There are some things we have come to expect about the month of November: the leaves will change colors, there will always be a turkey on the Thanksgiving table and some poor sap will always be trampled in the quest for Black Friday doorbuster savings. But in recent years, we have added another tradition to that list: the fact that men will be hairier.

Part holiday, part testosterone-fueled competition, the goal of No Shave November is obvious and simple—men abstain from shaving for the month of November.

For some participants, tossing out the razor is inspired by what is often called Movember, an effort to raise awareness for men’s health issues. For others, it’s just about growing the gnarliest, most impressive facial hair possible.

But one dedicated local group of mustachioed men has been committed to growing their facial hair long and strong for quite some time before it was seasonally or socially popular.

The Austin Facial Hair Club started as little more than a fun way to waste time.

“The whole thing kind of started really out of kickball,” AFHC member Miletus Callahan-Barile said. “Me and a group of friends would play kickball every Sunday. It was kind of a really interesting, diverse group because it would be like someone would show up because they’d been invited by a friend, they wouldn’t know anyone and because of that love of kickball, we all just started hanging out real intensely.”

Many members of the kickball crew were also involved in Misprint Magazine, a local, independent ‘zine covering topics like music and the bar scene with quick wit. Misprint hosted many concerts and events around town before facial hair was thrown into the mix.

They had only been around for about a year when they decided to throw a beard and moustache competition at Rusty Spurs, complete with a ZZ Top cover band.

“It was so much fun that we did it again the next year,” Callahan-Barile said. “It never really went away.”

In fact, Misprint has now sponsored four beard and mustache championships, inspiring the group of seasoned competitors to expand their horizons.

They packed their bags in June and embarked on a road trip to Bend, Ore., to compete in the Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships. There, they met up with other facial hair aficionados from around the country and indulged in the three Bs—Beards, Beer and Bend.

But their experience in Oregon became more than just a fun road trip or simple meeting of like-follicled individuals when AFHC member Allen Demling took second place in the full beard competition. The strong showing proved that the Austin team had the muttonchops to succeed on a national level.

So where do you “grow” from there? The international level, of course.

Running for more than 20 years strong, the World Beard and Moustache Championships are a biennial showdown of the world’s most hardcore facial hair growers.

The 2011 competition will be held in May in Trondheim, Norway. The AFHC is currently doing all they can to raise enough funds to represent Austin at the competition.

“God, who wouldn’t want to go to a foreign country and meet people with all kinds of strange facial hair?” Callahan-Barile said.

From an Austin Duck Tour to a riverboat party, the club has held several unique events to raise support for their cause, and they have manufactured merchandise to sell at local events like Fun Fun Fun Fest.

“At Fun Fun Fun Fest we sold out of all our koozies, and we sold out of a few shirts, so it was like ‘Whoa, people really like what we’ve got!'” Callahan-Barile said.

Perhaps the popularity of the club and its merchandise stems from the present popularity of facial hair in general.

“Actually, it’s very disturbing” Callahan-Barile said half sarcastically. “[Facial hair is] very mainstream right now. You had the World Series where everyone was talking about the guy with the beard (relief pitcher Brian Wilson) and beard power for the San Francisco Giants…there’s Movember now, and it’s been around for a little while, but it’s getting more and more acclaim. Stranger and stranger things are happening.”

But with a multitude of creative categories, including the “freestyle,” in which competitors sculpt their facial hair into complex masterpieces, the Norway competition will be far more intense than a bunch of hipsters sitting around comparing their ironic ‘staches.

Now, as fun as it may be for the competitors, it is also a serious competition. Some of the competitors dedicate their lifetimes to growing the strongest, thickest, longest or most well- groomed facial hair possible.

“Some of it is very artistic,” Callahan-Barile said. “Obviously, it takes a long time to groom and stuff. And some of it is just really impressive in terms of how long or full [they are], or there are just moustaches that are just big and you’re like, my god, that is just a walrus-sized moustache.”

Any man who’s ever tried to grow out his facial hair has probably noticed that not all hair grows the same way. Some men are gifted above the lip, others on the chin, and still others in the chops. Regardless of where the hair grows, there are many options for how it can be sculpted, trimmed or styled, prompting the competitive facial hair community to create different categories to celebrate the best of the best.

In the same vein as a dog show, the categories often have strict rules about the hair’s condition. For instance, to compete in the World Beard and Moustache Championship’s Natural Moustache category, the moustache may not exceed 1.5 centimeters beyond the upper lip, and while it may be styled, styling aids (like wax or gel) are prohibited.

While anyone with facial hair who is able to make the trip to Norway is eligible to enter, the competition is likely to be tough. Representatives from more than 15 countries are expected to participate, including defending national and world champions.

The AFHC has many more events in the works prior to their May departure for Norway, including the Misprint Holiday Party, a South by Southwest day party and a Victorian beard and moustache competition at Galveston’s Dickens on the Strand.

To learn more about the Austin Facial Hair club, visit Austinfacialhairclub.com

For more on the World Beard and Moustache Championships, visit www.worldbeardchampionships.com.