They Win by a Whisker in Hair-Raising Contest : Thousand Oaks: To prepare for the annual Conejo Valley Days judging of beards and mustaches one contestant loaded up on clams and scallops; another rubbed in fabric softener.

Thirty-one bewhiskered men, some armed with hair spray, and others au naturel, competed Sunday in the “Whiskeroo” contest to win acclaim for their facial hair.

The categories in the contest--held as part of the Conejo Valley Days celebration in Thousand Oaks--included the softest beard, fullest beard, best beard, “most unique” mustache, best mustache and even the “scroungiest” beard.

Each man came determined to win.

Roger Meade, a landscape contractor from Thousand Oaks who competed in the “most unique” mustache contest, said the secret to keeping his large, bristly mustache strong and healthy is eating clams and scallops.

How many? “As much as I can eat,” said Meade, who won the best mustache contest in 1986.

Norman (Dallas) Wright, a welder and “Thousand Oakie since 1967,” said that to prepare for the softest beard contest he rubbed fabric softener into his whiskers.

“It makes my beard snuggly soft,” said Wright, who won the best beard contest in 1986.

The contest was judged by 10 beauty pageant winners wearing silver crowns, including Miss Teen Conejo Valley, Miss Conejo Valley, and Miss Mom and Daughter Conejo Valley.

And they, like the competitors, took the contest seriously. Amy Kester, who

wore a sash that read “Miss Teen Conejo Valley Princess,” said she judged the contestants’ whiskers on “form, texture and cleanliness.”

Missie Kelber, Miss Conejo Valley, said she judged the “most unique” mustache contest by looking for “something you don’t see every day.”

To judge the softest beard contest, each beauty pageant winner stroked the contestants’ beards with the palms and backs of her hands.

Allan Erickson, chairman of the “Whiskeroo” committee and a four-time winner of the best beard competition, said the contest has been held every year since 1968.

But he said he is not sure how the competition originated. “I guess it just seemed like something that goes with the Conejo Valley Days,” he said.

Erickson said it is always difficult to guess how the judges will make their decisions. “One year they may like a big, long beard, and the next they like a small, short beard,” he said.

When the contest was over, Wright and his fabric-softener-laced beard had lost out in the softest beard competition to Robert Nobbs, a milkman from Thousand Oaks, who said he did nothing special to prepare his beard for the contest.

The fullest beard contest was won by Ernie Roberts, a landscape architect from Agoura Hills, who sported a frizzy, Adam’s-apple-length strawberry-blond beard. Roberts, who said he has competed in the contest for the last three years but has never won, also said he did nothing special to prepare his beard for the competition.

“This is just its natural state,” he said.

The best beard contest was won by Rick Beal, a 20-year resident of Thousand Oaks, who sported a short, gray, well-trimmed beard and mustache that would have looked at home in an executive boardroom.

Mike Mitchell, a construction worker from Santa Clarita who wore a mustache that stretched down to his jaw and curled upward, won the “most unique” mustache contest.

Mitchell said he used hair spray, rather than wax, to shape his whiskers.

Craig Ruhman, who works at an auto dealership in Thousand Oaks, beat Meade to win the best mustache contest. Ruhman said he won because he keeps his mustache short and well groomed.

“Girls like small, well-trimmed mustaches that are bushy just enough to tickle them,” he said.

But the highlight of the afternoon was the “scroungiest” beard competition won by Paul Kunzler, an unemployed Thousand Oaks resident. Kunzler said he preferred to be called “Golden Nugget Gus.”

Although Gus’ beard was a bit shaggy and unkempt, his overall appearance seemed to have played a bigger role in the judges’ eyes. Gus strolled on stage wearing red long underwear, a floppy brown hat, a holster and a pair of cowboy boots.

Gus said he prepared for the competition by drinking a few beers.

“It helped to bring out my good, clean, salty nature,” he said.