Winners by a whisker

In the world of extreme beard sculpting, all you need is a good set of mini curlers, a generous dollop of wax and plenty of bravado... and the results can be fan-tash-tic.
Welcome to the World Beard and Moustache Championship, held this year in Trondheim, Norway.
But this time's runaway winner wooed judges with a creation that gave him what can only be described as an un-hair advantage.

German hairdresser Elmar Weisser,47, beat 160 hopefuls after transforming his whiskers into a Norwegian flag and a moose.
 He started at 7am, and only just finished in time with the help of his sister.

He told the AFP news agency: 'When my beard isn't styled, it goes down to my waist. It is sort of folded up.'
The competition veteran has won before. In 2005 he scooped the prize in Berlin with his hairy recreation of the Brandenburg Gate.

And two years later he took it a step further with a bristly interpretation of London's Tower Bridge.
He didn't compete in 2009's event in Alaska.
The athletes are split into six categories: natural, English, Dali, Hungarian, imperial - and freestyle.

The event, which began in 1995, has been lauded by its organisers as 'the premier event in the international sport of bearding'.
Outside the beard stakes, the 14 categories include natural goatee, sideburns freestyle, Hungarian moustache and imperial partial beard.
The partial beard category is also divided into natural, Chinese, Imperial, Musketeer, sideburns, and freestyle categories.




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