Elder to me after a meeting (I was studying at the time):
er eh well..we er eh you know dont eh tend to er grow beards in the the truth, so eh you know we try to discourage this..eh no offence..its just that we er want to display a clean image (chuckle chuckle/HEARTY LAUGH)... hope you er understand as some ..well you know... might be stumbled to see brothers eh well unshaved like.
Naive me thinking it was scriptural: oh sorry brother, I didnt realise it was wrong to have a beard. Yes, i'll get rid of it.... (which I promptly did )