This post is great. I just started, for the first time in my life, letting my beard grow out. My wife thinks she is with a new man, lol. Not sure how I feel about that? Something about how patchy and pathetic it looked held me back. That, and the fact that I used to have a job that I thought had some expectation of being clean-shaven. I would like to add, that if you have bad complexion (acne) there is no better way to remove that curse than a manly beard. I look like Ryan Gosling now, and according to the wife, that's a good thing.