Defense Secretary Demands Action Over Violations of Navy Beard Policy

Amidst the escalating tensions that threatened to reignite the US-Iran conflict in recent weeks, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made what was intended to be a standard visit to a Navy vessel.

However, the visit was disrupted by the issue of facial hair: Hegseth observed several sailors with beards, seemingly in direct violation of the stringent grooming regulations he introduced last year. This information stems from a defense official and internal communications reviewed by CNN, which highlight the defense secretary's demands for immediate corrective measures.

Hegseth reportedly departed the vessel questioning whether the broader military personnel were actually adhering to his facial hair guidelines, alongside other workplace policy adjustments he has spearheaded.

In the aftermath of the June visit, officials at the Pentagon convened multiple meetings, instructing their subordinates that Hegseth is rigorously tracking the implementation of the grooming standards and other operational shifts. Furthermore, they emphasized the mounting pressure from political leadership to accelerate these directives.

“I want to highlight that the Secretary of Defense is closely observing the advancement of the EEO [Equal Employment Opportunity] initiatives,” a Pentagon official managing civilian personnel policies wrote in a June email to colleagues. “Indeed, the current mandate is to expedite the process... we must reassess and accelerate some of our projected timelines.”

This incident underscores Hegseth's intense concentration on personnel regulations, particularly those carrying cultural implications, even amidst ongoing US military operations spanning from Iran to the Caribbean. The 46-year-old veteran of the Iraq war has notably introduced Christian prayer gatherings at the Pentagon and threatened to cut ties with Scouting America, citing its progressive policies.

It remains unclear precisely which ship inspection triggered Hegseth's renewed enforcement. According to Pentagon records, he visited the USS Carl Vinson in San Diego during June and the USS Boxer in Singapore earlier in May.

When approached for a comment, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell stated: Hegseth “holds the utmost expectations for our military personnel to maintain the professional benchmarks of appearance, physical readiness, and discipline that characterize our combat forces, and he consistently stresses the uniform application of hair, weight, and grooming criteria across every rank.”

Military leaders “will face accountability for producing outcomes while the Department strives to re-establish an environment of supreme excellence and operational readiness,” Parnell added.

The modifications Hegseth introduced to the Pentagon's EEO procedures mandate swift resolution of workplace grievances and ensure that individuals accused in complaints are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Furthermore, a recent survey distributed to Pentagon staff inquires specifically about the volume of workplace complaints that have been dismissed.

These EEO adjustments represent a positive step toward refining a system historically hindered by significant delays, as noted by Katherine Kuzminski, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security.

“For individuals lodging a legitimate complaint, extended delays postpone necessary interventions; conversely, those facing unfounded allegations endure lingering suspicion until the procedures conclude,” Kuzminski shared with CNN.

‘No more beardos’

The regulation of facial hair has emerged as a highly visible indicator of Hegseth's approach to transforming military standards.

Last September, he published a directive that significantly increased restrictions on sporting beards and curtailed medical exemptions, effectively overturning years of established protocol. “No more beardos,” Hegseth declared during a speech addressed to numerous senior military officials. “The period of widespread and absurd shaving waivers has officially ended.”

Over recent years, the armed forces had grown increasingly lenient regarding beards, authorizing thousands of waivers for medical and religious reasons. However, Hegseth's memorandum contended that facial hair poses a national security risk, potentially hindering personnel from securely fitting protective gear during chemical or biological incidents. (Conversely, the Army has previously conducted extensive studies regarding the impact of beards on gas mask seals and had subsequently authorized such exemptions.)

Opponents of the new regulations argue they neglect a severe dermatological condition that predominantly impacts Black men. Pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) develops when recently shaved hairs curl and grow back into the skin. Based on the updated guidelines, commanding officers hold the authority to discharge service members who necessitate a shaving waiver following one year of medical therapy for PFB.

This directive “fosters a hostile environment for our Black service members, largely by exposing them to increased scrutiny and harassment from senior leadership,” remarked Richard Brookshire, who co-founded the Black Veterans Project. “It subjects them to... punitive measures for a manageable medical issue that the military had been successfully accommodating for more than ten years.”

“We are discussing the dismissal of highly capable, dedicated, and combat-ready troops during a period when our nation is navigating novel and intricate conflicts, having invested millions in their training,” Brookshire elaborated to CNN.

These shifts in grooming and personnel expectations aligned with a keynote address Hegseth delivered in September to hundreds of the nation’s senior officers and enlisted commanders convened at a base in Quantico, Virginia. He emphatically stressed the necessity of revamping physical readiness and enforcing rigorous grooming codes—responsibilities usually delegated to junior leadership. He noted that addressing homeland security threats and deterrence strategies for China was “a topic for a different occasion.”

Just one day prior to the commencement of the US and Israeli conflict with Iran this past February, Hegseth released a video across social media platforms addressing Scouting America (previously the Boy Scouts of America), expressing his “profound concerns” regarding the group's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. On that identical day, he authorized a memo terminating the involvement of military officers in specific fellowship programs and prestigious institutions such as Yale, Harvard, and MIT, charging these universities with promoting “left-leaning ideologies.”

CNN’s Haley Britzky contributed reporting to this article.