This round of my beard interview series is an extra special one.  This gentleman has been interviewed by and mentioned in major media outlets like Vice Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle.  He also wrote a guest article for ESPN.com.  Below you are going to read my interview with beard royalty – The King of Beards – Jack Passion.

For those of you who haven’t heard of Jack Passion, the first thing you should know is that he is the reigning champion of the Full Natural category at the World Beard and Moustache Championships.  And for those of you that haven’t heard of the WBMC, you can read about it at the offical website.  Very briefly, it’s a beard and moustache contest held every two years in a different host country.  It’s like the Olympics for beards… and Jack Passion is a two-time champion in his “event,” winning in 2007 and 2009.

The second thing you should know about Mr. Passion is that he has published a book entitled The Facial Hair Handbook, and if any man is qualified to write a handbook for facial hair, it is he.

Onward, intrepid beard fans!  To the interview!

The Beard Coach: Let’s start with a two-part question.  When did you decide to grow an extreme beard and when did you realize that you and your beard could attain a certain level of fame?

Jack Passion: I started growing facial hair early, and big sideburns were my style for my formative years.  Growing up, facial hair was definitely part of my identity.  I actually began growing a beard with the intention of shaving/grooming it into another design, but the beard came in great, so I went with it. It wasn’t until I went to Berlin for the 2005 World Championships that I realized facial hair was something I should take seriously.  Since then, it’s become my day job, and I love my job.

TBC: I would love your job too!  I’d say Beard Ambassador is many a bearded man’s dream job…  Tell us more about the World Beard and Moustache Championships.  How did the feeling of winning your first championship compare to your second win?

JP: Both were, and still are, of equal standing.  I have the most beautiful beard in the world, which I learned in Brighton, and confirmed in Anchorage.  It feels really good.

TBC: Do you plan to defend your title in 2011?

JP: I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I would love to make the trip to Norway…  We’ll see how it pans out.  Are you going to make it?

TBC: If I could scrounge up enough money, I would love to go for the camaraderie, but I doubt I’d compete… certainly not in the Natural category.  On the topic of competition, do you have any beard rivals at the WBMC?

JP: I love to win, but I treat beard competitions more like facial hair appreciation conventions than I do all out war.  My name is Passion; I’ve got nothing but love!   For beards, competition, my bearded brothers, and travel…  However, politics and misunderstandings have definitely left me with a few rivals.  It’s truly sad that even with something as fun and lighthearted like a beard competition, people can get upset and act like children.  That said, I offer no apologies for my successes, nor should anyone else for theirs.

TBC: Bold words from a boldly bearded man.  How do you feel about your category at the WBMC, the Full Natural? Some would argue that it is the purest category and thus the most important.  What’s your take?

JP: I feel like it’s definitely a beard contest with Full Natural.  With the styled categories, you’re accepting an award for the work of a stylist.  Furthermore, I feel like those outlandish designs just perpetuate the unfair stereotypes that beards are for weirdos and freaks.  I’m all about well-groomed, healthy beards, and Full Natural celebrates big healthy beards!  I’m not going to be the one to say any category is more important than any others, but Natural Full Beard is always the biggest category (and therefore the most competitive), and it is “pure” in the sense that it’s just you and your beard.  It definitely resonates with most of the reasons I wear a beard.

TBC: Moving on from the championships… you have your own damn page on Wikipedia.  How does that feel?

JP: It feels great!  If I didn’t love the attention, I would just shave my beard off!

TBC: Yes, I think we all enjoy the attention a fine beard attracts.  And that is one attention-getting red beard, my friend. What’s your ancestry like?  Any other bearded men?

JP: I wrote an addendum in my book about my personal journey and experiences with facial hair, so I won’t ramble the story here, but there is some extreme red facial hair in my ancestry that I never met, only hear about.  Additionally, I’ve never seen my father without a mustache.  That’s the way it should be.

TBC: Without giving away too much of the material from your book The Facial Hair Handbook, talk about the level of care that goes into your luxurious beard.

JP: That’s definitely one of the reasons one would want to pick up the book.  Beard care extends far beyond application of product, or daily grooming routines.  The book has five “laws” of facial hair, one of which being that beard care is a defensive game.  Approach, mind state, diet, exercise…  All of these are important to good beard care.  Thanks for calling it luxurious!  And that’s a GREAT point.  Men, treat your beard like a fine fur.

I spend a great deal of time on my beard, as should any man with facial hair.  The idea that a beard is a sign of laziness can only have been started by someone who never had a beard!

TBC: Very true.  Or at least someone who has never worked toward a longer beard style.  For guys that are interested in growing a beard, there’s a lot of free beard care info floating around out there.  What sets The Facial Hair Handbook apart?

