I grew my beard first time with permission of my division officer in 1977 on a MED Cruise. I briefly shaved it for T.A.D. to shipyards Fire Dept so my OBA would seal good. I grew it again and shaved it in 1979 for a 6 month stint I volunteered for in the shipyard FD. I was a short timer after six months and went back to division and again grew it back.
Since 1980 my EAOS I have gone beardless twice once for the Army guards for a year hitch and another for what I knew was a short term job. Most of my 56 years on earth have been non shaving ones.
In the Navy most Chiefs I worked under had beards as did a number of officers usually from Commander on down. You could tell the difference between a Scrounge, a No Load who liked 4.0 uniforms and doing no work, and worker by looking at them at Muster on Station then at Liberty call time. The Scrounge came to work filthy and unbathed, the 4.0 no load came in all clean pressed work {dungarees} uniform shinned shoes and left the shop at liberty call the same as they came in, the ones who did the work came to Muster clean uniform but maybe not in a 4.0 uniform and were dirty at the end of the work day.
If a person interacting with customers within about a minute can't tell if a person is homeless, vagrant, or simply bearded and a customer, then do you really want them working for you? Seriously about 60 seconds conversation and many wiffs of the air around them is the determining factor. All of the men including the are worth millions of dollars yes even the 30 year retired Army Vet uncle.