{"id":232988,"date":"2025-09-17T04:48:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232988\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T04:48:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T04:48:36","slug":"pentagon-says-troops-can-only-be-exempt-from-shaving-their-facial-hair-for-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/232988\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon says troops can only be exempt from shaving their facial hair for a year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">WASHINGTON &#8212; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops who need an exemption from shaving their facial hair for longer than a year should get kicked out of the service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">While commanders are still able to issue service members exemptions from shaving \u2014 a policy that has existed for decades \u2014 they will now have to come with a medical treatment plan, Hegseth said <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/Sep\/15\/2003799859\/-1\/-1\/1\/GROOMING-STANDARDS-FOR-FACIAL-HAIR.PDF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">in an Aug. 20 memo made public Monday<\/a>. Troops who still need treatment after a year will be separated from service, the memo says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cThe Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos,\u201d Hegseth wrote in his memo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Most shaving waivers are for troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hair curls back into the skin after shaving and causes irritation. It is a condition that disproportionately affects <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/met-gala-black-men-fashion-history-740e7a2eb3f132040ae7dd0be03b9163\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Black men<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The memo is silent on what treatments the military would offer for troops affected by the new policy or if it will front the cost for those treatments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">It is also unclear if policies like broad exemptions from shaving for special forces troops who are in operational settings or soldiers stationed in the Arctic climates of Alaska where shaving can pose a medical hazard in the extreme cold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The announcement, which applies to all the military services, comes as the Army announced <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.army.mil\/article\/288397\/army_updates_standards_for_appearance_grooming_uniform_wear_in_new_directive\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">its own grooming standard update<\/a>. The Army significantly curtailed acceptable appearance standards for soldiers, with female standards receiving the most revisions, including for nails, hairstyles, earrings and makeup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON &#8212; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops who need an exemption from shaving their facial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[125466,347,57,51,8132,50,52,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-232988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-125466","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-military-and-defense","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-top-stories","15":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115217833949950938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}