 "New 'grooming standards' for Trump's Department of War: 'Clean shaven, neat in presentation'")
With a new name came new grooming standards. The Pentagon has updated its rules on how service members should present themselves to the world. Now, they will be required to “be clean-shaven and neat in presentation for a proper military appearance.”
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has directed “the Services to implement the following grooming standards for facial hair,” following “a rapid force-wide review of military standards.”
“The grooming standard set by the US military is to be clean-shaven and neat in presentation for a proper military appearance,” Hegseth said, according to Parnell.
Last week, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War. The move was a callback to the original name of the department from 1789 to 1947.
What are the new standards now?
As per the new rules, military medical officers will issue a written recommendation regarding a shaving waiver, which will then be reviewed by the commander, who has the final say. Service members granted a waiver must follow a prescribed medical treatment plan.
Parnell said, “Commanders must apply consistent criteria and appropriately consider the Department’s interests in safety and uniformity when authorising individual exceptions.”
The new rules bar men from using clear nail polishes and disallow women from wearing lipstick, fake eyelashes and coloured nail paints, while only natural hair colours are allowed for both genders.
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More ShortsWhat’s the Department of War?
The Department of War, as it was once called, was first established by President George Washington when he founded the country’s Army. However, the name was changed later in 1949 as part of a broader reorganisation of the military under then-President Harry Truman.
At that time, Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947, which merged the Department of the Navy, the newly created Department of the Air Force, and the Department of the Army, previously known as the Department of War, into one organisation called the National Military Establishment.
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