winner of the moustache category, Sean Otness, rocked a musketeer look with long tails curling from the corners of his mouth and a soul patch adorning his lower lip. Otness thanked his ex-girlfriend for inspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe always hated the moustache, so when we broke up in June, I grew it out for her,\u201d Otness said.<\/p>\n
Jay Sparklesnaps (Sparklesnaps preferred to be referenced by his elf name) won the partial beard category with his all-natural \u201clazy\u201d goatee.<\/p>\n
Upcoming for the JAHC is its Holiday Pops Concert on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 17-18. Friday\u2019s performance takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the University of Alaska Southeast Egan Library. The concert changes venues for Saturday\u2019s performance, which takes place at the JACC at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday\u2019s LumberJACC Beard and Moustache Contest \u2014 the annual competition pitting Juneau\u2019s burliest beards and most magnificent moustaches against one another \u2014 can only be described as a clash between a beauty pageant and a ZZ Top concert. In other words, it\u2019s a charged atmosphere. People just have strong feelings about facial hair. \u201cThe saying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":2330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2329"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}