The military is very strict on its policies for shaving in order to make its soldiers look more presentable. In the military’s view every soldier must be clean shaven with the exception of moustaches, profiles, or in the Special Forces. The military thinks shaving is important because it makes soldiers look more professional. In the military’s view full beards and moustaches are unprofessional and undisciplined because it makes soldiers look like they don’t care about their personal hygiene.
However the army allows its soldiers to keep moustaches as long as the moustache is kept within army regulations. The military also thinks that having a full beard and moustache is a safety hazard. The military believes that while in a combat situation a person’s beard could get caught on something or could get caught on the soldier’s weapon. With these risks the army thought that beards could lower a soldier’s combat effectiveness. These risks forced the army to impose a shaving regulation. However there are some exceptions.
Some soldiers break out in rash’s and other medical problems when forced to shave on a daily basis, These soldiers may request a shaving profile that allows them to withhold from shaving for a certain time, However these individuals must still keep their facial hair under a certain length. With the military’s regulation for soldiers keeping clean shaven the military is also teaching discipline. By making a soldier shave everyday they show their discipline by shaving without being told to by their leaders.
It also put’s the soldier on a daily routine that the soldier can complete so that soldiers leadership doesn’t have to take the time out of his/her schedule to correct the soldier. However there are some branches of the military that have shown enough discipline that they have been allowed to grow out their beards and moustaches. One of these branches is the Special Forces. In the Special Forces they sometimes receive missions that require the soldiers to get to certain areas undetected or without drawing attention to themselves.
By growing beards and moustaches Special Forces soldiers can disguise themselves to look like a normal civilian decreasing the attention drawn to them while out on missions, thus reducing the overall risk of their mission. Some other military’s like the German military has no shaving regulation allowing their soldiers to grow beards and moustaches as they please. This gives the German soldiers a more casual look rather than a professional look. In my opinion soldiers should be allowed to grow out their beards and moustaches as long and as thick as they want.
The army is about discipline and control, however like a teenage kid under his parents strict rules a soldier would want to break the rules in order to feel freedom in their lives. By placing regulations on soldiers to constrict the soldiers into doing what one person thinks is the most professional thing, helping a soldier be best prepared to protect his country when in need? What about in a several day conflict against enemy troops? Is a soldier undisciplined or unprofessional because he didn’t shave while bullets were flying over his head?
Maybe not, but the army considers that soldier as undisciplined if that soldier doesn’t shave immediately after coming back from the field. In my eye’s the army is telling that soldier that they don’t care if that soldiers friends died in that conflict, but the army does care about how that soldier looks after the battle. I can see how having facial hair can make some people look unprofessional or undisciplined, but how does that soldier act? Throughout a child’s life in schools and by family members, children are taught not to judge a book by its cover because a book might be more interesting in its context than what the cover perceives.
If that statement is true then why are we saying anyone with facial hair is unprofessional and undisciplined? Special Force’s soldiers are disciplined and protect our country just as much as any other U. S. Army soldier yet they are allowed beards and moustaches. What about the German army? I have seen disciplined and professional soldiers in the German army and many that I have seen had facial hair. If facial hair determines how disciplined or undisciplined and how professional or unprofessional a soldier is then why is shaving now a part of all jobs in the world?
When a soldier returns home from deployment to his family does the army thinks that soldier’s family would think of the army as undisciplined or unprofessional just because that soldier has a full-grown beard and moustache? Or would the family just be happy that their family member arrived back safely and relatively unharmed? In theory every soldier’s job is the same to serve and protect the United States of America. Our forefathers fought for our country, they lived and died to create and defend our country. Many of those forefathers had beards and moustaches.
Does that mean that our forefathers were undisciplined and unprofessional? Does that mean that our forefathers that had beards and moustaches were not fit to lead our forces or that they were less professional than those who were clean shaven? If that is true than it must also be true that people who cannot grow facial hair and children must be more professional than any person who has facial hair. In conclusion even though facial hair is not allowed in the military with the exception of the Special Forces, moustaches, and people on shaving profiles, I believe that they should be allowed.
Not only has some the important figures in America’s history had facial hair and proved they were disciplined and professional enough to lead our country through wars, but soldiers in our Special Forces today have shown that not only do they have discipline, but they are also professionals in their field regardless if they have facial hair or not. Even though I got in trouble for not shaving, a day that I did not have a razor, I do not believe that I was being unprofessional or undisciplined especially since I did not have a razor at the time, but that I did not have the resources at that time to correct a small non-lethal problem.
