Think you have a great beard and/or moustache?  Prove it!

My new friends at Misprint Magazine are hosting their fourth annual beard contest at The Mohawk in Austin, TX, on February 19, 2010.

I have been assured by the creators of Misprint that this thing has a huge awesomeness factor. Be forewarned, it is by no means a serious beard competition…. more like a reason to get together, have some drinks, hear some music, and be astounded by how many amazing beards there are out there.

I have a feeling this picture sums up the night pretty well.

Triumphant rejoicing? Check. PBR? Check. DJ with fuzzy animal ears? Mega-Check.

If you’ll have a beard by the 19th and can get to Austin by any means possible, you need to do this.

Let me extend a belated wish for happiness in 2010, dear beard aficionado. I’ve just wrapped up a nice visit back home for the holidays, and I am truly excited for what the first full calendar year of existence holds for The Beard Coach. Let the call to beardedness ring far and wide!

Let me guess your main new year’s resolution… to grow an amazifying beard of glory! I know that I’m right because I’ve already received a couple emails from other readers expressing their excitement for their beard-to-be.

If you’re on the fence about whether you should make 2010 a beard year, let me give you a friendly, yet forceful, shove to the “yes” side. First reason for your beard: it’s winter and it somehow seems okay to mainstream society to grow a beard during this season. Second reason for your beard: you’re bored of the same old baby-faced look. Third reason for your beard: the twenty-teens may just come to be known as the decade that the beard officially came back. You want to be a pioneer on that frontier, don’t you?

Just go ahead and start my original coaching course right now using the sign up form at the bottom of this very page.  By the end of the year, you’ll be as bearded as Father Time!

Hooray for social media!

If you are a Facebook fan like millions of other people in the world (me included), you need to log in right now and express your love for the beard by becoming a fan of The Beard Coach.  I think it will be a great way to keep in touch with you and share some brief anecdotes and photos that I wouldn’t feel compelled to share here.  I’ve already uploaded some pictures of me and my beard (some folks have complained about a lack of such things here).  Don’t forget to post a link to this site on your wall to show some love…

Go ahead and click the image above to be whisked away to the Official Beard Coach Facebook Page!

Whaaaa?!?!?  The sexiest man alive has a beard?

Believe it!

Johnny Depp has been sporting that closely-trimmed musketeer for years now… and apparently the ladies are diggin’ it.  I think Johnny is a great beard ambassador, and it’s not just because he and the Beard Coach are both Kentucky-born gentlemen.  The man is famous for doing his own thing, popularity be damned, and guess what… it’s only made him more popular.  Why more men aren’t following his lead, I can’t presume to know.  Take this to heart, boys… you can be yourself, grow your beard, and get the girl.

Another thing that stands out to me is this.  Johnny Depp’s beard isn’t that impressive.  If you look closely, it’s kind of patchy. His moustache doesn’t connect to his goatee.   Men who are afraid to grow out a less-than-perfect beard take note.  You can grow your beard and look good after all.  Just follow Johnny’s lead.  I’d bet dollars to dimes that the rest of his beard looks even more patchy, and that’s why he has chosen to wear the musketeer style.  However, he had the wisdom to grow it where it wants to grow, and you should too.  He said, “It’s okay that I can’t grow a full beard.  I’ll grow what I can and be confident in the results.”

And that’s the real lesson here, guys.  You can do whatever the hell you want to with your face as long as you do it with confience.  That’s what is sexy to women.  If you keep your confidence level bigger than your beard… if you wear that thing with pride and approach a woman knowing that she’s going to dig your originality, I guarantee that you will find yourself a good woman.  It may not happen on the first, second, or even tenth woman you talk to, but if you keep confidence in the good person that you are, you will eventually strike gold.  Hell, you may even win over the world.  Just ask Johnny Depp.

After finishing this month’s Outside magazine article on David de Rothschild, I felt compelled to share his story with you, my dear Beard Coach friends.  I hope the brief bio below motivates you to grow the best beard you can, broaden your horizons, and take action for a cause you feel passionately about.

If you’ve read The Beard Manifesto, you know I am obsessed with the idea of bringing the Renaissance man back, updated for the 21st century. A modern Renaissance man has to be a well-rounded generalist like his predecessor; yet, his interests must lie not in the ancient world of Latin translation and Aristotle, but rather in how to better the current world situation. And of course, he must do it all with a handsome beard.

First, let me present a bit of background information on David de Rothschild to get you up to speed.  He is the youngest of three children born into the well-known and incredibly rich Rothschild banking family of England.  As a result of his wealthy British upbringing, he became an accomplished horseman by age fourteen.  He attended university at Oxford Brookes (not The Oxford, but hey…) and graduated with honors with dual degree in Political Science and Information Systems.  After graduation, he proceeded to earn an advanced diploma in Natural Medicine from the College of Naturopathic Medicine in London.  After this graduation, he went on to try out a career in music merchandising.  Not only did he take off in this unlikely direction, he also purchased an organic farm in New Zealand in 2001.

Let’s pause a moment and chalk up the titles this generalist can claim.

• Equestrian
• Political Scientist
• Information Systems Specialist
• Natural Healer
• Merchandiser
• Farmer

In 2005, David discovered his true calling, founding his environmental organization Adventure Ecology.  The main focus of this organization is to raise awareness of global environmental issues through adventure expeditions.  In 2006, he crossed from Russia to Canada through the Arctic to raise awareness about the fragility of the Arctic climate.  Because he previously traversed Antarctica on a personal expedition, he became one of only 42 people ever to reach both the north and south poles.  In 2007, he led a trip to Ecuador to document the damage that international oil companies are causing to that country’s tropical ecosystem.

His current project is the Plastiki, a sailboat made of used plastic bottles and other recycled plastics.  David plans to sail this plastic boat from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia, via the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area estimated to be twice the size of Texas in which bits of plastic suspended in the water outnumber plankton by a ratio of six to one.  Not only is this project raising awareness of the huge problem of plastic waste, but it is also offering a possible partial solution.  His boat design team is making use of a new material abbreviated srPET.  It has the properties of fiberglass, but is made of recycled plastic.  If the material holds up to this rigorous field test, it could take the place of many rotomolded plastics, thus reducing the introduction of new plastics into an already overwhelming abundance.

So now we can also chalk up the following titles David can claim.

• Adventurer
• Environmental Activist

As you can see, David de Rothschild is an extremely well-rounded man with a passion for improving the world around him.  In interviews, he comes off as incredibly well-spoken, but not overly well-heeled, and as you can see in his photo, he wears a beard quite well indeed.  In the quest to increase the number of bearded Renaissance men in today’s society, David serves as an iconic example.  Although we may come from much more modest means, we can all take his story as an inspiration to broaden our knowledge base as much as we can in our respective areas of interest and use that knowledge for the good of our world.