the kerala beard

I have often wondered what prompts a person to keep a beard apart from religious reasons . A random spot survey at any public place in kerala will invariably show a number of bearded persons most of whom are not keeping it for religious reasons . Is it because there are not enough barber shops in Kerala and people are averse to shaving it themselves . It also could because they are taking after their idols like Dr KJYesudas and his acolytes like Unni Menon and KGMarkose .
It is surprising because ouside Kerala a person wth a beard is consdered a bit of a extremist or leftist or basically untrustworthy . Little wonder then that once the Malayali gets ouside Kerala he generally hacks his beard off.