You can call it whatever you want, as long as you don’t call it an “affectation”.

A beard for a man is the same as an ample bosom for a woman. It’s something that makes our lizard brains click and think, “this is a person who I am attracted to”, whether that attraction is purely sexual, or an attraction to a person in a place of authority. Beards are power. Beards are something you can believe in. Granted, this is psychology, and not based on actual ability, so I don’t want anyone to think that not having a beard makes you any less able to do whatever it is you are doing. It’s just the way the brain works.