Anyone else growing a pandemic beard?

No.

in my entire life I have only went with some sort of growth a couple of times...

like when I was I think it was about 17 years old I had a little Goatee type of thing for a while then from Feb 5th 2015(give or take a little) through Oct 12th 2018 I had sort of a beard a bit (but kept around my mouth area completely shaved). but other than that I have been clean shaven my entire life. I typically shave once every 2, occasionally 3 days, which tends to be after showering. but that's generally the best time to shave in general is once every 2, or no more than 3 days max. mainly because you don't really start to notice it until about 2 days but it's more visible after 3 days.

I got a Philips Norelco PQ208 electric shaver last year (for less than $20) to replace another one (one of those basic three head shavers of the same brand) I had since early 2010 and while it still technically works, I figured getting that PQ208 model would be better since I can put in my own NiMh batteries (two Eneloop's (which are THE all-around best NiMh batteries one can buy)) in it and it lasts about 1 hour so I can get quite a few shaves without having to pull the batteries out to re-charge (it takes about 5 minutes to get a decent shave but probably around 10 min to get a more perfect shave and I tend to work at it til it's a razor like smoothness) where as with the one I had from 2010, which was basically 9 years old when I pretty much retired it last year, the battery in those is not made to be user serviceable and I could only get one shave out of it, maybe a bit more before I had to re-charge. but it has the original shaving head and that's still solid to this day as that's what I like about these shavers is that the shaving head lasts forever pretty much. so I kind of assume this PQ208 shaver will last me many years like the other one I was using but I won't have to worry about short battery life since even once the Eneloop's I got it in start declining in runtime (which probably won't be til years from now) I can just swap out a fresh set and be good for years of use again since I can probably at least get at least 2 weeks or so between recharges and Eneloops will easily make 100-200+ re-charge cycles at pretty much peak-ish performance and that's more of a conservative figure. so no matter your usage patterns... your going to EASILY get years (probably several at the minimum) of use out a pair of Eneloop batteries even if you shave often. I got a quality NiMh charger (Maha MH-C9000 ; which is about $50 online) but even a cheap generic NiMh charger (call it $20 or less) will work 'good enough' with Eneloop's as they are high quality/made to last. so even if somewhat somewhat abuses the batteries your still likely going to get plenty of use out of them before they are mostly shot.