Posted on Jun 8, 2021
Can a Commander direct a soldier to shave their mustache and/or their entire head?
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Had an interesting back and forth with an NCO today. He jokingly a Soldier he wanted him to shave his mustache. This turned into a conversation between the two of us of if a Commander could actually direct that. He said a Commander could, so I asked if by extension a Commander could direct all males in their unit shave their head, to which he also said they could since you can always add to the reg (this is all hypothetical, nobody is being directed to do this in my unit). Curious what the consensus is out there if this accurate or not, if anybody has dealt with this and if so were they successful in fighting, and if a Commander could indeed direct all males in their unit to shave their head, if they could direct all females to as well.
DA Pam 670-1
Grooming Standards
Commander
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 6
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If a SM has a mustache that is within regulations, no the commander cannot order them to shave it off. Nor an NCO.
I don't think that a commander could require every soldier to shave their heads - the only exception would be if it was required for the mission for some reason. With the updates to female grooming standards, now women we can shave our heads if we choose though. We used to have a minimum length and could not shave our heads prior to that.
I don't think that a commander could require every soldier to shave their heads - the only exception would be if it was required for the mission for some reason. With the updates to female grooming standards, now women we can shave our heads if we choose though. We used to have a minimum length and could not shave our heads prior to that.
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SSG (Join to see) One of the Few Pictures in My 21 Years in the Navy Without My "Stache" LOL!
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Under normal circumstances I would say "no." A commander could promote a command climate that rewards clean shaven service members or even SM with shaved heads. This could also be a unit tradition that the commander supports through his own appearance. I'm not saying this would be good judgment, but it could happen. Way back in the 1970s and early 1980s there was an unwritten rule that male officers did not have facial hair in their official photos. Many captains and majors who normally wore in-regulation mustaches shaved them off for their official photo that would appear in their promotion board record. In many Army units I loaded aboard aircraft all the male Soldiers wore "high and tight" haircuts.
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