Hegseth orders about face on Pentagon's slipping grooming standards

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The Pentagon unveiled a new overhaul of grooming standards to further ensure service members are 'clean-shaven' this week. 

War Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered that troops needing a medical exemption can retain facial hair for one year as long as they are following a plan to treat the condition. After that, they must remove facial hair or face separation. 

"The Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos," Hegseth wrote in an Aug. 20 memo made public on Monday. 

Leadership will also be required to conduct a review of how grooming standards have changed over the last decade. 

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"The grooming standard set by the U.S. military is to be clean-shaven and neat in presentation for a proper military appearance," Hegseth said, according to the statement by chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell.

"Commanders must apply consistent criteria and appropriately consider the department's interests in safety and uniformity when authorizing individual exceptions," Parnell added.

The memo did not mention whether troops would still be allowed to sport a mustache, as they have been for decades. Hegseth's office did not return a request for clarification in time for publication. 

Most shaving waivers are for troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition where the hair curls back toward the skin after shaving and causes irritation. 

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Hegseth's memo did not address religious accommodations. The Army began granting beard exemptions in 2017 after pressure from Sikh soldiers, for whom uncut facial hair is a religious requirement.

Some troops soon tested the policy's boundaries. In 2018, one soldier won approval for a beard by claiming adherence to the Norse Pagan faith, identifying himself as a Heathen.

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In 2019, Army Spc. John Hoskins pushed the limits by applying for a religious exemption and claiming to belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a faith known as "Pastafarianism."  He was denied. 

The Army announced an update to its grooming standards this week, also defining authorized hairstyles and ponytail lengths for female soldiers, who are permitted to wear only clear nail polish.