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

Both should have their heads shaved. It's about stripping off your old life as you transition to the military. If women want to be equal, they should get treated equally and their grapes should be shaved as well.

The standards in AR 670-1 are different. You can add to but not take away.

Everyone remembers how uncomfortable they were when they got to basic. The haircut is the first moment you look around and realize everyone else is just as uncomfortable as you are. You can’t pretend to be unphased by blood slowly dripping off your scalp. Basic would’ve been an entirely different environment if we didn’t start off on equal ground with the haircuts.

For Basic all heads should be shaved. One thing less to worry about.

Guys. What’s the issue with shaving your head during boot camp? Easy hygiene and maintenance for the next whatever weeks boot camp lasts. One less thing to worry about and enabling recruits to focus on their reason for being and focus on indoctrination and learning.
It’s an insignificant issue in the overall scheme of things.
Women are to have hair length within regulations, if they want to shave their head, they can. I don’t think most guys care one way or the other and leave it up to the ladies to do what they will with their hair.
Hair length is not a significant matter of equality.

I knew it was coming, but I thought I was gonna cry when they lopped off over a foot of hair! I’d never seen my scalp before that day...

As I recall, the original reason for the close buzzcut in Boot was for hygiene, made it easier to get rid of lice and similar problems. Note also the buzzcut was very quick (mine took about 10 seconds as I recall). As to the issue of females, I see no reason why they shouldn't have the same haircut - for the same reasons...

I couldn't even imagine being a military barber having 200 plus males telling me how they want their hair cut. We'd be there for days instead of hours.
I had long hair past my butt when I first joined. It was such a pain keeping it up and maintaining military standards while being smoked by the DS. Don't even get me started with getting my brain bucket or gas mask on quickly and fitting properly.
I finally asked the DS for an appointment with a beautician to cut my hair. He asked me why so I undid my hair. I remember him yelling holy shit private that's a shit ton of hair. He had no clue what to do for me. He had to contact another female DS. We did end up finding some one to cut off my hair. I went from hair past my but to hair above my collar. I thought he was going to shit his pants when I came back to the barracks.

I know Ranger School is different, if you go to ranger then bald head no matter if your male or female

Well it's actually a buzz cut , & technically it's against army regulation to shave head bald with razor ..... & Simply put it more , & most simplest to buzz cut males hair ..... Imagine a platoon of basic recruits or a company of recurits , being picky an just lil cut hear & there .... Buzz cut is quickest & most efficient .... & Best way to get back to training - which is solely reason for basic training ( to learn basic soldiering skills ) i.r. weapons , physical training , & first aide ...... When I was in basic an we got our buzz cuts , every 1 was brand new & officially a new recruit ! An at formation after buzz cut , 1 recruit asked can we shave our head bald .... The drill Sargent in charge of formation , said No , & did not eleborate into full detail , but emphasized no one better shave their head .... Well , the 1 solider that asked , did not shave his head at first ! But there was a brand new 18 yo recruit / ROTC high school vet & decide to go above and beyond & immediately shave his head after formation ..... This was a formation with an e-4 college graduate that on final day before graduation was promoted to e-5 , an award a slot at OCS immediately after basic graduation ! There was also prior service , basic recruit in the company - that had airborned in to pananama an was leg wounded & at this time was the last official airborne operation into forgien land ... Also prior service recruit had to go thru basic bc time had overlapsed in amount of time , no basic is needed for prior service ! But this 18 yo decide to go above and beyond & be the only 1 to shave his head .... Well than recruit that asked in formation followed an was only two recruits to shave head .... When 1 drill Sargent found out was pissed , not sure if the two recruits was pulled aside & smoked , or whole platoon was smoked , or no smoking was done an just quick spoken of in formation than that .... Just had two new recruits , that was told they were best of the best in they high school ROTC class & basic would be a breeze to them because they were junior ROTC studs ! Arrogance is dangerous ? Well the drill Sargent that was bald & shaved his head , kept enabling new recruit with shave head , & yah he got chance to go special forces , he runs like a deer yada yada , .... But still gotta get thru basic to get to next course ? Well the 1st recruit started getting sloppy , basic was to easy for him .... On road marches he started going deeper in the woods on breaks , walking where ever he wanted to , talking in formation when ever he wanted .... His aggronance started being more previlant & entitled day by day .... We had live fire , we were last platoon. To go thru .... It was a cool/cold nite in December ..... As we're lining up on live fire to low crawl , either mount broke or had broken before last platoon was to roll out .... He was said to be rt in middle of line , people start mumbling wow this is really really real , this tracers are flying really low ... Sum start moving to front of line like wow this really really low ! Poof pow wow , cease fire cEASE FIRE ! sum 1 has been shot .... everybody Everybody off the live fire range now ! Bam , the 1 lil arrogant ROTC high school stud - shot rt thru the heart - probably most likely was d.e.a.d , before last basic recruit was rushed off live fire range ... Are basic was pretty much shut down after this , but was passed thru basic & sent onto Christmas exodus once final day of basic .... We were never allowed to complete live fire exercise , but stamped a go at basic .... There was no emphasis on first aide either , just received over empathy an a pass .... We even had to stand in formation , when the family of deceased recruit family was flown in and announce his passing to family ? 18 passed away young , & young for ever & a hero & legend - but left every one behind to deal with this event forever ..... 18 years later can say that new recruit chose easy way out an seen an opportunity to be a hero forever , or simply put his arrgonance costed a live sooner than later ' & the sooner was his own life ... Basic is a introduction to miltary system of crawl , walk run .... But there are people that chose they are better than basic an that they are ready to run wild ..... An even simplest thing of a buzz cut is part of the process ! It's like a tuck march : you wanna know the secret to a tuck march ssg burns .... Shhh are you the only 1 listening ; ok , 1 foot in front of another ..... Ok a shaved head , immediately after going to buzz cut formation - was not his immediately passing ; but did lead to aggorance being engulfed by a young 18 year old as invincible ! As a mental health specialist SSG burnd, short term , term & long term how would you feel this could & can affect fellow basic recruits at that time , bc a 18 yo basic recruit wanted to reinvent the basic wheel or just felt basic applied to other recruits but not him ? .....