IT’s Usery Is Summer’s Mane Attraction
Summer often brings about travel plans, long-overdue downtime, and of course, all that KUA summer reading. But for Jerry Usery, KUA’s technology system administrator, it meant stepping onto a global stage, beard first.
The 2025 World Beard and Moustache Championships were held earlier this month at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Pa., drawing hundreds of facial-hair enthusiasts from around the world. Usery, who has worked at KUA for more than 14 years, was inspired to attend the event after discovering Bad Bob’s Alaskan Beard Products through a friend — because a perfect beard needs the right products.
Usery’s face — what you can see of it anyway — is a familiar one on campus. Whether it’s maintaining school servers, helping community members with their devices, or ensuring campus printers are running smoothly, he’s often out-and-about on The Hilltop. What many don’t know, however, is the care that goes into his lengthy white beard.
As such, Usery connected with Bob Reynolds, aka Bad Bob, online while exploring a few beard basics: beard oil, butter, and wash. During one of their exchanges, Bob mentioned that he’d be attending this year’s Beard and Moustache Championships.
“Bob told me he would be there this year, so I thought about it and decided to go,” said Usery, who was joined by his partner and fellow KUA employee Michelle Bustamante. Usery not only attended, but entered, meeting Reynolds during his time at the event.
When Usery first arrived on The Hilltop after retiring from the Air Force, he had been growing his beard modestly. It wasn’t until three to four years ago that he started growing his beard longer. And it isn’t just the Bad Bob’s products that keep his beard well maintained. Jessica Deloy of Newport, NH, has become Usery’s go-to beard stylist, and he credits her with the perfect look of his beard.
Ironically, he had never planned to grow out his beard. “I think I wanted to see how it would develop,” he recalls, “and now it is a part of me.”
This year’s three-day competition attracted close to 500 participants, representing countries as far as Brazil, Switzerland, Japan, and New Zealand. Contestants competed in various facial hair categories ranging from Musketeer to Sideburns Freestyle to Business Beard.
Overseen by the World Beard and Moustache Association, seven judges scored contestants on a scale from one to 10, with each judge allowed to award only one 10, 9.5, 9, and 8.5 per category. With a beard measuring in at 48 cm, Usery competed in the Full Beard Natural, the 45–60 cm category and received all eights from the judges.
As Usery looks ahead, he shares that his beard has become a huge part of his identity and that it is most certainly here to stay.
“I don't know that I could or want to be without it,” he says. As for other World Beard and Moustache Championships, Usery is open to the idea of doing more. “I may go to other beard competitions/gatherings, whether they be nationals, worlds, or something else.”
