Are grooming standards in the military outdated and without purpose?

Can't tell you how many times I saw a CSM go ape crazy after seeing a route clearance patrol come in after three days outside the wire trying to get hot chow with beard stubble before the DFAC Closed. Certainly feel there is massive room for improvement especially in the combat environment. Discipline in appearance does not equal combat effectiveness or combat discipline, in fact in many instances perfectly capable soldiers are discounted due to their gruffness or lack of administrative skills.

This is a complicated question because there are many factors to consider for why relaxed grooming standards can be necessary. To start off with, you can't shed a high and tight over night, nor can you grow a beard over night. Longer hair distances the impression that someone could be a service member in environments where a service member is looking to maintain a low profile. Beards sometimes are called for for cultural reasons, and they also can defeat many types of facial recognition technology (also the reason why some service members are encouraged to wear sunglasses in media heavy environments).

That said, I've seen plenty of cases where relaxed grooming standards are used when they are completely unnecessary. There is the mistaken idea that anytime you deploy to a predominantly Muslim country you must have a beard. The reality is that in many Muslim countries, the only people wearing huge beards are radical Islamist and jihadis. Long shaggy hair is also seen as inappropriate because in many countries, it is associated with being unkept and unprofessional.

In almost any environment, visible tattoos are a bad idea for more reasons than I have time to get into. I find it idiotic that some guys try to justify relaxed grooming standards to maintain a low profile while they have tattoos up their neck and down to their wrists (I'm looking at you MARSOC).

However to be perfectly honest, a lot of reasons why the military went to clean shaven and high and tights are outdated. Beards don't prevent you from sealing a gas mask. While skin conditions and parasites can be an issue, it is nowhere near what was in past decades because of improvements to personal hygiene products.

I do think that there should be a little more give in a combat environment in terms of grooming based on the situation. A patrol coming in from a 3 day recon mission shouldn't have shaving as a top priority before they can get a hot meal. Rushing shaving when you are dirty and using reclaimed water can actually increase the chances of infection. Still, the average service member doesn't need to run around looking like a ZZ Top knockoff.

The combat beards are to help folks be accepted by the locals in the mid east. I never figured out the purpose for running around half necked though. Sun burn sucks and is a vector for infections. I always had a flat top and tight taper to help keep critters from latching on.