I didn't know that I even had a beard when I began it. I was too sick to waste energy standing and shaving for three months and it just appeared. As the year went on, I had to experiment and just let it go. Then covid hit.
Old pics stun me, now. So, I had some fun trimming it in various ways, until I got it down to its closer trim. I have come to like it and it is easy. It is always changing. The shorter version with the long stash is now my baseline.
When it gets a certain length, I tend to play with it with my hands, even absentmindedly. That's how the goatee of my twenties ended. The stroking and pulling drives DF nuts, so it needs to be just short of that.
I think that in a lifetime, it must be explored at least once.
Jbee