Leo Langer almost had his shot at facial hair infamy.

The 43-year-old South Whidbey custodian at South Whidbey Elementary School took his untamed beard and face-width mustache to the World Beard & Moustache Championships in Portland, Ore., over the weekend. While lots of competitors went full-tilt with their outfits and facial hair, Langer opted for the au natural look, and passed on adding even a spritz of hair spray or a drop of gel.

“It was easy being lazy,” Langer said.

The single dad, a former longtime assistant coach of the Falcon football team, has more hair below his eyebrows than above these days. But what’s lost in one spot is more than made up for from the end of his nose to almost 10 inches from his chin. Langer has not trimmed his beard for almost a year and says he hasn’t been clean-shaven for at least 5 years. The reason for the 11-month trimmer hiatus was in preparation for the international facial hair competition held Oct. 25 at the 3,000-seat Keller Auditorium in downtown Portland. 

Growing a beard, though admittedly lazy for Langer, can be hazardous. Langer recalled using a posthole digger, clamping the handles shut, pinching part of his beard, and driving it down. It hurt, and Langer was missing a few strands.

“I was getting it into everything,” he said.

The event was quite the show, according to one of his five Whidbey friends who traveled to support him. Teachers Mark Hodson, Andy Davis, Charlie Davies and Chad Felgar, along with former football assistant coach Jim Thompson, were all there to root on their champion. 

Whidbey was represented in style. All of the Whidbey men wore white T-shirts with Langer’s face — complete with facial hair — screen printed onto the front, with “Whidbey Whiskers” on the back. Wherever they went, they drew attention.

“People were trying to trade us shirts and offering to buy them,” Hodson said. “There’s only six of them made.”

During the competition, Langer strolled on stage wearing the white shirt with his own face on it along with a handful of other contestants in the full-beard, styled-mustache event. While some of the other men used styling aids, Langer stuck with his gut and let the Whidbey wildness of his mustache shine.

“I wish I would have done more, after the fact,” he said. “They do the hair spray and the curler. They really go after it.”

As judges reported their scores, Langer said he thought he was passed over after the third-place votes were cast without his number, 5, listed. But he received a pair of first-place votes, wildly exceeding his goal to get a single vote of any kind.

“We just wanted to see one person vote for him,” Hodson said. “Then when he gets two first-place votes, we went absolutely insane.”

Langer, who said his daughter loves his beard and his girlfriend hates it, is undecided on the fate of his facial hair. With the winter holidays approaching, however, Langer has a simple option.

“Maybe I’ll just dye it white and do Santa Claus for a couple weeks,” Langer said.