Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pressing military leaders to more aggressively enforce the Pentagon’s stricter beard policy after noticing several sailors with beards during a recent visit to a Navy ship.

Hegseth’s beard policy aligns with stricter EEO reforms

The visit, which took place as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated, reportedly left Hegseth questioning whether service members were following his workplace directives, CNN reported.

After the June visit, Pentagon officials reportedly told subordinates that Hegseth was “paying close attention” to the implementation of the beard policy and other workplace changes, with one official writing in an email that “the push is to move faster” and that existing timelines needed to be revamped.

Hegseth tightened the military’s beard policy through a September memo, arguing that facial hair can interfere with protective equipment and declaring, “No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done,” according to CNN.

How the updated beard policy affects Black sailors

Under updated Navy guidance, sailors diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB), a painful skin condition commonly known as razor bumps that disproportionately affects Black men, may receive temporary shaving waivers while undergoing treatment, according to the Navy Times, a service memo and the Mayo Clinic. The waivers can be renewed for up to 12 months, but sailors whose condition is deemed permanent and remains unmanageable after a year of treatment may be evaluated for administrative separation.

Before any discharge can occur, the sailor must undergo a medical evaluation, complete the prescribed treatment plan and have the case reviewed through the chain of command, according to the memo. The guidance applies to both active-duty and reserve sailors.

Navy officials said the updated grooming standards are intended to ensure facial hair does not interfere with breathing equipment and to maintain operational readiness. Administrative separations under the new guidance will not begin until one year after the policy was issued to give commands time to implement the changes.

The memo also requires commands to track sailors with medical shaving waivers and conduct quarterly readiness evaluations for those assigned to positions that may require respiratory protective equipment.

What are critics saying about the beard policy?

Critics argue the policy disproportionately affects Black service members because PFB is significantly more common among Black men. Richard Brookshire, co-founder of the Black Veterans Project, shared how the policy affects them.

The policy “allows for an environment of hostility to our Black troops in uniform because it opens them up to greater harassment from their senior enlisted,” Brookshire told CNN. “It opens them up for … disciplinary action for a treatable condition that the military had been adequately treating for well over a decade.”

He continued, “You’re talking about getting rid of well-qualified, patriotic, lethal soldiers at a time our country is propagating new and complex wars, after spending quite literally millions of dollars to train these men and women.”