I used to hate having to shave every day, then realized I look better with a beard anyway, so now I just trim it once in a while. I do the neck maybe once or twice a week and then trim the whole beard every couple months. Every now and then I'll just let it grow wild, but with the long hair it's a bit much.

So I usually keep it short now days.
The first time I decided to grow a beard it was uncomfortable for the first week or so though, it gets really itchy, but once it's longer it's not that bad.