Has your beard changed ?

Ok, hear me out guys, I realize this might sound odd. I’m 60 years old and always had a sparse beard. Basically nothing on the cheeks. Bristly but sparse on the goatee and jawline. I started wet shaving about 6 months ago and love it. Wish I would have started decades ago. It taught me how to really shave, not just “get it over with” like I used to.

Over the past few months, it felt like the blade feel and audible feedback was increasing on my beardless areas but I figured it was just a figment of my imagination. Last weekend, I decided to skip a day and let it grow in a bit. I noticed that for the 1st time in my life, I had very visible beard growth halfway up my cheeks. It’s not like a full beard or anything but it’s significant growth that was never there before. Also, my goatee has much thicker growth that I ever had before wet shaving. I’ve often skipped a day or 2 in the past and never had growth in those areas.

I cleaned it off the next day. Completely unprompted, my wife tells me “your beard yesterday was unusually full. You even had some on your cheeks. Did you change something?”

So, my question, anyone else have a similar experience? Beard development from switching to DE shaving? It makes no sense but it’s pretty clear at this point.