nom, I’ll take the words of the chofetz chaim over your wikipedia information – he writes in tiferes odom that it was most definitely the practice of klal yisroel to have beards, and that it is part of the tzurah of a Jew.
it’s the opposite…it wasn’t until Italian Jews began removing their beards that such a thing ever existed.
while it was not assur (and still is not assur) to use things aside from a razor, that doesnt mean that Jews removed their beards…the rishonim also say that “megalchin” used in the mishnah doesn’t mean to remove a beard, but rather trimming.