A few years ago everyone was singing his songs. Now he’s unrecognizable.

But just because David Letterman said goodbye to the daily grind of television didn’t mean he vanished entirely. In fact, when he re-emerged, it was with a look that took many by surprise. Gone was the familiar clean-shaven face and perfectly coiffed hair, replaced instead by a scruffy, snowy white beard that seemed to transform him into a sage-like figure.

I’m not entirely sure that the average person would recognize him if they bumped into him on the street or saw this TV giant out for a jog. Even though many know that David has grown out his beard, it has, along with his aging, created a completely different image than the one we saw on television for decades.

Strike beard

The first shock for many came when new photos of the former Late Show host revealed a dramatic post-retirement transformation. Images from 2016, when Letterman was spotted jogging in St. Barts, showed a bald, bearded, and unrecognizably casual man, a stark contrast from the clean-cut TV personality fans were used to seeing.

However, this wasn’t the first time Letterman had left his razor untouched. Back in 2007-2008, the Writers Guild of America strike was a major event that affected nearly all late-night talk shows. Many hosts put their shows on hold during that period, but David Letterman chose to pay his entire staff’s salaries out of his own pocket until the end of the year. In solidarity with the strikers, he also joined other hosts in growing a ”strike beard.”

But in the summer of 2008, Dave’s scruffy look finally met a razor in a memorable episode, a moment that still brings a smile to many fans’ faces today.

But that 2008 beard was nothing compared to the facial hair David sports today.