Hegseth’s obsession with beards risks jeopardizing religious liberties as the military undergoes an apparent Christian nationalist turn.

The latest edict from beard-obsessed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth adds strict new regulations to his crusade on facial hair, which rights groups have characterized as an attack on troops’ civil liberties.

In a March 11 memo, Hegseth, who has made grooming and appearances a central focus in his time at the helm of the U.S. military, raised the bar to qualify for a religious exemption to his blanket ban on beards. The guidelines lay out a strict new process by which service members may apply for a religious exemption and subject those who’ve already received one to a reevaluation, arguing they need to ensure their religious beliefs are “sincerely held” and have a genuine conflict with the grooming standards.

Service members who have spoken against Hegseth’s focus on grooming standards say his restrictions on beards are exclusionary to people from religious communities that require adherents to follow specific tenets of faith around beards, hair, and other grooming matters.

Sikhs, for example, who have served in the U.S. military since at least World War I, are required by their faith not to cut the hair on their head, to keep a beard, and to wrap their long hair in a turban. Members of many schools of Muslim tradition likewise have rules around beards and hair length.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      60·
      2 days ago

      Nah, he’s just a fucking racist targeting black people (which it’s odd this article doesn’t mention, right alongside with Sikhs).

      https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/06/27/new-army-shaving-policy-will-allow-soldiers-skin-condition-affects-mostly-black-men-be-kicked-out.html

      Most shaving waivers are for soldiers diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a condition in which hairs curl back into the skin after shaving and cause irritation. The Pentagon may cover the laser treatment, but that can cost thousands of dollars per soldier, depending on the number of sessions required. It’s unclear how many soldiers would require the procedure.

      The American Osteopathic College of Dermatology estimates that up to 60% of Black men are affected by the condition. Laser treatments can cause scarring and changes in skin pigmentation.

      “Of course, this is racially motivated,” one senior noncommissioned officer familiar with the plans told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “There’s no tactical reason; you can look professional with facial hair.”

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
      13·
      2 days ago

      Huh, apparently he used to have one when he was on Fox News but they made him shave it: https://www.foxnews.com/video/5829694071001

      And yeah you can see it’s kind of patchy, in the image in OP’s article too. But I don’t think it’s insecurity because he was on live national TV like that. (I also found pictures of him with stubble and he actually looks good like that. But no, the culture war takes priority.)

      • Lemmyng@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 days ago

        Must be a leftover policy from Fox Entertainment stuck in his head.

        After all, Trump’s entire cabinet is just Fox Entertainment on a global scale, figuratively and literally.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      Man it took me way too long to realize the goatee fad in the 00s was because most tweens couldn’t grow a full beard.

      I thought the Joe Dirt:

      You’re just so white trash it grows in like that?

      Was a complete joke, and didn’t have one foot in reality.