My facial hair came in at the end of 8th grade when I was 14. It wasn't patchy. It wasn't that disgusting, thin blonde crap with a few stray, thick black hairs that some people love to annoyingly grow out, and it wasn't uneven. It just straight up showed up and was there to stay. Sure it was a fledgling beard at the time, but it had none of the familiar symptoms of a pubescent kids facial hair that I mentioned above.
I've done essentially every [non-retarded] beard style at least twice except for mutton chops because I think any form of mutton chops is redneck-looking, nerdy, nasty, and pretty stupid overall (sorry weegee & wiggles).
Now I just keep it trimmed and neat, like a few days past stubble. Its uniform and feels good.
My growth rate. Eh, hm, let's see. My high school had a no beard rule. If I shaved that morning, I'd be okay, but if I shaved the night before, I'd be in trouble by 5th period for having 5 o' clock and be sent to the nurses office to shave, so I guess that explains it. This happened basically every day and it was $1 to shave.