Funny this should come up... I missed this post yesterday. I was in the Bear Cave with Alex (A2VR6) tonight and we watched a piece on the CBC with Peter Masbridge where he spent some time on a research vessel in the High Arctic. The Captain of the Amundsen has a full beard as did many of the good men who worked on it. I actually asked Alex if he remembered you mentioning that you might have to shave.
Different rules for up there I guess?
Link to the sory (the piece starts in the 12th minute)
http://www.cbc.ca/ondemand/news/thenational.asx (note the link will probably only be good until 10 pm on the 27th)