World Beard Day: Who has the best beard at UC Davis Health?

World Beard Day is held annually on the first Saturday of September, which falls on Sept. 7 this year.

So, we thought we’d ask: who has the best beard at UC Davis Health?

Here are the entries:

We submitted these anything-but-weird beards to a panel of Public Affairs and Marketing team members to choose the one and only best beard at UC Davis Health.

		Paul Smola Smola, nominated by a colleague, is so proud of his beard that it not only covers his face but also serves as his phone’s wallpaper. That is some serious beard confidence.
		Michael Cristo Cristo works at our Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute. Luckily, he’s the clinic supervisor. Otherwise, this wicked, long beard might tickle some eyeballs. Extra points for the UC Davis Health fit.
		Krishna Narayan Narayan, who works in the UC Davis Spine Center, submitted this phenomenally groomed beard. That is one seriously, perfectly groomed beard. Perhaps if we had subcategories, Narayan would nab the symmetry award.
		John Clement Clement’s wife, Roxanne, submitted this picture of his beard. In her submission, she said, “John definitely has the best beard in all of UCD!” Honestly, it’s hard to argue.
		Aman Segran Segran’s coworker submitted him into the Best Beard contest, and we can easily see why. The colleague added a double exclamation when proclaiming Segran as having “best beard at UC Davis Health!!” We’re guessing one is for expert grooming and the other for the perfect pop of salt and pepper.
		Jim Marchetti When Marchetti made his submission, he wrote, “At the behest of my colleagues in the IT Division.” Sorry, Jim. But we’re with your colleagues! This is definitely a praise worthy beard!
		William Gilliand Gillian’s submission surprised us. His email via Outlook arrived with a beardless avatar as his image, so we were amazed to see the serious beard pictured here. With a beard this tough looking, we’re guessing Gilliand, a UC Davis Health fire inspector, simply looks a fire’s direction and it dissipates out of fear.
		Elias Flores Our final entry: Flores submitted another very well-groomed, high-quality beard. The look he exhibits here all but sums up how we’re looking at all of these photos: with wonder and intrigue.

And the winner is…

Aman Segran!

Our panelists agreed: all these beards had winning pedigrees, whether length, pizazz, or an indescribable something that added so much to the individual’s overall presence. But Segran’s stood out among them.

“I dig how sculpted and angular it is,” one panelist said about Segran’s beard.

Upon hearing he won the Best Beard at UC Davis Health contest, Aman said, “I’m thrilled to win! I never thought my beard would win a contest. A beard takes time and patience; I’m glad my efforts finally paid off!”

One beard entrant slipped in just by the hair of his chinny, chin, chin and didn't make it in time to participate in this year's contest, but it's worth showing his awesome beard. Thank you, Jake Branchini, a first-year medical student in the Academic Research Careers for Medical Doctors program ARC-MD. Keep up the great work, and enter again next year! 

Of course, all nine of these individuals are winners in our book, so we’re rewarding them all with swag for their awesomeness and bravery in submitting. Each can definitively say they have a top-10 beard at UC Davis Health.

Happy World Beard Day!