In the early 2000s growing a beard was a funny or ironic thing to do for a young man, like Zach Galifianakis. Jocks didn’t grow them. When did it become a Chad thing and how? What pop culture moment shifted the attitude around beards.

I think somewhere around the 8th century… 

Probably somewhere in the grey area between hirsute bears and the overcompensation of masculinity in a more accepting of the androgynous culture.

and an awful lot of weakchindividuals use beards to hide the amorphous blob hanging under their lips..

It was probably me. I have a great beard.

I posit that it was the Gigachad meme.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/026/152/gigachad.jpg

i think it starts with early 2000s hipster/brooklyn culture bringing back facial hair, slowly becoming more mainstream until culminating in this 

Searchcaster