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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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Is part of Hegseth's mental health problems that he can't grow a beard. It wouldn't be the first time in history (Alexander the Great famously count grow a beard and forced his troops to be clean-shaved).
From my understanding, it's to keep black people from serving. They have to be clean shaven and unfortunately black people tend to get really bad razor bumps which isn't accepted.
There was in fact an exception process that Hegseth removed
No epi-ladies, only warriors!
New dog whistle unlocked.
It's also about gas masks, can't from a seal with a beard.
That's the excuse, and the logic appears to make sense, but I think I recall it being tested and not really being much of a factor. That's what makes it a good dog whistle though. People will rush to say "it makes them unfit for duty because the equipment won't function" without looking further, so then the racist policies get protected and they don't have to actually justify the racism.
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-beards-break-gas-mask-seal/
Yeah :(
Lack of evidence is not evidence of absence, just because a study hasn't been conducted does not mean beards don't interfere with wearing a gas mask.
Not having a jaw would probabry affect it too but there's no studies on that, yet nobody would claim it wouldn't
I've seen it tested, and it doesn't really. I have no idea if there's studies on that but, like you said, there isn't evidence, so why would we have this restriction? If they actually cared about this reasoning, they'd put money into testing it. However, disproving it would remove their ability to use it to justify exclusion, if this is the reason instead of functionality.
Just think about it. If you put enough force on beard hairs they are pretty firmly against the skin. They don't push the gas mask away. There aren't really going to be any gaps. It just doesn't logically make sense if you consider it for more than a second.
I have a beard and it affected the seal and operation of a GP5 gas mask when I had to wear one, which is quite a feat if you've seen a GP5 mask
I'm not familiar with what the US is doing but politicians make retarded changes all the time knowing anything about what they are doing or how things work in the real world
Sounds fake
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/hegseth-military-shave-waiver-black-troops/
Yeah, why would this white supremacist administration make racist policies?
This impacts at most 16300 troops, and there are 162000 black men in service. They're going to need a much better strategy to get the blacks out if it's racially motivated... Not to mention the 60000 black women unaffected by this
~10%? That’s a pretty solid fraction, certainly not bad when you still need to maintain plausible deniability.
That figure includes whites and you're comparing it to black men only. Blacks in service represent 60% of the diagnosis so only 60% of that figure can be expected to be black men.
I.e. closer to 4%
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/military-beards-break-gas-mask-seal/
It's impossible to prove intent, but it is a policy of systemic racism. Intentional or not, it does have the effect of preventing black people from serving, or from being promoted.
It had to be difficult leading an army that's largely Greek and unable to grow a beard