Pensacola, Fla. ? A bearded Jerry Jackson and his wife were tickled by some of the hairy faces they observed at a North Carolina folk festival last year.

“We saw men with beards down to their belt buckles, and braided and dreadlocked beards, and flaming red beards and big bushy beards,” Jackson said.

They were so impressed that they started taking photographs.

“Somebody said, ‘What are you going to do with that?”‘ Jackson recalled. “Out of the blue, I said, ‘We’re going to start the National Beard Registry’ — as a joke. As soon as I said it, my wife and I both went, click, ‘That’s a great idea.”‘

Jackson, a 53-year-old computer programmer and Web developer at the University of West Florida, created a no-charge Web site, www.nationalbeardregistry.org, that shows photos of more than 100 hirsute men and lists their hometowns, their ages and the ages and descriptions of their whiskers. Registrants also can include comments.

“If the good Lord had meant me to be clean-shaven, I would not have been given testosterone!” writes Weaver Bloom, 46, of Guerneville, Calif., who has a full red beard.

William Sommerwerck, 45, of Renton, Wash., pictured with a long mixed-gray beard, says: “Just say ‘no’ to razors!”

The bearded can get on the registry by e-mailing a photograph. Jackson also takes forms and a camera to music festivals to register beards on the spot.

Jackson is No. 15 on the registry with what he calls his “unemployment photo.”

Jerry Jackson strokes his chin whiskers at his home in Pensacola, Fla., as he looks over some of the entries on the National Beard Registry, which he created last year.