The Army is eliminating permanent shaving waivers and will boot soldiers who can't meet grooming requirements, even those with medical conditions that make shaving painful or harmful, a controversial shift that disproportionately affects Black service members.
Under the new rules, soldiers will no longer be able to rely on indefinite exemptions, the service announced Tuesday. Troops will be granted short-term shaving exemptions if they require it, but will be removed from the service if they are on those waivers for 12 months during a two-year period. Military.com first reported on the plans two weeks ago.
"This is about uniformity, discipline and standards, and this is about training," Steve Warren, a service spokesperson, told reporters Tuesday.
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The move comes as the Pentagon conducts a broader review of grooming and appearance policies across the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has made culture war messaging central to his tenure, has criticized grooming accommodations aimed at minority troops. In his recent book "The War on Warriors," Hegseth wrote that such accommodations "had to go -- because of equity."
Shaving waivers are mostly for soldiers with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB -- a chronic inflammation disorder that can cause skin irritation and scarring and affects 60% of Black men, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology.
The condition, in some cases, can be alleviated with complex skin care routines involving numerous lotions and treatments. However, permanent treatment would likely need laser hair removal, which the military may cover, but could cost tens of thousands of dollars per service member. Those treatments can also cause scarring and changes in skin pigmentation.
The new policy will allow the continuation of religious exemptions. However, all of those waivers will need to be reviewed by the first lieutenant colonel in a soldier's chain of command and re-approved within three months.
PFB became a major issue during the service's racial integration during the Vietnam War, according to Army research from the time. The issue lingered for decades.
"Usually, the first phase treatment should be to discontinue shaving and allow beard growth for up to 30 days," a 600-page 1994 Army medical report said. "To prevent PFB, one needs only grow a beard. Unfortunately, this is contrary to military regulations. This simple fact has created much strife."
The report noted troops with PFB should "never" attempt a close shave and added that research into whether troops with short beards could seal gas masks in the event of chemical attacks revealed no issues.
"In the past, the lack of a consistent policy regarding shaving requirements and the management of PFB from an administrative as well as medical viewpoint turned a relatively minor medical problem into a major social issue," the Army's 30-year-old report added. "Racial tension over this led to public demonstrations and even frank mutiny by disgruntled Black enlisted members in the 1970s."
Army officials have pushed back on criticism that the policy change is racially motivated, noting that the number of shaving waivers has doubled in recent years from roughly 20,000 in 2019 to more than 40,000 today. Over that same period, the proportion of Black recruits rose significantly, from 19% of enlistments to nearly one-quarter, according to Army data.
Warren said that the new policy is "not focused on any specific group."
That recruitment spike coincided with the pandemic and broader shifts in the Army's approach to accommodating troops from diverse backgrounds backed by senior leaders.
"If you soldiers have a valid exception to policy, we have to be accepting. Just because a soldier doesn't look like you or act like you, doesn't mean it's wrong," Tony Grinston, who was the service's top enlisted leader at the time, said at a 2021 soldier town hall. "If there is an exception to policy, there should be no leader telling a soldier to shave. We have to do better than that."
