Dark Beard, 'Conquistador Look,' and People Getting Locked Into My Gaze

Started running this recently — only 10 loops over 2 cycles so far — and over the holidays I got comments like: "Dude, your beard is so dark," "I kept noticing how dark your facial hair is," "How tf don't you have any gray in your beard and I do?!" and "He looks like a conquistador." A cousin who's 10 years younger and graying was a little salty about it. All I did was let my facial hair grow out and tried something different shaping the jawline. The dark-haired conquistador look wasn't a result I was looking for when I started, but I'm leaning into it. One thing I noticed is that it captures attention easily — people more readily get locked into my gaze if I keep it on them.