PHOTOS: Beard and Mustache World Championships 2015

Bearded competitors from all over the world have converged on the Austrian village of Leogang for this year’s annual Beard and Mustache World Championships. Getty Images photographer Jan Hetfleisch was there to capture the hirsute hysteria.

More than 300 competitors from 20 countries across the globe have traveled in teams and converged on the picturesque village of Leogang, in the Austrian state of Salzburg, to compete in 16 different categories in three groups: moustache, partial beard and full beard.

Modern competitive bearding took off back in 1990 with an event organized and hosted by the First Höfener Beard Club in its hometown Höfen/Enz, Germany, a small village in the Black Forest.

Contest categories include Garibaldi (wide and rounded at the bottom), Fu Manchu (moustache that starts at corners of mouth and grows downward past jawline) and Amish Beard (full beard, no moustache).