I've had a beard since 1967. Not a lifestyle or political statement, I just hate shaving. I spent a summer in the woods with no electricity, grew a beard successfully, liked it, had to remove it for employment reasons, and grew it back as soon as I could get away with it, for the Canadian Centennial beard-growing contest (but I didn't actually compete), and haven't taken it off since.

Some people have trouble getting used to a beard, but it grows on you...

A beard story for you: A friend of mine, whose wife had never seen him beardless, got up in the middle of the night, shaved, and went back to bed without waking her. In the morning his wife woke up in bed with a stranger, and freaked out. (They're still married, 25 or so years later, probably despite this incident.)