After some very helpful comments from a couple of followers, I decided to do some extensive work on the Automatic Beards mod. I had a lot of difficulty, and did A LOT of testing, and I am now happy to release this new version.

The first change is the layer used for the beards to grow. The original mod had the beards grow using the "Lipstick" layer - this meant that if you wanted your sim to wear lipstick, it would disappear as soon as a beard started growing.
So, I have made a separate version which instead uses the "Dimple (Right)" layer; the thinking here is that once a beard starts to grow, the dimple area would be covered anyway. Of course, if someone has made a mod or cc which uses the "Dimple (Right)" layer, it will conflict, and one or the other won't work.

The second change was a really big learning experience for me. I had been alerted that the Long lifespan addon wasn't working; so, I did a whole lot of testing to try figure it out. What I discovered is that the coding which determined the "Long", "Normal", and "Short" lifespans was all wrong, and that all three options ended up with the same result, despite having different digits; so, I had to remake each of these parts so that they actually do what they're supposed to do.

In all of my testing, I realised that it makes no sense to have a "Short" lifespan, because it means the beard grows through like three stages in one day. So we now only have a "Normal" and "Long" version, for however you're so inclined.

I also discovered that you were able to shave the face before the "5 o'clock shadow" stage shows: so, I've updated it so you can only shave again once this stage has begun.

Download the Automatic Beards mod from the main post here!

Make sure you choose only one file to use, and you have deleted all previous versions and addons from your mods folder.

And on a personal note: we have moved to a new flat in the last couple of days. The lead up to this has been extremely stressful and anxiety inducing for me. Our flat is a lot smaller than our old place, and having so many boxes to try find things in, and unpack, is so overwhelming. There will be no avoiding having boxes staying around until we find a bigger place.
I have been trying to work on making cc, but it's been difficult to stay on track. I am SO tired. Please bear with me while I go through this difficult transition period!

Au revoir!