Grew a beard, and suddenly people treat me like someone else

I grew a beard and started dressing more simply, and suddenly old friends look at me like I turned into a different man. At the reunion in the café on the Maas I laughed at the same jokes, but someone joked, half-serious, that I must be 'strict now' and the group shifted. A few texts went unread after I said I was going to zakah night. I find quiet certainty in sujood and my little kitchen at fajr, yet I feel awkward around people who knew the man before the beard. Has this happened to you, and how did you live both the change and the friendships?