Yekaterinburg: Stylish, longest, unique and weird beards were shown off at an event in Russia's Yekaterinburg.
Mr Bearded Man festival aims to prove that facial hair is now both fashionable and a source of pride.
Russia's ruler Peter the Great was known for forcing Russian men to shave off their beards and bringing European fashion to Russia.
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Likewise, many Russians thought that beards were ugly but these days men are very much fascinated with beard and keen to grow it.
The participants gathered here competed in three categories - first, 'Hollywood Beard', for the most stylish and well-groomed beard, second ,'Musketeer of the 21st century' for the best moustache and thirdly, 'The Dream of Peter the Great' for the most remarkable beard of the evening.
Festival organiser Rollan Samsonov said, "I generally popularise wearing beards, because this is our true Russian culture."
A jury assesses the participants according to two main criteria - the overall image of the participant and "technical performance", which includes geometry, flatness, texture, volume, shine of the beard and moustache.
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"Beard is life for me," said one of the participant.
The participants say that its not easy to grow a beard as it grows in different paces and the most difficult part of growing a beard is to live through the first stage.
"The most important thing is to survive the moment when you turn into such a kind of homeless person, you know, when the beard grows in scatters in different directions, and you are tempted to shave it off," explains Anatoly Karmanov, a participant.
Beards were not that common in Russia, it started to become more popular in Russia around five years ago. After that barbershops have been mushrooming in Russia.
