What is with this out of nowhere obsession with beards?

I am a guy, and I have thick brown hair, including my beard which grows fast, so I have every reason to sheep along to this beard worship culture. This seems to have just come out of nowhere. Beards are facial pubic hair that provides the perfect warm and moist conditions for bacteria to grow, the bacteria coming from every time you cough, eat, sneeze etc. To me it is also a sign of laziness, a "I'm not really intellectually interesting, but look I grew a beard I am so edgy!"