JP: I’ve been doing this full-time for a while now, and even with all the advice available for free on the Internet, we’ve still got a lot of bad beards, itchy beards, and men quitting their facial hair experiments and returning to shaving.  My book recognizes the efforts we’ve made so far as a community of men who wear and promote personal style that includes facial hair, but it provides the necessary focus and voice that men have been missing.

Part motivational speech, part philosophical treatise, and part how-to guide, the thing I’m most proud about The Facial Hair Handbook is that it’s truly informational while still being fun and easy to read.  Any man can read this book, but like you, I really focus on guys who have been shaving and know in their hearts they should have hair on their face.  When they read the Facial Hair Handbook, they’ll have the knowledge to grow good facial hair and groom it such that it takes them up a notch style-wise.

I know facial hair, and over the last few years, I’ve come to know a lot about shaving as well.  My research and my accomplishments are proven; just look at my face!

TBC: It really leaves no doubt about your expertise.  So, obviously, you’ve already accomplished a lot in the beard realm.  Any world record aspirations?

JP: None actually, and c’mon, Hans Langseth set the bar REALLY high!

TBC: Or really low for that matter… Lastly, I like to ask everyone a general set of questions.  It’s entertaining to see the various views of people in the beard world. First, what is your take on the state of the beard today?

JP: This is one of the catalyzing reasons behind authoring the book:  The beard is at a critical point in history.  A lot of people are claiming that beards have made a comeback, but we’re not quite there.  The last 100 years have been an awful, media-induced, facial hair failure.  But the beard grows back, in all of us.  That’s a sign, and I think efforts like yours and mine are a huge step in the right direction!

TBC: Name your 3 favorite bearded people.

JP: All three spots would be filled with my bearded friends.  It’s great when famous people and historical figures have beards, but for me, knowing that I have friends that have the balls to be their own man is just so clutch.

TBC: Name the top 3 people you wish had a beard.

JP: 1.  President Obama.  A clean, close, well-groomed beard on the president would do wonders for the bearded climate.  I side with the Beard Coach on this one!!!  (coach’s note – go sign the petition!)

2.     Brad Pitt.  He has had great beards in the past, and continues to experiment with facial hair.  One thing about Pitt’s beards is that they’re always well-groomed such that you don’t even think “Oh my God, look at his beard!” you still just think, “There’s a handsome man doing well in the world.”  Same for George Clooney, Spencer Pratt, and almost any NHL player.  Both these guys can grow such great beards, it’s just a shame that they don’t always wear them.  Same for all men:  If you got it, flaunt it!

3.  Every man who wants to grow one!

TBC: Why do you think people enjoy beards?

JP: Beards are honest and authentic.  They set us apart, just like markings on animals.  The time required to grow one precludes it from ever being a gimmick, but it definitely becomes a fun conversation piece.  It’s part of becoming a man, a ritualistic passage once revered, now oft ignored.  Why do people enjoy boobs?  I think people enjoy beards for many of the same or similar reasons.

TBC: Much of my site is devoted to beard-growing motivation. What is your best advice for guys who are currently growing a beard?

JP: Get my book.  Shameless plug, or killer advice?  I wrote my book for the legions of men who want to grow and wear facial hair but don’t know how to, or end up shaving when a girlfriend or boss tells them to shave, or give in when it starts to itch.  Facial hair used to be a way of life, but as a culture, we’ve collectively “forgotten” the good techniques, if you will.  Remind yourself what it means to look like a man with The Facial Hair Handbook.  I promise it will change your life as a man, with or without facial hair.

I should note that we’re doing a promotion for Movember.  (Even though it’s for mustaches, it’s still a great cause).  Any Facial Hair Handbook you buy donates $1 to Movember!

TBC: Well, that wraps up the interview.  Huge thanks to Jack Passion for contributing his thoughts and story to The Beard Coach.  It’s cool to see how closely our attitudes toward beardedness and our methods for promoting it align.  If his beard doesn’t inspire you, then I’m afraid you have completely lost touch with your inner man.

If I were looking for help growing a beard, there are two things I would do immediately.  Buy the World Beard Champion’s Facial Hair Handbook and sign up for the motivational beard growing e-course right here at The Beard Coach.  Just enter your info below and get growing!

The next installment in my series of interviews with other Internet-using beard-loving people is with Michael from the popular site Beard Revue. His site is just bristling with beard goodness.  First Thursday Beard Art is a highlight as well as some quite indisputable beard ratings.

The Beard Coach: What was your inspiration for diving into the world of beard blogging?

Michael: Beard Revue is the result of a convergence of three main interests: my unflagging admiration for beards, snobby indie hipster music and social media. My unflagging admiration for beards is self-explanatory.

The hipster music bit comes from my love of the assumed authority with which Pitchfork approaches its reporting and album reviews. Pitchfork is often divisive—a lot of folks hate their reviews. But I think they’re witty, and often way to serious about themselves for me not to laugh. (They recently rated every Beatle album on their arbitrary 0.0–10.0 scale. Was that necessary? No. Was it informative, amusing and incredibly pretentious? Yes.) And my interests in social media stems from my friend Joshua’s challenge to maintain a blog longer than three months. I did, and now it’s popular.

