Bob Baker of Virginia spends 20 minutes a day styling his mustache. He’ll sleep with a cushion under his jaw at night to keep his whiskers in shape.
Bob Baker of Virginia spends 20 minutes a day styling his mustache. He’ll sleep with a cushion under his jaw at night to keep his whiskers in shape.
It all started as a dare.
In 2018, one of Bob Baker’s federal government coworkers challenged him to grow a beard for a year without clipping it.
ArrowRight “I was always growing a beard, then shaving it because my skin was itching,” Baker, who resides in Greene County, Virginia, explained. “She essentially challenged me not to shave it.” Baker not only accepted his coworker’s dare, but he also decided that if he was going to grow a beard, he would do it well. “I got some beard shampoo, oil, and balm, and by the end of the year in 2019, I had this really nice-looking beard,” he explained.
GC Photographs Ratajkowski posed with friend Ashley Graham in Marc Jacobs’ front row; other celebrities in attendance included Debi Mazar, Debbie Harry, Sofia Coppola, and Nick Hilton, while Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon was absent.
“It was maybe seven inches long – the longest one I’d ever had.” But there was one snag. Pam Baker, his wife, was not pleased. “She was continually saying, ‘OK, you’ve been going more than a year — when are you going to shave it off?’” Baker, a 49-year-old computer systems administrator and father of four, said. “I’d also grown a massive mustache, and the national mustache competition was just around the corner,” he explained.
He agreed with his wife to shave his beard but keep his massive mustache for the tournament.
He’d put so much effort into it and grown it so long, he wanted to see how far he could push it.
Advertisement Then, much to his surprise, in 2020, he earned first place in the handlebar mustache category. There was no turning back now. “I nearly fell out of my chair when they declared I was the winner,” he added.
“I made the decision right there to keep going with it.” He finished second in the handlebar category the following year, in 2021.
In November 2022, with over 200 contestants in various categories, he clinched first place once more by earning the top freestyle mustache. “Styling my mustache has become a hobby of mine,” he explained. “I’ve learned a lot since embarking on this trip four years ago.
