i've tried copying templates of other units that have beards but i haven't had any success.. it seems like there's possibly maybe some kind of coding associated to unit tiers as well as culture that dictates whether or not the unit will have a beard or how it looks.. this is my theory so far im not a modder or familiar with code.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean, but the soldiers will have a variety of beards and appearances/height etc by default.

i was trying to customize some of the units from having no beard to having a beard but i couldnt change anything. i even tried copying the template of another unit that had a beard but that didnt work either.

I'm still confused... You understand beards are randomized by individual unit, right? So, even if your guy in the preview doesn't have a beard, when you see them in battle they'll have a variety of different/no facial hair depended on which culture they have.

If it's some other problem and I'm not understanding lmk