Shaved heads in basic training; is this mandatory? If it is, then why and why only for males?

The Romans required their soldiers to have short hair (in a time when long hair was the norm for men) to disallow the use of their hair for leverage by the enemy. Equal rights means everyone is treated the same in my book. Men and women should have the same PT standards etc. I am was tickled by SSG Woods' comment though. I also agree that it would be a logistical nightmare to give a every recruit a regulation cut. I just wish the politicians would stop trying to dismantle my Corps all the time.

The hygiene argument is moot if females are not required to shave their heads. And if it's about character (re)building, females should insist on equal treatment.

Haha. I just wouldn't have joined if I had to shave my head. I think a lot of females would feel the same. It would be a major recruitment issue.

Perhaps I’m old school, but I think it’s a tradition and it should stay one.

Donate the females long hair to the organization that makes wigs for cancer victims that lose their hair during treatments.

I suspect (without researching the subject) that shaving the heads of new recruits was originally intended to reveal the presence of lice. That was a big problem, even in “polite society” in earlier times, thus the practice of wearing white wigs to mask the presence of vermin in a person’s hair. Today it also serves to reduce all recruits to a common denominator, so that no one can be seen to be superior in any way to anyone else.

Having walked both sides of the rank structure, the one thing I vividly recall after walking out of the room after the 4 swipes with the cutter was how you couldn’t really recognize folks...we all looked the same, in a way, everyone was on an equal playing field and it was our performance that mattered for the next 9 weeks.

When I joined the Army in the 70's, a number of us asked the drill Sergeants (at the end of Basic and still asked in a respectful manner). The answer they gave was 2 reasons. Most important was the prevention of head lice (and there were a couple that did have head lice, they made us powder our bunks with lice powder) The second reason was tradition, kind of to mark the transition from the civilian world to the military world.
We had no gripes as everyone got their head no shaved, just down to the nubs.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and vice versa

Are you kidding me?! Female soldier here. Y’all are required to shave your heads, we are required to have our hair one solid color. During basic at least, because after basic we can all do whatever *within regulation* we want with our hair. I pay good money to keep my hair blonde, even though it’s naturally red. When I arrived to basic, my roots were showing. I was told I had to buy box hair dye (SO bad for your hair) and return to my natural hair color. I did as I was told and didn’t complain about it. Sounds like you men should just shut up and shave your heads, just like us women have to shut up and dye our hair. And quit playing this “what about equality” BS card. Men are not women and women are not men. We have different standards when it comes to certain things because WE ARE NOT THE SAME. this is not to bash one gender or the other Or to play favorites, it’s just truth. Shave your head, dye your hair, it’s 10 weeks long, suck it up and deal with it, then move on with your life.

The reason for the head shaving of male recruits is to keep head lice out of the barracks. Women are exempt because experience has shown that they know much more about hair care than men.

Shaving a recruits head is part of disease control which is why for the first week every trainee is put into quarters for climate acclamation because of different viruses and colds. All immune systems are different and this allows the body to build anti bodies. Its got nothing to do with slavery or anything else. Its all part of immune isolation.

Equality means same for all. You can not pick and choose which part you want to be equal with.

I have always felt that if women wanted to be 100% equal to men in the military, then they should BE 100% equal to men. They fought long and hard and are now able to volunteer for any job or role in the military that might have formerly only been available to men. However, they have also fought long and hard to keep their hair longer than men. If people are to be equal, then they must BE equal. This reminds me of that religious post about a man wanting to grow a beard because of his religion. This is just another example of how people want to be treated the same but have extra privileges at the same time. Everyone who joins the military knows before they join that they are required to adhere to a certain set of grooming standards, especially in boot camp where you are left with pretty much no hair at all at the start.

The fact that women are considered equals now in terms of all of their job/role opportunities and at the same time women are allowed to grow hair and men are not is simply women all wanting to have something to feel superior to men about. Just like someone being allowed to grow a beard. They do it so they can feel better than their peers. How about instead of trying to find ways where you can do something to feel better or superior to your peers, you do things so that you are all equal?

I hate to bring Hollyweird into this, but famous actresses have been known to shave their heads for roles. Sigourney Weaver shaves her head for Alien3. Demi Moore shaves her head for G.I. Jane (which has the extra added effect of the fact that she did it so she would be more equal to her peers in a military setting). Even for non-action movies, how many actresses have shaved their head to portray someone with cancer going through chemo? Sure, they get paid a lot more, but the bottom line is that if someone wants to play a role (Soldier/Sailor/Marine/Airman (Airperson?)), then they should be willing to commit to that role.

As a parting suggestion for a policy change, I think maybe they should treat it like they did when the Navy wanted to outlaw tattoos on Sailors (not sure what the other branches did, but I heard about the policy changes after I got out). The people who had tattoos were allowed to keep them and not get new ones before they got out. Anyone coming into the Navy after the policy change was not allowed to have a tattoo (visible tattoo? Not sure exactly what the policy was changed to, my memory is poor in my old age, and I'm afflicted with The Dumb quite often) or get one after joining. So maybe allow current female service members to continue their current grooming standards until they get out, but anyone joining after a certain date will be required to adhere to the same grooming standards as everyone else. Just a suggestion.

It was originally done to prevent lice in the barracks at the beginning of training.

Maybe it started as delousing process and lost it’s meaning over time. Probably found it quicker to shave everyone’s hair than a customize haircut.

From what I was told the reason why they do it is fo prevent lise spread.

Well when I was in the Drill Sergeants told us one simple thing and we accepted it that was we all as of enlisting were going to be the best soldiers the United states would ever turn out so that ment every Male was to be uniformed and United that is why when summer you see every single soldier with the bdus folded up I'm the sleeves and trousers bloused in your boots and have you just ever really took notice that every soldier that har to have glasses all wear those same black rim glasses and the last thing the D.I said was how in the holy hell would you like to wake up with somebody else lice don't know about you but some of us don't get lice in our hair we get it down below the belt area so no thank you and to this day I am still bald and once more the girls seem to like my bald head

I'll shave my head if I can have pockets to align my ribbons to. Seriously, they say there are no stupid questions but this makes one wonder. By the by, I saw a few females back in the day have to get the shittiest short cut ever because they couldn't keep their bun in regs. I'd rather shave my head than deal with keeping my hair up in a bun that makes you start balding after awhile. Do you want to wear a skirt too bro? It's a new Army after all.

J