When I met my future wife I was 21, and she wanted me to grow a beard, so
I did. Since then I have occasionally asked coworkers who have complained
about shaving why *they* don't grow beards: the most common answer is "My
wife doesn't want me to."
Moved to COFF ... while bearded UNIX folks do seem to be a common thread, I
think we are stretching Warren's patience a tad. So ... I have sort of a
different story.
I had shaved in off and on during college and in the first few years I was
working but had grown it back before grad school. I still was not sure I
liked having it, and as I got close to finishing, I mentioned to my
officemates at UCB that I'd shave it when Newton (our advisor) signed my
thesis as a signal to everyone I was done.
So the day I came into the office clean-shaven, Peter Moore looks up and
remarked, 'now I know why you wore one.'
So, I showed up at Masscomp without it and was quickly ostracized as so
many of the SW team had some sort of facial hair, I quickly grew it back.
Roll forward 20ish years and my wife egged me into shaving it off one
summer weekend. Our then 5-year-old daughter cried -- she wanted her
Daddy back. I've had it ever since.
That said, 20 years later she and her mother both claim I would look
younger if I shaved it. But at this point, I kinda like not having to
shave my neck and lower chin every day if I don't want to; so I have
ignored them.