Defending freestyle beard champion Aarne Bielefeldt takes on his rival, John Buckler, in the freestyle division in Austin in tonight’s all-new episode of IFC’s ‘Whisker Wars.’ In a sneak preview of the fourth episode of the current second season of the reality show, titled ‘Aarne vs Buckler,’ Bielefeldt said he’s excited to be back in the competition.

After shocking the beard competition world last year by switching from full beard natural to freestyle, Bielefeldt won first place for Gnarliest Beard. He said he made the change for the challenge. For this year’s competition, he said he wanted to elaborate on his winning theme of the six-pointed starfish.

Buckler, who traveled to the competition in Austin from Detroit, said he was surprised by Bielefeldt’s switch to freestyle. But Buckler acknowledged that he became complacent after he won the freestyle competitions in Ohio and New York, and admitted that he was showed up by Bielefeldt in Portland.

Watch the sneak peek video for ‘Aarne vs Buckler,’ which airs tonight on IFC at 10/9c and is followed by a special bonus episode of ‘Portlandia,’ ‘Winter in Portlandia,’ at 10:30pm ET/PT, below.

Written by: Karen Benardello