TBC: From what I can tell, Beard Revue is a pretty darn popular beard site.  What kind of traffic are you getting?

Michael: Find out for yourself at alexa.com.  (Editor’s note: Beard Revue has an Alexa rank of 735,874 as of today.)

TBC: Has Beard Revue panned out the way you had planned it?  Or has the road taken some unforeseen twists?

Michael: No. It’s become more popular than I initially thought and the format has changed as my interests and goals have changed. In fact, I’ve recently partnered with a crack team of developers to see how Beard Revue can accommodate more user generated content. I can’t really say more than that, though.

TBC: Your beard poster is fantastic! Any other handcrafted beard art lying around the house?

Michael: Thanks!  Probably the most rewarding thing from Beard Revue is the community of artists to whom I’ve been exposed. I love all the little things that beards and moustaches inspire (thus, First Thursday Beard Art). I love that tattoo trend—the one where you get a ’stache tat on the side of your index finger and hold it up over your lip. Sometimes it’s just some one with a Sharpie and not a tattoo. It’s benign and it makes me smile every time I see a photo of one.

And so then there’s everything else. I’m a print designer by trade. So I have beard posters, prints and even Jack Passion’s first book in my collection of all things beardy. And the library affords me the opportunity to bone up on some beardage from time to time. Who knew there was so much beardstuff out there?

TBC: What is your take on the state of the beard today?

Michael: Save for the Victorian era, same as it’s always been. The beard is for the fringes of society. The artists, intellectuals, vagrants and anyone who’s willing to wear the badge of being different. Recession and playoff beards are fleeting moments of solidarity, but don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

TBC: Name your 3 favorite bearded people.

Michael: Abbey Road and All Things Must Pass era George Harrison takes the cake. I just saw Kyp Malone last week, so I’ll say him. And my father, of course.

TBC: Name the top 3 people you wish had a beard.

Michael: James Beard (that guy totally wasted his name). I’d love to see Barack Obama don a beard like Malone’s. And anyone I’ve ever met who said they would grow a beard but just weren’t capable of growing one.

TBC: Why do you think people enjoy beards?

Michael: They serve such a wide range of functions for the wearer and the viewer, it’d be difficult to pinpoint one thing. That little bit of rugged panache can go a long way. I like that they’re natural. Since they’re both manifestations of our mature states, this might be an apt analogy:

Beard : Naked Face :: Natural Breasts : Implants

TBC: Please briefly tell your favorite beard-related story.

Michael: People do some funny things for facial hair. I had a wicked awesome handlebar moustache for Moustache May which garnered a lot of attention. Some one photographed me for their scavenger hunt, a gentleman almost got hit by a car crossing the street just to say “hi, nice moustache” and BT Livermore gave me a complementary tin of Man’s Face Stuff moustache wax. My favorite compliment was when a sweet young lass called me a walking sex toy.

TBC: Much of my site is devoted to beard-growing motivation. What is your best advice for guys who are currently growing a beard?

Michael: Have fun with it.

When I started The Beard Coach a couple months ago, I didn’t realize the extent of the existing beard website community.  There are a lot of cool people making equally cool beard sites!  As a newcomer to the scene, I could think of no better way to get to know the community than by interviewing the people behind the sites I think are great.

The first person kind enough to subject themselves to the hard-hitting, in-depth reporting I have absolutely no formal training to provide was Erin Dollar from I Made You A Beard.  Visit her site and you will soon find that she will indeed make you a beard.  And it will be awesome.

Alright, on to the interview!

The Beard Coach: I see that you’ve been beard blogging for about a year now.  How long have you been making beards?

Erin: I’ve been making beards for about 2 ½  years now. It all started one summer day right before I graduated from college. I should have been working on my final projects and thesis, but my brain was starting to crack from the stress, so I started working on a “just for fun” project. Who knew this distraction would end up being something I would be working on for so long!?

TBC: Describe the inspiration behind the first beard you made.

Erin: I think there were a lot of things influencing that first beard. A guy I knew was traveling to Germany for the World Beard and Moustache Championships, which I thought was amazing. I think the actual design of the beard was based more on drawings and illustrations I had been looking at lately, but I look back and wonder if I wasn’t trying to level the playing field a little bit, so maybe women could compete in Germany

TBC: What did it feel like to put on that first beard?

Erin: Hilarious. The first beard took hours and hours to sew, so it was a pretty gratifying.

TBC: Obviously you enjoy homemade beards and beard drawings.  What about the real deal?

