Why can't we grow beards?

Have you ever tried to put on a gas mask with a beard or long hair so tactically does not make sense to have facial hair

You want a beard profile, go into Special Operations and spend the majority of your life in a shit hole somewhere overseas.

Hell the military in general has all sorts of things that would never happen when i was in. If they can put their masks on let them have beards. Most of these new things I wouldn't want in the military, I'll just let you all figure out what I'm talking about.

Standards are made for a reasons and yes the army has stepped off more then they should of. They really do need to get back to up holding the standards that are in place. Now times are changing understand that so yes I can see something that can be changed. Dress uniform should be worn if not out in the field or if you job IE motor pool jobs or equipment operators. But if you work in an S shop or an office. You should be in dress uniform. And still feel you shouldnt be off post in uniform unless you are picking something up and not just looking around. And facial stop bitching you know when you joined so shut the fuck up

Many of the responses here are exactly what leads to incompetent Soldiers. Telling someone, "It's what the regulation is. Just do it," helps no one and shows you're incapable of thinking through a problem or regulation. If there's a warranted reason for not allowing Soldiers to grow a beard, then state it. If there's not, stop using the, "Well, it's what we've always done so just do it that way." That's the type of thinking that makes our military inefficient.

Because you don't hide like a rat!

Your question is honestly written in a very negative construct and based on a false premise. You state “clearly the army isn’t worried about looking professional or being professional. “ you are simply mistake. They are concerned and most are very professional. But remember we in the military reflect society at large and society as large is incredibly confused right now and seeing the military members come from the national population there will be some of that confusion. We also are a diverse people and celebrate a degree of both diversity WITHIN a standardized uniformity. Are we often hypocritical because we bend to every or many politically correct whims? Yes. But what is needed is holding to a standard more often not throwing all standards out the window because we are not always consistent

Because this Army is still reflecting the societal standards of olden days when gentlemen were soldiers, and those soldiers were well groomed. The Army should reflect its population so yeah, let’s throw in mandatory man buns, beards, and tide pods in MREs

Genetics I guess.

The main reason is very simple protective mask