I think the biggest issue here is more the double standard with cabin crew and other parts of the business being able to express themselves by bearded dress wearing "thems/theys", but male pilots not being allowed to express themselves by having a beard, when there's no clearly proven safety benefit in banning it.
They spend so much time on ensuring we don't dare speak ill of the minority groups, but when someone who is a white male wants to grow a beard, OH GOD NO! Quick, let's find some outdated research papers put together with an agenda already written that supposedly spruiks safety as being compromised, so we can get rid of that idea.