Four-time world champion targets Austria’s beard title

Norbert Topf from Lilienfeld is the reigning European beard champion and has won four world titles, ORF reported. He now plans to compete in the freestyle full-beard category at Austria’s national beard championship in Leogang, Salzburg, on September 19.

Topf has worn a beard since his youth, but said he never imagined that a jury would judge it. Friends persuaded him to enter the 2013 world championship in Stuttgart, Germany, where he immediately finished second.

“Second place, that can’t be enough,” Topf recalled. The result sparked his determination to win. Beard competitions are judged by expert panels on appearance and execution, with categories including the Dali moustache, musketeer beard, Fu Manchu beard, imperial sideburns and Garibaldi full beard.

Topf’s favourite category is freestyle chin beard. He has won open championships in Switzerland, France, Hungary, Italy, Germany and Great Britain.

In 2023, he was named “world champion of world champions”. The jury selected his beard as the most beautiful among the 24 world champions crowned that year. “That is the trophy I am most proud of,” he said.

The competitions offer little prize money, while travel makes his hobby expensive. Topf said he was hoping a sponsor might eventually help cover the cost of the large quantities of hair spray he uses.

He styles the beard himself because professional stylists are too expensive. Preparing his world championship beard took four hours. The moustache alone was curled three times, and the finished beard had 16 curls.

His wife, Helga, accompanies him to competitions and said she was proud of him but also curious to see what he would look like without a beard. Topf has no plans to find out. He once shaved it off completely, looked in the mirror and immediately began growing it again.