A little over three years growth on my beard this time. Come close to shaving it completely off a few times but haven't mainly because I'm afraid our two youngest grandkids, 4yrs and 1yr, wouldn't recognize me without it.
After mine gets to a certain length it seems to slow down growing, starts splitting ends, breaking off, and always shedding loose whiskers. I really need to trim it back some now just to even it up.
Personally, I never noticed just a full beard by itself being very much warmer in cold weather. For me, simply not doing the daily close shave thing then going out in the cold makes the biggest felt difference.
When your beard gets some length to it it can be pretty scary seeing yourself in the mirror some mornings after waking up with a bad hair day and a bad beard day both at the same time.