Erin: Honestly, I love seeing beards in the real world, but I’ve never dated a guy with a full bushy beard.  This isn’t to say that I don’t find them fascinating, I really have a lot of respect for guys who put  effort into their beard, it can look really cool. But yeah, as much as I joke about it, I’m glad I don’t have a real one.

TBC: What is your take on the state of the beard today?

Erin: There are too many lazy beard growers out there. Beards have the potential to be really awesome… or super gross. Don’t believe any lady who says that the first thing she sees on a guy is his eyes; she’s looking at your half-assed goatee and wondering why she bothered to get out of bed this morning.

TBC: Name your 3 favorite bearded people.

Erin: Edward Gorey, Charles Darwin, and Kyp Malone. Frida Kahlo comes in fourth with her most excellent moustache.

TBC: Name the top 3 people you wish had a beard.

Erin: Barack Obama (so the Lincoln metaphors could REALLY take hold), Dave Eggers (sometimes he has this little soul patch thing that really bugs me), and Al Gore (am I the only one who thought he looked better with a beard?)

TBC: Why do you think people enjoy beards?

Erin: I think it depends. Extra warmth in the winter? Kitsch value? Shaving sucks? I’m not sure what the ultimate draw is, but I think when people see a properly maintained and groomed beard, it just looks… right.

TBC: Please briefly tell your favorite beard-related story.

I don’t know if I have a favorite, but seeing guys with long beards on bicycles is possibly the greatest thing ever. The wind pushes the beard back over the shoulders, and it just looks magical.

TBC: Much of my site is devoted to beard-growing motivation.  What is your best advice for guys who are currently growing a beard?

Erin: The trick seems to be getting through the awkward itchy/ugly period when nothing is really growing in quite right. I’d advice novice beard growers to take a solo vacation at this point, so you can hang out and wait for your beard to look top notch, all while sipping drinks by the beach. When you return, everyone will be shocked by your perfectly grown-in beard, not to mention your new tan.

TBC: Erin, thanks for the insight into the mind behind I Made You A Beard.  Best bearded wishes to you!

The Beard Coach: Thanks so much for taking the time to be here.  You are an icon.

Kenny Rogers’ Beard: Thank you for having me.  I really like what you’re doing with the website.

TBC: Wow, thanks.  That means a lot.  So let’s cut to the chase… I’ve been a fan since back in the early eighties.  The Gambler, Islands In The Stream… you’ve been there the whole time.  As far as I’m aware, you’ve always been white.  Is that true?

KRB: You know, that’s actually not true.  I was dark brown in my youth.  I’ve just been famous for a long time, and you’re a bit too young to remember the early days.

TBC: I guess that’s true.  But I scoured the Internet looking for a picture of you in a non-white state and I couldn’t find one.

KRB: Well I’ve been around a lot longer than the Internet.

TBC: That’s a good point, Kenny Rogers’ Beard.  Speaking of the Internet, what do you think of menwholooklikekennyrogers.com?

KRB: I think it’s great!  I like to log on every now and then and see who’s paying homage to me, the face I grow on, and my good friend Kenny Rogers’ Hairstyle.  I mean, it’s proof that we all have teamed up for years to create a classic look.

TBC: I wholeheartedly agree.  For years, you were part of a classic style that appealed to many men, but I’d like to bring up a tougher subject if that’s okay.

KRB: Go ahead.

TBC: Unfortunately, in recent years Kenny has undergone several obvious cosmetic surgeries and as a result, he has become the butt of many jokes.  He has even gone so far as to carve you into a goatee from your former full-bodied self.  What has this done to you emotionally?

KRB: (long silence) It’s tough, you know?  I mean, I thought we were looking pretty good, aging gracefully, and then, BAM, I’m under the knife and under the razor and frankly, it stinks.  It makes me feel so helpless.  Kenny and I were so tight for so long, and now it’s like I don’t even know him anymore.

TBC: So what do you do?

KRB: That’s the thing… there’s nothing I can do.  I mean, I’m a beard.

TBC: A beard makes a man look so powerful, but the beard itself is so powerless.  That’s some insight, my friend.  But let’s bring things back to the positive side.  You’re still out there performing.  People are still raging fans.  What’s in store for you?  Retirement soon?

KRB: I’m blessed to have been partnered with a legendary vocal artist, and we’ve achieved a level of success and recognition that most people and their beards never come close to achieving.  Performing is getting pretty stressful on me especially with the changes we just discussed.  But Kenny’s a workaholic.  I’d love to just kick back in the woods of East Texas and reflect, but I doubt I’ll be able to convince Kenny that he might enjoy that as well.  So I guess we’ll just keep on keeping on.

TBC: As a fan I have to admit that’s good to hear.  We’d hate for you to drop out of the spotlight.  Thanks again for sitting down with us today.  It’s been a real treat.

KRB: It’s been a pleasure.

TBC: Say hello to Kenny for me, if you would.

KRB: Of course.