My beard

Normally I don't really pay much attention to my beard. I have worn a goatee for many years now (I imagine that quite a few of you could have guessed as much!); it goes from well cared for and clearly defined to disappearing into the stubble all around it. Well yesterday, on a very strange whim I shaved my chin; I left long sideburns and a long moustache down to my jaw-line.
My partner's first reaction was to say I looked like a Village People reject & her sentiments haven't improved much since. I have preferred to think of Lee Van Cleef's character in 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', or of Chuck Norris, my partner has muttered something about George Michael and keeps doing the YMCA dance in the corner of my vision. She has intimated that the most odd thing of all is that I have given my beard some attention; I think she thinks I may be entering some kind of (early-ish) mid-life crisis.
So I have been given pause for thought about how people read facial hair and the fashions that sweep through the world of beards. When I cut my hair short, some eight years ago I remember immediately noticing the different reactions I had from strangers and in public places, perhaps the same will prove true of my differently hirsute face now.
Perhaps I should just let my beard grow back and in ten days or so no-one will ever know that I went through such a bizarre beard phase or maybe I should stand up for beard pluralism and damn the way the world sees it.
Most intriguing of all is whether having a different beard will work on my self-perception; perhaps I will become a man suited to my beard. I must say I am hoping for Chuck Norris rather than member of The Village People.
Any thoughts on beard liberation or oppression? Any thoughts about sideburns and long moustaches?