I watched the original (Series 1, Episode 1) Gavin and Stacey on iPlayer last night ... and (perhaps a link I followed, perhaps a co-incidence) later read a piece about just how much had changed since then - with all the smoking indoors, the flip phones, the paying of Severn Bridge tolls.   

On rail ... even pictures less than three years old look distinctly dated:

I'm sorry to report that I've found looking younger after shaving off a beard only lasts a few weeks until anyone who knows you has got used to it.

It must be nearly 40 years since I last shaved off my beard, and then immediately started growing it again. The first comment I received when I went into work the next day was "You've grown a moustache". Presumably they thought they grew instantaneously.