The "beard ban" was the first of many red flags I was introduced to by my BOE in my first congregation. I believe it's what began my rethinking the JW cult. When "obeying the FDS" was made clear to be far more important than relying on God's Word, it started stoking my curiosity about what else they had totally wrong and made up for their own idolatrous glory. It wasn't long before I had a tidy pile of man-made garbage the Society simply decreed as "truth" with no foundation whatsoever.
I discovered some elders will respect you for defending a position of Christian freedom from Scripture and let it go. Others are power-hungry losers who are only elders because they crave the "glory" of the pseudo-position. Those don't give a pile of dingo's kidneys what the Bible says, and will say as much in no uncertain terms. The COBE of my current congregation told me - and I quote: "This is a private organization and we'll do whatever we want." He went on to invoke the new verbal contract of the baptism questions. I told him Jesus said "anyone thirsting, come" and that sounded pretty open to the public to me. His face was so red, I thought he was going to have a stroke right there.