Thats strange i have everything up to IKEA and my beards are fine, exept the black amfacefullbeard for him is a fix needed.
After I read your reply, Havelock, I realized that while I had taken out my Downloads folder, my SavedSims was still in there possibly causing the problem.
I pulled my entire Sims2 folder and let the game generate a new one.
Now, in CAS, my thumbnails are no longer blank, so I thought I was halfway to a solution, but they're just deceitful thumbnails.
When I select them, I still get nothing.
Specifically, the missing ones are 6-10 and 15, in other words, everything I'd actually use. I have no idea.