It’s been wielded as a weapon of intimidation in conflicts all through historical past. More just lately, it’s been topic to an outright ban by the highest brass.
But the beard — solely in its most neatly trimmed kind, thoughts you — is having fun with a groundswell of assist on the grass-roots/stubble stage in militaries all over the world, together with within the U.S., the place a historic recruiting shortfall has left Pentagon leaders scrambling to seek out new methods to fill the ranks.
While most high army officers nonetheless vehemently defend the decades-long establishment on facial hair, some companies appear to have cracked open the door to alter amid an more and more vocal protest. An on-line petition calling on the Army to permit beards, began in 2021, now boasts over 107,000 signatures.
And the motion has stretched nicely past American shores, to some unlikely locations. Just months earlier than his demise in a still-mysterious airplane explosion final August, Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin blasted the Russian military’s beard ban, calling it an “absurd” coverage and saying its supporters are clinging to “archaisms from the 1960s.”
To be truthful, few are calling for full facial hair anarchy. It appears inconceivable that an array of handlebar mustaches, mutton chop sideburns and ZZ Top-style scruff would all of a sudden turn out to be frequent within the ranks of the planet’s most disciplined preventing forces.
But, utilizing historical past as a information, analysts say it’s doubtless that at this time’s extremely restrictive insurance policies will finally get a trim.
“I think the standard has always been that they want the military to look clean-shaven. It has to do with looking clean and tidy. But at various points, that has been relaxed,” stated Alun Withey, a professor on the University of Exeter who research the historical past of male facial hair tendencies.
“It happened in the 19th century, partly because of ideas about what a manly ideal should be,” he stated in an interview. “At various points around the Napoleonic wars and again around the mid-19th century, beards became symbols of the rugged, ultra-masculine guy.”
Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee each sported beards, and a transparent majority of their Civil War commanders featured facial hair as nicely.
“The idea is, you stick these hairy guys at the front of your marching army and it signals to the enemy that these are the guys that are going to kick your ass,” Mr. Withey stated, including that in some situations all through historical past, armies even supplied false beards to the unlucky troopers who couldn’t develop their very own.
The U.S. army’s trendy beard coverage has its roots within the World War I period. Facial hair was seen as an obstacle to a correctly fitted masks, which might be essential within the occasion of a chemical fuel assault. For that purpose, the Army prohibited beards, kicking off a coverage that for essentially the most half has remained in place for over a century. The service does permit beards for non secular or medical causes, together with some neatly trimmed mustaches.
The Air Force has an identical coverage, banning full beards with some exceptions, and permitting well-groomed mustaches.
The Navy allowed beards for a lot of its historical past however banned them within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, as did the Coast Guard. Those insurance policies largely introduced the entire army companies into alignment, making a extra uniform look for these in uniform.
Many of the exceptions are on non secular grounds. Earlier this yr, for instance, a federal appeals court docket dominated in favor of two Sikh Americans looking for to affix the Marine Corps with out shaving their beards.
And elite Special Forces personnel, famously, get pleasure from relaxed facial hair requirements.
Relax the foundations?
The tips differ drastically from nation to nation. NATO ally Canada, for instance, permits its troops to have well-groomed beards. So, too, do the Netherlands and Italy. France largely prohibits beards on its active-duty troops.
In Britain, the Royal Air Force permits beards on a case-by-case foundation.
“A request must be made to the commanding officer in writing prior to any member of the RAF growing a beard. Only full beards that are kept short and neatly trimmed will be permitted. The station warrant officer, on behalf of the station commander, will act as the final arbiter of what is, or is not, acceptable,” the coverage reads.
The British military additionally permits beards on a person foundation, although the department seems way more restrictive, and beards are usually allowed just for non secular causes. But the British military is reportedly revisiting that coverage, partly out of hope that permitting bearded males to enroll might assist deal with what’s turn out to be a historic recruiting disaster on its aspect of the Atlantic as nicely.
In the U.S., proponents say the beard is merely one facet of what’s been a broader transfer to re-think and chill out sure guidelines and laws within the hopes of attracting a wider pool of expertise.
“With all of the progressive change in the U.S. Army’s policy on uniform wear and appearance, it is only right that soldiers should be able to grow beards in a garrison environment. If earrings, pony tails, and nail polish do not take away from the image of professionalism, then a beard should not either,” the pro-beard petition on Change.org reads.
But key decision-makers aren’t satisfied.
“Is the beard relevant? Is there a need for a beard other than personal comfort to not shave?” Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Ramon Colon-Lopez, who till just lately served because the senior enlisted adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated throughout a Facebook dialogue final March.
“If you want to look cute with your skinny jeans and your beard, by all means, do it someplace else,” he stated, in line with the information outlet Stars and Stripes. “But quit wasting our time on something that doesn’t have anything to do with kicking the enemy’s ass.”
Indeed, specialists say it’s value contemplating whether or not a change to facial hair laws is actually one of the best ways to drag in additional recruits.
“What they’re worried about is the thin end of the wedge,” stated Mr. Withey, the University of Exeter professor. “If you allow beards, do you say, ‘Well, if you smoke a few joints now and then, we don’t have a problem with that?’ If we let the standards go completely, do we lose some control?”
