More Grooming Standards

| January 27, 2021

Shocked into motion by the Air Force’s new grooming regs, the Army wasted no time in announcing their own new standards, and the Marines are in a huddle about it. Big Navy is strangely silent on the subject, doubtless in fear of invoking Beards.

David sends.

First,

Army OKs Long Ponytails, Buzz Cuts for Women in Grooming Standards Overhaul

Matthew Cox

The U.S. Army on Tuesday unveiled a set of significant changes to its hair and grooming standards — including long ponytails and buzz cuts for women — intended to meet the needs of more soldiers.

The sweeping changes to the service’s hair and grooming policy are based on soldier recommendations, Sgt. Maj. Brian Sanders, Army G-1, Uniform Policy Branch sergeant major, told reporters at a roundtable.

A special panel, made up primarily of female soldiers, reviewed recommendations from the field on female soldiers’ needs, especially those of Black women, Sanders said. The panel was made up of soldiers from across the service, including Training and Doctrine Command, Army Forces Command, Army Special Operations Command and the Army National Guard.

Read the rest of the article here: Yahoo

Second,

The Marines Could Be the Next Military Service to Get New Grooming Rules

Gina Harkins

Marines could be the next service members to see new hairstyles and other grooming standards approved for wear.

The Marine Corps is currently reviewing its grooming regulations, said Capt. Joe Butterfield, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon. Those regulations cover everything from hair length and styles to tattoo policies, facial hair standards for men, and makeup rules for women.

Marine officials declined to comment on when the review is expected to be complete or what changes could result. Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper in July directed each of the military services to review their appearance standards and policies for racial bias.

The rest of the article may be viewed here: Yahoo
I can hardly wait to see what the Marines come up with. Thanks, David.

Category: Army, Guest Link, Marines

24 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Sapper3307

Men can now were nail polish, peace is closer.

KoB

Don’t like having to meet the standards that the Military sets? Then follow the advice of Mr. George Thoroughly Good! And quitchabitchin’

Green Thumb

“Sgt. Maj. Brian Sanders, Army G-1, Uniform Policy Branch sergeant major”

What. The. Fuck.

Turd.

Green Thumb

I also hoe this clown enforces the the new standards.

Colored hair, tongue rings, long nails, etc.

Maybe waive a lot of the old tattoo policies while they are at it. Seems that we may be marginalizing a very soldier-ready, semi- felonious group that could (with a little training) contribute immediately to the mission.

And I am being very serious.

rgr769

Don’t forget ear gauges.

MI Ranger

I thought you were commenting on Yahoo’s really screwed up use of his rank: “Sgt. MAJ…” is he an enlisted NCO or an Officer?! The Army abbreviates it SGM (not CSM since he is not in a Command position he is Staff), he is an E-9 by paygrade!

Hondo

Actually, believe it or not that’s what the DoD Visual Information Style Guide says to use for the abbreviation in press releases, etc . . . . It’s been that way for years.

https://www.dimoc.mil/Portals/64/DRAFT_InterimVISG_Dec182020_1.pdf

Yeah, I know that doesn’t match the Army’s own abbreviation for the rank. But did you really expect DoD to be consistent about, well, anything? (smile)

xyzzy

It’s SGTMAJ in the Marine Corps. 🤷🏻‍♂️ I know he’s Army, but I need to point out that SGTMAJ is a real rank abbreviation.

ChipNASA

Well, a couple of years ago, I didn’t shave for a few (at least) months, enough to get a pretty solid fuzzy face.
I looked like crap. A friend posted the photo on Book of Face again lately. Now I know why I don’t grow facial hair, besides the color, which is like 3 colors anyway.

Now, my Frankee Cee type hair, that’s a different story. It looks halfway decent. Curly in the back and ends. My sainted mother likes it, but some woman I know think I should cut it short again, like my daughter.

We’ll see when it gets warmer again and I’m sweating. It wasn’t very long, a year ago so…
Come on Springtime.

