Rylan Beats Idris Elba To Win Beard Of The Year 2019

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Idris Elba, Bob Harris and even Jeremy Corbyn weren’t up to scratch this year: it’s Rylan who’s swooped the crown for Beard of the Year 2019. 

I love beards. Alas, the agony of life is that I can’t grow one. All I can do is sit with pangs of intense jealousy as bearded people roam the streets, unaware of the privilege bestowed upon their face.

With that, you can consider me a supporter of the Beard Liberation Front, a British facial hair interest group who aggregate celebrity beards to decide on the best: this year, the honour goes to Rylan Clark-Neal.

Finding fame on The X Factor, Rylan has gone on to be a mainstay personality on daytime TV, with presenting stints on major shows like This Morning and Strictly – It Takes Two. Also, he’s equipped with a terrific beard, well-deserving of this year’s award.

Writing on his blog, BLF organiser Keith Flett said:

Rylan is a very popular figure and his beard is a central part of that. His victory in the Beard of the Year poll underlines that beards are now mainstream in British life.

TV doctor Xand Van Tulleken and cosmologist Peter Coles currently at Maynooth University in Ireland shared the award in 2018. There were a number of men shortlisted for the award this year, all with their own unique, distinctive beards.

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The list included Billy Connolly, Stig Abell, George Clooney and Idris Elba. However, following an ‘Electoral College review of the poll leaders’ (reportedly necessary due to bot activity on the poll), it was Rylan who came out on top.

Describing the criteria for the award, Flett wrote: 

The Award is NOT about people who grow beards in their bedrooms and post pictures of them on the internet. The Award IS about people with consistent beards in the public eye who promote a positive image of the hirsute.

The Beard Liberation Front was founded in 1995, built as ‘an informal network of beard wearers’ and always open to supporters who agree with the group’s core principles.

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They are as follows: 

We oppose beardism – pogonophobia in the Greek – which is irrational prejudice against the hirsute. We stand for the right of people to be able to dress and appear as they want.

We campaign on discrimination against the hirsute at work and in social settings. We oppose stereotyping of the hirsute, the ‘man with a beard’ caricature, but we do so mainly in a light-hearted way.

While the group will always try to focus on the positive side of hirsuteness, they ‘stand ready to oppose attempts by beard haters to promote prejudice against facial hair’. Maybe one day I’ll have a good enough beard to join.

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.