Four NIU students are in a competition of hairy proportions.

Patrick Halverson, Zach Wrublewski, Jim Tonyan and Colin Jackson are competing in a beard race.

Sophomore English major Wrublewski and senior English major Halverson were joking around one day, and the idea of the beard race was born.

“I believe Zach and I were having a conversation about how long a beard would have to be to achieve ‘old-man status’ and then somehow a beard race competition came out of it,” Halverson said. “Don’t ask exactly whose idea the race was, because we debate that.”

Tonyan, a theoretical computer science major, said the race started with all the competitors shaving at the same time.

“The race started Saturday, Oct. 20 at about 2:30 p.m., when four of the five racers gathered in the men’s bathroom of the second floor of Neptune West to shave our then-current beards,” Tonyan said.

Though the main goal of the competition is to have the longest beard by the end of the semester, there are other categories that the racers are being judged on.

“The winner of the race is determined mostly by length,” Halverson said. “However, there are several different categories, such as thickness, best groomed, among many others.”

Halverson is surprised by the support the racers received from their fellow students.

“We have a Facebook group that has many more people than I had anticipated. I did not think anyone would care,” Halverson said. “The competition does take way too much of my time. I dedicated 24 hours a day and seven days a week to growing the beard.”