Do cricketers improve with facial hair?

Once again England are looking like a decent one-day side (SA 167-8 as I write), forcing me turn to the blog in confusion

I see that Steve Harmison has again bowled well, removing Hashim Amla, the only South African batsman to really get going. He is also sporting a fairly trendy goatee, as he likes to do now and again. Maybe it’s just me, but I think he bowls better, and more menacingly, when he has a beard. I also find Corey Collymore with a beard is a few miles quicker and a bit more intimidating than when clean shaven.

And this got me thinking that, Cricinfo, for all its statistical brilliance, does not break down cricketers’ careers into periods when they have facial hair and periods when they don’t. This is a shame. I am convinced that facial hair improves a cricketer’s performance and that Steve Harmison and Corey Collymore's figures would back this up.

I’d be interested to know if this theory holds true elsewhere. Did David Boon or Merv Hughes ever have clean-shaven phases to their careers? How did they perform?