It took me 10 years of "pre-folk" nagging to get his lordship to grow one. He's had the beard for 20 years now, and I used to have nightmares tht he'd shave it off and terrify our youngest, who has never sen her dad without one. He looks better with it, too. He used to joke that when his balding head reached a certain stage, he'd have a facelift.
The other advantage is that you can catch any beer dribbles in it, and collect them before they drip off.

My son informed me last night that he'd grown a goatee over the last 2-3 weeks, but that his skin became very dry and irritated under it, and so he's had to shave it off again. (He's one of these allergic types. He tried water soluble moisturisers from the chemist, but all it did was moisturise the whiskers).

As to why beards are so prevalent amongst the folk circuit - I don't really know. It may be just hearkening back to the "rustic". Any photographs of rural dwellers from the 19th century have quite a high proportion of men with side-whiskers or beards. Anything earlier is second hand, via an artist's (sometimes idealised) interpretation. At one time, in some cultures, the beard was supposedly the badge of the barbarian!

Andrea