The Taliban was the inspiration of the whole beard epidemic in the US over the last few years. Think about it.
Taliban has these gnarly beards. We send in special forces to fight them, and they are (outside of normal military code) allowed to grow beards. We are peppered with photos of our guys, fully bearded, wearing shemaghs, interacting with Taliban or tribal leaders. The bearded military man is seen as elite (he is), and the beard itself becomes a symbol of that since only the spec ops guys are allowed to grow them. We kill Osama, more pics, Zero Dark Thirty comes out. Then dude bros back home start catching on, growing beards themselves. Boom, full on epidemic.