Mr Bearded Man Festival shows hairy men are back in fashion

Описание: (12 Apr 2019) LEADIN
The most stylish and longest beards have been shown off at an event in Yekaterinburg.
Mr Bearded Man aims to prove that facial hair is now both fashionable and a source of pride.
STORYLINE:
Peter the Great was known for forcing Russian men to shave off their beards and for bringing European fashion to Russia.
But these days Russian men are keen to go back to their traditional roots and bring the beard back !
Showing off some of the longest and most stylish beards, scores of men have gathered for the Mr Bearded Man Festival in Yekaterinburg.
Participants competed in three categories:
First 'Hollywood Beard', for the most stylish and well-groomed beard, second 'Musketeer of the 21st century' for the best moustache and thirdly 'The Dream of Peter the Great' for the most remarkable beard of the evening.
Festival organiser Rollan Samsonov, says: "I generally popularise wearing beards, because this is our true Russian culture."
A jury assesses the participants according to two main criteria: the overall image of the participant and "technical performance", which includes geometry, flatness, texture, volume, shine of the beard and moustache.
Jury member Natalia Leonova confesses that she previously didn't like men with beards, she "thought that a beard is ugly and prickly".
"But it turns out that it's a whole art to look after a beard, to wear a beard, to present it, to wear a specific image and look beautiful," she adds.
Some prepared for the contest very carefully: the winner of the nomination The Dream of Peter the Great, Anatoly Karmanov, won over the jury with his image of a Russian peasant in a shirt with a rich beard.
Karmanov also believes that beards are part of a true Slavic nature. "Beard is life for me", he says.
Different beards grow at different paces. According to participants, the most difficult part of growing a beard is to live through the first stage.
Samsonov explains that "the most important thing is to survive the moment when you turn into such a kind of homeless person, you know, when the beard grows in scatters in different directions, and you are tempted to shave it off."
"It is unusual, you see that your image is completely different from what you expected, you have to endure this moment, live through it, grow your beard, then you can go to a good barber, a master who will shape it, and everything will be great."
Beards started to become more popular in Russia around five years ago.
This has also increased the culture of barbershops into the country which was non-existent during Soviet times.

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