As part social club and part portrait project, Bearduary finds itself situated on the Web somewhere between fast-growing public communities and powerful secret societies. The beard may not traditionally be a young man’s game, but for Brooklyn artists, Chris Rubino and Sean Donnelly, winning the game has never been the real point anyway.

Begun as a simple wager between two gentlemen over who could grow a better beard, Bearduary has since blossomed into a bastion of burliness, with its interactive site featuring member photos, video pieces, and a beardblog. Whether undergoing “masculine” makeovers on an upcoming Today Show appearance (Feb 26th) or dispensing wisdom on NPR, the pair isn’t scratching their chins over all the attention. psychoPEDIA caught up with the founders at the befitting bar, Harefield Road, to talk as men often do when alcohol abounds and the lighting is low, to hear about their thoughts on facial hair, females, and the fifties:

So what drink goes best with a beard?
CR: I’d have to say whiskey is the drink of choice, especially considering it’s the winter and at its heart, Bearduary is all about winter growth. I think it’s a subliminal thing wrapped up in design. I’m sure whiskey bottles have way more labels depicting men with beards.
SD: I have to go with bottled beer. Drafts just get too messy. The beer gets into your mustache and then runs done your chin. I saw an interview with the guy from ZZ Top…what’s his name?
CR: Billy Gibbons.
SD: Yeah, where he walks around New York all day going into bars. He orders all of his beers with a straw.

I’d say he’s a pretty reliable source. So how did Bearduary start?
CR: Originally, neither of us thought that we could grow a beard. Sean even said he would never grow a beard, ever.
SD: I didn’t think it was possible. I grew up with a father that shaved everyday. I mean, the man had quadruple bypass surgery and the next day he was in the bathroom shaving.

How long has it been going on?
SD: This is the fourth season, and it seems to get a little bit bigger every year.

Your beard?
SD: Well that! But the membership, too. We’ve got people from every walk of life now: doctors, bankers, designers, chefs, and even a few bums.

Literal homeless people?
CR: Probably more drunks, but anyone who wants to take a picture of his beard and send it in, we’ll put it up on our site.
SD: If you’ve got a whisker sticking out anywhere on your face and want to show it off…
CR: Even our logo says “Ab Absurdum” which is Latin for “to the point of absurdity” so we don’t take ourselves very seriously. We even have our first teenage member this year, though we joked that his parents lied to him about his age.

What’s been the ladies reaction?
CR: Pre-Bearduary, the general consensus was that women didn’t like the beard. But at our final event last year, at least half of the party was women. My theory is that back in the ‘50s, some guy with a beard started a rumor that women didn’t like beards, so he wouldn’t have any competition. Before that, beards were seen as noble. Presidents even had beards, and then things changed.
SD: You can see it in the advertising beginning just after WWII, all smooth skin. But every girl I show the website to now wants it to be either a dating site or something along the lines of “Hot or Not.”

Any theories on why women find the beard so attractive?
SD: These girls are either infatuated with their dads or they hate them. There’s no in between. No gray area. And at some point, they all cried when their dads shaved their beards.
CR: But just having a beard is no guarantee you’re going to get with these girls. You need to keep it looking nice. If it gets too long, it can definitely get to the point where you start to look mentally deranged.
SD: Absolutely. During the first season my girlfriend even threatened to break up with me unless I shaved off my beard.
CR: And you wound up keeping it for a few more months.
SD: [Laughing] We’re married now.

You mentioned the final event. What goes on there?
CR: Free Booze. All the fans and friends are able to meet the beards. Fake mustaches are handed out to all the females in attendance.
SD: We had beard portraits taken. Some people shave. Just a chance to celebrate the beard.

Any plans to take it any further?
SD: It would definitely be cooler if it was “about” something, and we could help people out in some way.
CR: We’re looking for sponsorship on some level, and then we’ll see where it goes from there.

Any advice for the beard novices out there?
SD: Give it some time. 2 months is definitely good. Also, if you want to grow a mustache, grow a full beard first, because nothing looks creepier than the early stages of just a ‘stache.
CR: Unless you ride dirt bikes for a living, in which case it’s fine.

Who gets Bearduary’s endorsement for President in 2008?
SD: Well, people claim that Hillary has the better beard, but…
CR: Definitely Obama 2008!

~ Scott J Lachut

Second and third photos by Louis Caldarola
Fourth, sixth, and eighth photos by Davi Russo