Kaleb Mosley
1/504 HHC 82nd AB
Bco. 1st PLT Medic

Shaving in the Army

It is important to maintain discipline in the army, because essentially your life depends on it. If you forget to bring the battery to your radio, get lazy and don’t keep a low profile,or just say screw it and do what you want. You can get yourself or someone else killed or maimed for life. And apparently shaving is part of that discipline. Here is what the army has to say about male grooming standards.

Male haircuts will conform to the following standards:

The hair on top of the head must be neatly groomed. The length and bulk of the hair may not be excessive or present a ragged, unkempt, or extreme appearance. The hair must present a …show more content…
The reasoning behind this is that with facial hair a soldier cant get a proper seal between his skin and the army issued gas mask. I personally think this is a bogus reason, because its my opinion that if we were attacked with biological or chemical weapons. We would all die because even if we could get it all on in time i seriously doubt it would be affective anyway.

A reason that I myself have recently considered is that it gives us a task to complete for the day. There are many days while in garrison that soldiers sit around and do nothing until its time to go home. Not because they are lazy, but because they simply have nothing to do. So i guess you could say that at the very least we get paid to shave everyday.

The last and final reason I have considered for being a reason we are made to shave is that some of the soldiers cannot grow facial hair. So out of a need to make everyone feel on an even keel and to keep younger or less developed soldiers from feeling insignificant. The army makes those of us who are able to look like Grizzly Adams,shave. So in conclusion you have the “reasons” the army makes soldiers shave. And also you have my one theories on the subject. You can pick and choose the reasons or come up with your own theories. However the cold hard truth is either way we still have to shave. And until the man chopps from the days of Grant and Lee or the goat braids of Leonidus come back. We all will have to