I grew my goatee initially out of curiosity - I'd been keeping myself clean-shaven for years ever since I started needing to shave, so a handful of years back I decided I would let my facial hair grow out just to see what I would look like with a beard (specifically a goatee).
[HEADING=3]I looked like my evil twin (you can always tell because the evil twin is the one with the goatee). Yay![/HEADING]
I've never even contemplated shaving my facial hair off after making that realization, and I can't envision any scenario where I'll stop wearing my spiffy goatee. The various compliments I got from random women after I grew it certainly didn't hurt either.
I do however keep it
extremely short - if I was growing it out into a full beard (which I don't think would ever really work, as my facial hair on the sides of my face tends to come in fairly patchy, but I could at least grow what I have now out a lot longer) I think I might very well get tired of it and end up shaving it off. At the length I keep it though I'm barely physically aware that I even
have a beard, which suits my purposes quite nicely.