An insanely good work of yours...
You advised your friend well to change a little.
In my opinion he is not a typical type for a beard.
On the one hand a beard always distracts me much too much from a youthful face and on the other hand it has light chub cheeks.
Also the beard distracted too much from his beautiful emerald green, big eyes, because you should always emphasize what is most beautiful about a face and those are clearly his eyes.
If he will now have his eyebrows corrected a little, perhaps even tinting his eyelashes a little, then it is perfect.
Greetings to you and your friend