<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Aside from cliches like hockey and maple syrup, the only truly Canadian national treasure I can name is Drake&amp;#039;s beard. From the\u00A0robust fullness of\u00A0the neck and lower chin, it tapers to\u00A0the perfectly\u00A0trimmed sides of his face and then fades into his hair, which is shorter than the beard as a whole. It&amp;#039;s become a cultural icon, effectively transforming how men think of the neck beard and the\u00A0appropriate hair-to-beard ratio. Here it is in all its glory:\u00A0  What a beard! The current iteration\u00A0appeared sometime last summer, coinciding with Drake shaving less and working out more.\u00A0And now, it&amp;#039;s allegedly gone: I don&amp;#039;t know why the actual fuck Drake would do this. According to a now-deleted Instagram post, the beard will be &amp;quot;making an epic come back in 2 weeks.&amp;quot; The Instagram post also claims he did it for Saturday Night Live. But he had the beard during his taping on The Tonight Show yesterday, which means it must have been\u00A0removed sometime yesterday\u00A0afternoon or evening. Why did he do it? Here are our theories: There never was a beard. It was a result of hundreds of thousands of hours of labor by\u00A0trained CGI technicians who went on strike late Thursday because of poor working conditions. Like the New York Yankees, Saturday Night Live recently adopted a strict no-facial-hair policy. Kanye West&amp;#039;s Drake mask\u00A0fell out the bathroom window and was run over by a truck.        The beard had to be shaved to revive his role as Jimmy on the Degrassi reunion series, coming to Netflix this fall. Meek Mill replaced Drake&amp;#039;s beard oil with hair remover. For the last five years, the character of Drake has been performed by a revolving cast of skilled method actors. The latest, who was bearded, was fired after a workplace dispute. Drake&amp;#039;s beard is finally launching its solo career.      I&amp;#039;m dropping my mixtape soon to show I&amp;#039;m the real talent of this partnership. Title is So Far Combed. \u2014 Drakes Beard (@DrakesBeard) June 30, 2011    Drake kept getting cheesecake in it. Drake didn&amp;#039;t actually shave the beard. The photo\u00A0was old, and he shared it in a genius\u00A0ploy to build some meme hype before his\u00A0SNL appearance. The man is a viral marketing master. Drake,\u00A0on the run from authorities, needed to change his appearance as he attempts to prove his own innocence.        "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/grooming/news/a44867/why-drake-shaved-his-beard/>