The secret to keeping your beard in good order is keeping all the food out of it and using a good conditioner. I use Dove. I shampoo and condition it every time I shower. I trim it myself, unless I’m a bit crook and it’s getting shaggy. My son Daniel does it then.
I got my first beard when I was about 25, around 1971. I’ve had one ever since. Donna’s never seen me without one. I had a full on beard when I started seeing her, then I trimmed it so it just ran down neatly from my sideburns. Then I got sick of that and have had the goatee since the mid-1980s.
A lot of young blokes are getting them now and I don’t mind that at all. I think any bloke should do what he wants when it feels right.