As a Los Angeles-based brand manager for high-profile musicians, Nicholas Adler likes staying abreast of men’s fashion, sporting Rag & Bone jeans with slim-fit shirts and Ben Sherman sweaters. As a final touch he’s grown a beard, which once resembled the one worn by Mandy Patinkin’s character on the television show “Homeland,” but now is a more closely cropped length. “It’s a style thing,” said Mr. Adler, 36, who divulged that he spends up to 45 minutes, one to two times a week, grooming his beard.

Previously a hallmark of certain kinds of lifestyles — say, lumberjack, biker or hipster — beards have moved past their countercultural roots and into the mainstream, showing up on Hollywood red carpets (Ben Affleck, Brad Pitt and Ryan Gosling have all been photographed with them) and, now, in cubicles across the country.