Overview
- Defense Department memos instruct all branches to revert to pre-2010 grooming rules, stating facial-hair waivers are generally not authorized and setting 60-day implementation with full enforcement by 90 days.
- Religious accommodations will require documentation of sincerity, with many approvals restricted to non-deployable roles at low risk of chemical exposure or firefighting.
- Medical shaving waivers, including for pseudofolliculitis barbae, are capped at one year with treatment plans, after which commanders may initiate separation if the condition persists.
- In a Quantico address, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized a return to strict standards and said those seeking beards could serve in special forces, which retain narrow operational exceptions.
- Sikh advocacy groups and civil-rights organizations condemned the directive as discriminatory, while Shiromani Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal urged India’s foreign minister to raise the issue with the U.S. government.