"I had an opportunity to not do any shaving for a while and then all of a sudden it turned into this thing I have now." The idea for the 'Beards of Ipswich' calendar came to Mr McNamara once he started to notice how much 'talent' existed locally. "It is like when you buy a car, all of sudden once you have bought a car you start seeing them all on the road," Mr McNamara said. "That is what I started seeing with beards and I started to appreciate all the different styles and different colours. "Once I started to appreciate other beards and started to notice other people appreciating my beard, it was like a secret club."

Mr McNamara said Beyondblue was a 'no brainer' in terms of charities to donate to, as a number of people he knows suffer from depression and anxiety. "I thought it would be a great idea to do a photo series of all the different styles of beard and then the idea came about what if I put it into a calendar and straight away I thought hang on, why not raise money for something and Beyondblue was my first choice," he said. Each month of the 'Beards of Ipswich' calendar reflects the personalities of the men behind the beards. "Every photo has something about them in the photo as well as my additional humour added to it," Mr McNamara said. Mr McNamara admitted he did get a bit of beard envy during the three month shoot.

"The best beard in terms of the most practical is Nathaniel's, he is the one with the Abraham Lincoln," he said. "He can eat anything, cream buns or whatever he wants, and he gets nothing stuck in the moustache part of the beard, which is the pain in the bum bit of having a beard." Griffith media producer Malcolm Burt, 'Mr June' in the calendar, said he was approached by Jason during celebrations at Oktoberfest. "I didn't, Jason hit me up at an Oktoberfest, I was happily stuffing my face with a pretzel with some friends and he bailed me up and said 'Hey, great beard'," Mr Burt. "After you have had a few pints it doesn't seem so weird that some random dude is coming up and talking about your beard."

Mr Burt said he had to reassure his mum that it wasn't a nude calendar. "When I mentioned to mum I was in a calendar, the first thing she said to me was 'Please tell me you kept your clothes on'," he said. Mr Burt said his 'Ned Kelly' beard and his love of Karaoke was what inspired the June spread. "I happened to mention I like singing horribly wretched karaoke so he decide to weave that into it," he said. "I was actually singing when that photo was taken.

"It was 10am on a Saturday morning, so I was screaming 'All Apologies' by Nirvana, that was a good karaoke song. "The bar staff had to hear me scream for about an hour." The only issue on set? Mr Burt's beer kept on 'disappearing'. "I felt that having a beer in the shot would be a good idea, then unfortunately that beer kept on evaporating and it had to get topped up," he said. Mr Burt has had a beard for most of his life and said it was born out of necessity.

"The reason I got a beard in the first place, my family has no chin or neck and whether I was fat or thin in my life I always had chipmunk cheeks and so I thought the best way to disguise it was to cover it with hair." Loading You can order the 'Beards of Ipswich' calendar online. Like this story? Follow Brisbane Times on Facebook