5JC

Ok but if you are lesbian woman, trapped in the wrong body, but plan on joining to get that fixed and taken care of, can you have a buzz cut in the front and a long pony tail in the back? And maybe a 5 o’clock shadow all day long?

Asking for a soon to be lady friend.

Slow Joe

Why do civilian employees get a matching amount from the Gruberment for the TSP, but those of us in active duty don’t?

Don’t civilians make more money than we do?

KoB

Somebody gots to herd them cats.

Hondo

Slow Joe, it’s for the same reason military personnel can retire at any age with 20 years of service and draw an immediate pension, but civilian employees generally have to wait until their minimum retirement age (56 for FERS, if memory serves) and also have 30 years of credible service. It’s also why military personnel are provided rations and quarters (or receive financial allowances for same) while civilian Federal employees generally do not receive that (overseas service as a Federal civilian employee can be an exception), and why civilian employees have to pay for their medical care while military personnel generally do not.

Bottom line: they’re different personnel systems with very different benefits packages. They’re also targeted at different audiences working under (generally) very different working conditions and often in different environments.

Oh, and the “new” military retirement system does include a TSP match. If you were serving when it came into effect, I believe you had the chance to opt in at that time.

https://www.usa.gov/military-pay

(Yeah, this is off-topic. But I thought the man deserved an answer.)

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH B Woodman Grammar Nazi

Are you SUUUURE this wasn’t plagiarized from the Babylon Bee?

rgr769

How about a unisex mullet for all services. Business in front, party in the back. Plus, the back could be long enough for a ponytail or a man-bun. The Black warriors could sport dread locks like the pro football players.

Green Thumb

This is going to spiral out of control very soon.

Martinjmpr

As the late Fred Thompson once said…

Mustang Major

Spiky, pink hair fast tracks a career, don’t you know.

Sparks

This is not going to end well at all. Every time the military decides to become more progressive and stylish, in order to “accommodate”, Pandora’s box gets reopened and it is damned hard to close again. Uniformity, the very equalizer of the military, goes out the window and we are dealing with fucking individuals again. The same individualism we drilled out of in boot camp.

OWB

Sure. Just throw out the standards. Who needs ’em? They are soooo 1947.

Uniforms should be next. If my hair and yours are not expected to meet the same standards, why should our shirts? Why NOT wear flip flops with blue jeans and T-shirts?

Herbert J Messkit

Maybe they can revisit the liquor policy while deployed soon. I’ve been reading some wwii history lately and Ike, Patton, and others were tieing it on pretty good. I think they were fairly successful

Old 1SG, US Army (retired)

You gotta read the article linked above the original story (Yahoo)…

“This is one way we are working to improve the lives of our soldiers … by putting people first, understanding their concerns, taking action when necessary and maintaining their razor-sharp edge of readiness,” Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, deputy chief of staff for Army Personnel, told reporters in a round table.

The further down you read, the worse it gets.

First we want to identify with whatever effing gender we want, including some that don’t exist… then we want women to have the option to look like men (buzz cuts – which is OK by me), yet we still want to make sure they feel like women, wear nail polish, earrings in ACUs, etc. WTF is going on here?

I can see it coming… you can change your gender identity whenever you want… Private Snuffy decides this week he wants to be a she, and demands a room with a female soldier…

Let’s just go to no standards at all… wear what you want, act and look like whatever you want, show up for duty when you want…

Let’s hope the sh*t don’t hit the fan over the next 4 years.

Claw

Snark Alert:

Old 1SG, one other thing I read in that new AR 670-1 that becomes effective 25 Feb 2021 is they are changing the name of our combat patches from “Former Wartime Service” to “Military Operations in Hostile Conditions.”

To me, that means (snerk) the first time slick sleeve Pvt Snuffy gets an ass-chewing or some wall-to-wall counseling from you or their first line supervisor, (even while stateside) they get to pull their patch from the left sleeve and put it on the right sleeve./smile