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

I was under the impression that it is to help prevent lice and other communicable things that people may have. I mean everyone is coming in from all sorts of places and it makes sense considering lice and other things can't live in a shaved head like that. As far as the females go, I'm not sure why they don't get shaved from the get go, but I do know that besides being professional, the bun also discourages those same things from being transferred easily.

Regardless of what any of your commanders, congress, or your parents say, women and men are not equal. Women do not have to sign up for selective service when they turn 18. There are many things that men can not do that women can and vise versa, but actually being equal is just a lie we all tell to ourselves to make everyone feel better.

Uniformity, cleanliness/more hygienic, team culture identity, and ease of maintenance. They can become an individual again in the range of standards after they become part of the team.

Having served from the end of Vietnam and into the early 90’s I would say that the haircuts are to establish Esprit de Corp, uniformity and maintain hygiene. Women should not have their haircut. If I remember correctly women are required to keep their hair up and above the shoulder and most women that were in the Army when I was had short hair cut that way to ease wearing their uniform.

This is dumb. First male hair grows fast and you dont have time to go for a cut every week do bu the time you graduate it will have grown. Second females just have to tie hair back which takes 3 secs. Men are jot allowed long hair to tie back. Im going to stop because as I said this is dumb, we all know the logical reasons. I would expect this question from a 16 year old high school boy thats being difficult.

Equality across the board. You want equal treatment take equal training. I personally had long "pretty" hair and you bet that the Drills and the Barbers at Ft. Bliss loved every second of watching my reaction to it going to the floor. But HOOAH didn't it make me exactly what I was. A newvpiece of clay to be formed from what had been a paisley civilian lump of coal from the Hillsbof West Virginia, into a lean mean fighting machine lol. But seriously a soldier from that day forward. HOOAH HOOAH HOOAH GO ARMY BEAT NAVY

I have been told it started as a measure to prevent lice in the past. The need has lessened but the practice has not. Since lice don't differentiate between male and female then maybe it's time to treat females the same for hair standards in basic training.

For one thing, unless it has changed, females, had their haircuts in Basic. Not as short as males but definitely not anything like the 20ft exaggerated length amount stated. Also, would not be Reg. Length. Surprisingly, as an experienced medical professional, you should realize Reg. length and for Basic, buzzed hair is best in case of a medical emergency. No hair to get in the way if there's a cut that's just bleeding or worse. The lack of hair expedites the source, type, and treatment.

Although this has been a "rite of passage" at least for males, it has been presented that the rationale behind the shaving was the threat of lice. Men have always been a much larger cohort than women and back in the day women certainly didn't expect to be shaved as that would be an attack on their "femininity". Despite the shaving, there was still an outbreak of "crabs" during my basic class.

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.