Greetings, Coolmusti. Thanks for the question.

At twenty, I could barely gather together a respectable enough collection of follicles to muster a moustache. At 21 I let it crawl out on my lip anyway, and by 22 the sideburns and chin beard had sufficiently rallied to get away with not shaving. Cheeks were thinly populated for quite a while, and the 'stache was kind of on its own up there for a while.

By grad school, I looked like this...
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By mid-to-late 20s, I'd let the cheek line rise as long as there was more hair to support it. I was unequivocally a bearded man, I liked the look of it, and I never once thought seriously of shaving it off.
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In my early 30s, it got even better. And I married my best friend who also liked my fully bearded face.
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By my late 30s, the "wisdom" is beginning to show in my temples.
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And yesterday... well, this is the biggest I've ever let it grow, and I'm really likin' it!
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Sorry I haven't better quality images to offer at this time.

Becoming a gentleman, if indeed I have, is a refining process that has taken much more time (and more trials) than becoming bearded. I was blessed to have good friends my age and older who loved me enough to help round off the sharp corners and call me a fool when I acted foolishly. They set the example of how to be a man of integrity, faith, and strength in rightly measured proportions.

Growing out a beard happens naturally to most men in due time. Growing up the man behind the beard takes a lot more time and effort on one's part.