Brothers at Sunni Forum, among other things, are discussing beard. A brother has given a very practical tip to save us from a possible nasty surprise. The brother says:
Do not trust barbers, even Muslims, with your beard unless a) they have a beard them selves or b) you've explained it to them thoroughly - but it is unlikely they will understand how long you want your beard to be unless you give them a fixed length. Once I just asked an Arab barber to tidy up the sides of my beard (just straighten it a bit) and well my beard went from practically a fist length to about a a centimeter.....I was dumbfounded and well, if you go through the effort to keep a beard and it takes 1 1/2 year to achieve the length, this type of experience is a complete nightmare.