Can a Commander direct a soldier to shave their mustache and/or their entire head?

2021-06-08T14:50:49-04:00

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.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 8 at 2021 5:09 PM

2021-06-08T17:09:42-04:00

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.

Response by SSG Brian G. made Jun 9 at 2021 12:03 AM

2021-06-09T00:03:39-04:00

A lot of what you run into with regs is "grey area material" meaning that it is widely open for interpretation. Such the wording that states "neat and conservative" appearance. This allows a fairly wide latitude for commander and NCO discretion in terms of what is allowable and not.

It could be suggested that they shave their mustache or even their heads but not ordered unless there was a specific mission requirement that called for just that.

Response by SSG Edward Tilton made Jun 9 at 2021 1:43 PM

2021-06-09T13:43:28-04:00

Hair lice

Response by SP5 Robert Kennedy made Jun 9 at 2021 5:09 PM

2021-06-09T17:09:25-04:00

Back on March 13, 1968 I lost several of my best friends. One of them begged me to trade duties for the day and said "he'd owe me" if I did. The two of us had a rough two days together preceding the mission, and I traded with him. He was killed doing my job as were two others that I felt I was responsible for. I "grief" shaved my head that night and the next morning SFC Lynch, the Operations NCO (who found me to be his favorite "whipping boy") saw my head and told me he was going to Court Marshall me for doing so. Later the CO summoned me and asked me what was up with this SFC Lynch fiasco. We talked for a few minutes and contrary to busting me back to E-1, as Lynch requested, I was promoted to E-3.
Lynch's premise was that in the extreme heat and sun of SE Asia, hair protects the head from overheating and to shave the scalp was to invite heat stroke - thereby rendering government property (me) useless in potential extreme circumstances. I don't know if that's true, but that was how he planned to keep me under his thumb - and it backfired on him.

Response by Lt Col Jim Coe made Jun 9 at 2021 10:59 PM

2021-06-09T22:59:52-04:00

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.

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Jun 11 at 2021 2:34 PM

2021-06-11T14:34:30-04:00

SSG Private RallyPoint Member One of the Few Pictures in My 21 Years in the Navy Without My "Stache" LOL!