Hair-Raising Event

WOOLLY WEEKEND SEEKS TO PUT CANCER ON LAM

Not everyone boasts the figure of a model. Not everyone can dunk a basketball. And not everyone can grow a bushy mane on the lower half of his face.

“It’s a matter of genetics,” said Fayetteville resident Jedidiah Brandon, who sports at least a foot of brown hair underneath his chin.

“Some are supermodels. Some are athletes. And some grow beards.”

During the past weekend in Eureka Springs, it was the latter type of man strutting the town’s winding streets. The Great Ozarkan Beard Off drew dozens of bearded wonders, some of them with their own personal cheering sections. Female judges spent hours stroking men’s beards to weigh their worth in a variety of categories, from natural growth to No Shave November-only growth to various freestyle competitions.

Men from at least eight states - and maybe as many as 11, according to organizer Hillary Fogerty - put money down as a token of faith in their whiskers.

They also stood to earn cash back: Winners in the various categories could take home as much as $500 and a Eureka Springs prize pack for having the best facial hair.

The real winner, however, would be men’s health. Following in the footsteps of Movember - which has grown from 30 participants in Melbourne, Australia, in 2003 to 4 million in 2013 - and No-Shave November - which started on Facebook in November 2009 with fewer than 50 participants - the Great Ozarkan Beard Off was intended to raise awareness of cancer risks faced by men.

It was at a concert by Eureka Springs wildmen/bluegrass outfi t Mountain Sprout that the idea for the festival struck Fogerty, who previously taught gender roles asan English professor at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo. She stopped what she was doing mid-concert and wrote out a basic proposal for the festivalwhile still at the show. She hooked a couple of sponsors the same night, then stopped progress for amonth. The idea of planning a festival on short notice seemed too daunting.

But like an unshaved beard, the concept continued to bristle in Fogerty’s mind, and so with even less time remaining, she and a group of board members pushed forward. The event tied itself to the Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Movember movement, which promotes growing facial hair during the month of November to draw attention to prostate and testicular cancer. Eureka Springs is a wedding town - only Las Vegas issues more wedding permits - and with so many events focused on the health of the brides or the couples, a male-focused event made sense, Fogerty said.

“I didn’t move to Eureka Springs to start a beard festival,” she said. Months later, she quite literally had dozens of beards on - and in - her hands.

In the event’s first year, Fogerty’s ambitions outgrew the reality of the contest. She has yet to tabulate the final expenses, but suspects she came up short on being able to donate this year. But the avenues for fundraising exist, and those should expand in future festival years, she believes. The festival charged contestants, sold T-shirts and pint glasses and had a dedicated group of sponsors, including many Eureka Springs barsand Mother’s, a brewery based in Springfi eld, Mo.

“I really wanted to do something that would have a regional impact,” Fogerty said.

By reaching out via social media to various beard and mustache clubs, Fogerty was able to increase thescope of the event’s draw. Her efforts brought over father-and-son duo Teddy and Jared Pendergraftfrom Tulsa, Okla. Teddy competed in the natural beard with styled mustache category; Jared in the full beard/natural category. For Jared Pendergraft, it was his fourth beard competition. What his facial hair lacked in length, it made up for in bushiness, with the beard hairs standing straight out several inches from his face like some cartoon creature getting electrocuted. A football helmet wouldn’t come down past his ears.

That kind of beard takes years of dedication, Pendergraft said. It also requires having a job that doesn’t mind his look. Having a significant other is also sometimes diff cult, and the wildness of Pendergraft’s beard took a dramatic increase after a serious relationship ended.

For Brandon, who will be featured in an upcoming 12-month beard calendar showcasing the faces and facial hair of Fayetteville-area residents, three factors are important. He’s about two years into growing out his beard, which means he’s dedicated. He also has cooperative jobs - he works as a bartender on Dickson Street and tours with a rock band. And, yes, he’s single.

“There are a lot of people who take this very seriously,” he said.

Life, Pages 6 on 12/04/2013

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