Jonas Bergkvist, who works as a programmer operating industrial machinery, was voted “best in show” by the audience for the second year in a row, as well as winning the 'natural beard' category.

 

The celebrations began with a 150-strong beard parade starting at Medborgarplats on Södermalm, the Stockholm island where the beardedness of Swedish men arguably reaches maximum intensity. 

 

“It's just to celebrate the beard, to show that beard is not a trend, but a lifestyle,” Jimmy Grönfoss, one of the captains of Bearded Villains, which organised and led the march, told Sweden's TT newswire at the start of the parade. 

 

“Just because you look big, tattooed and criminal does not mean that you aren’t a lovely Bamse Bear,” he added, referencing a popular Swedish cartoon character. “This is a lifestyle where one chooses to throw away that evil razor.” 

 

The celebrations in the Tele2Arena were arranged by Beardshop.se, which sells beard-grooming equipment to hipster Swedes, and sponsored by a plethora of grooming product brands. 

 

As well as the beard contest,there was also a barber battle, pitting Vancouver's Farzad Salhi, described in the flyer as “a legend in the international barber scene” against Sweden’s Dennis Liedberg, another famed sculptor of beards. 

 

Here is a photo taken earlier this year of Bergkvist's extraordinary appendage. 

 

 

Here's is a video of the Bearded vision's leading the parade: 

 

 

And here is footage from the competition: