This Christmas enthusiast got exactly what he wished for this year: A Guinness World Record.
Joel Strasser of Kuna, Idaho earned the record for most baubles in a beard when he managed to attach 710 tiny ornaments to his face on Dec. 2, Guinness World Records announced.
“Beardaments” are colorful, clip-on facial hair accessories that were featured on “Shark Tank” — and fast became tacky holiday fashion trend.
Strasser was competing against himself this year, having originally set the record in 2019 with 302 baubles, then beating that in 2020 with 542 baubles, and breaking it once again in 2021 in 686 baubles.
“My technique has evolved and gotten a lot more specialized over the years that I’ve been breaking the record,” Strasser told Guinness World Records. “I stuck them in a lot more haphazardly at first and that’s why those first beard bauble record numbers were so low.”
“I found that if I take my time and really focus on the individual strands of beard hair and small groups of hair, I can manage to fit so many more in there,” he shared about his technique.
It took Strasser two and a half hours to assemble the baubles onto his beard, and over an hour to remove them. The baubles used add up to about five pounds.
He explained that the process takes patience and is actually painful as five pounds of ornaments tug on his beard.
Each ornament has a tiny alligator clip, so Strasser has to remove them one by one.
“If I tried to shake them out it would probably rip my beard and face off,” he said.
The record-breaker also conceded that his beard is “more receptive” to the baubles when he’s listening to festive Christmas music — specifically the “Twisted Christmas” album.
Even though Strasser now has more than 700 Christmas baubles in his possession, he won’t be using them to deck out his house.
“I have a large shoebox full of baubles and I think they’ll stay there until I decide to attempt the record again,” he said. “It’s tedious enough sticking over 700 of them in my beard. I don’t want to take the time to stick them all in the tree and remove them later!”
Strasser holds 10 other Guinness World Records titles from objects he’s put in his beard, including most paper straws in a beard (534), most straws in a beard (312), most chopsticks in a beard (520), most golf tees in a beard (607), most forks in a beard (126), most toothpicks in a beard (3,500), most clothespins on a beard (359) and most chopsticks put into a beard in one minute (86).
He admitted that baubles, as well as clothespins, are some of his least favorite items to put on his beard.
“They have springs and hairs get stuck which makes it almost impossible to remove without pulling out a lot of hairs,” he explained.
His favorite object was Q-tips since they were soft and comfortable — plus it made him look like Santa Claus.
Strasser hopes to break as many record titles as he can by having things in his beard.
“Once I realized I’m the best in the world at sticking stuff in my beard, I decided to break as many record titles as I can,” he said.
He’s thinking his next venture will be candy canes.
“I wonder if I can fit more candy canes in that are still in the plastic or out of the wrappers and pre-licked,” he said.