Overview

• Following a Sept. 30 address at Quantico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senior leaders the era of “beardos” and broad shaving profiles is over, adding, “If you want a beard, join Special Forces; if not, shave.”
• A Pentagon memo orders a reversion to pre‑2010 grooming rules, states facial hair waivers are generally not authorized, sets 60‑day implementation and 90‑day full enforcement, and defers applicants who cannot comply.
• Religious accommodations now require documentation of the sincerity of belief and may be confined to non‑deployable, low‑risk roles for chemical exposure or firefighting.
• Medical shaving waivers for conditions such as pseudofolliculitis barbae are capped at 12 months, after which commanders are directed to initiate separation if treatment must continue.
• Sikh advocacy groups, civil‑rights organizations, and veterans call the policy discriminatory toward Sikhs, Muslims, Orthodox Jews and Black troops, and SAD leader Sukhbir Singh Badal has asked India’s external affairs minister to raise the issue with the U.S. government.