Beard of Sorrow/Playing With

Basic Trope: Male character grows a beard to signify he's depressed.
 * Straight: He lost someone close to him, and his Perma Stubble grows out fully.
 * Exaggerated: After a particularly bad night, he has a beard the size of the rest of his face.
 * Downplayed: His Perma Stubble only grows out slightly more.
 * Justified: "I'm just too depressed to shave in the morning. Are you happy?"
 * Inverted:
 * He shaves off his beard to make a break with his past.
 * Alternatively, Badass Beard and Growing the Beard.
 * Subverted: "I'm not depressed. I just realized that my scar would be less distracting if I grew a beard over it."
 * Double Subverted: "I'm not depressed, I just thought I'd see what I look like with a beard." He's lying.
 * Parodied:
 * People in the series can tell any male's current emotional state just by examining the length of their beard.
 * Alternatively: a female character feels depressed one day and puts on a fake beard to show it.
 * Deconstructed: Growing a beard is part of the hero's collapse into outright catatonic stupor, leading to an extended narrative of the miserable life and eventual suicide of an undiagnosed sufferer of bipolar disorder.
 * Reconstructed: Growing out a beard is a deliberate reaction, a change of appearance that the hero chooses to signify his new mental state. He plans to shave it off if he's ready to feel good again.
 * Zig Zagged: The character grows out a beard because his Half-Identical Psychic-Linked Twin lost her boyfriend.
 * Averted: The character is female. Or, the character is male, but continues shaving as normal after the trauma.
 * Enforced: "The actor wanted to grow a beard and have more serious plotlines. We decided to mix the two."
 * Lampshaded: "Depressed, huh?" "How could you tell?" "You haven't shaved."
 * Invoked: He's stopped shaving because his Girlfriend in Canada "dumped him," "leaving" him single.
 * Defied: The character makes a conscious decision to keep up personal appearances despite his depression.
 * Discussed: "What did you expect, to find me sprawled on the couch in despair, not having shaved or washed for weeks? We only went on two dates."
 * Conversed: "Is this the episode where he starts growing the beard?" "Nope, that was the one where he lost his parents."

Grow a Beard of Sorrow.