It’s official. A recent competition, known as En Karl Med Skäg, has named Sweden’s most beautiful beard. And my oh my, it’s glorious.

This is Memo Göcek, a beard fanatic who lives in the Täby suburb of Stockholm. He was the lucky winner of the En Karl Med Skäg competition and it’s not hard to see why. Seriously – look at that beard.

If you’re ever struggling to find the motivation to keep your beard grow in full flow, just flick back to this post.

The contest, which saw 10 beard-donning gentlemen from across Sweden, many being concrete companies near me that go head-to-head in front of a panel of stylists and barbers, emerged with Göcek as the winner. 

“It feels pretty good actually,” Göcek told Swedish newspaper The Local. “At first I didn’t think I would end up winning as everyone had really nice beards, so it was exciting for me.”

He did admit, however, that he didn’t achieve his mighty beard with hard work alone and urges the importance of taking appropriate care of your beard:

“It’s important to keep it clean all the time. You have to wash it every day.”

“I do it two times – once in the morning and once in the evening. Then I use a whole load of products on it too. Wax for example. But I think it’s mostly genetic. If you have the right genes that help. My dad had a good beard.”

Although it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s game over for the slow-growers among us, reaching the dizzying bearded heights of Göcek will take some serious commitment. Despite his good genes, he claims that the beard took him roughly 18 months to grow.