Washington — As they juggle ongoing U.S. military operations against Iran and a host of other national security challenges, senior Pentagon officials have also been pressing ahead on a far different priority: tightening the grooming, fitness and appearance standards of the American service members.
Military officials have recently taken steps to address troops who fail to meet hair, weight and physical fitness standards, nine months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a blunt message to a room full of admirals and generals at Marine Corps Base Quantico, declaring there would be “no more beardos” and “fat troops.”
The renewed emphasis comes as Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and former Fox News host, has privately complained in recent days about seeing service members with facial hair and has expressed frustration over lapses in physical training and violations of military height and weight standards, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.
One official told CBS News that Hegseth believes his message has not been fully embraced by the military’s senior leadership despite his repeated public and private calls for stricter enforcement. The military official, who is not authorized to speak publicly and talked with CBS News under condition of anonymity, said the defense secretary was frustrated that his speech to the top brass gathered from around the world at Quantico last year did not produce the rapid change he expected.
“Secretary Hegseth maintains the highest expectations for our service members to uphold the professional standards of appearance, fitness, and discipline that define our warfighting force, and he continues to emphasize consistent enforcement of hair, weight, and grooming standards across all ranks,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to CBS News.
He added: “Commanders at every level are expected to lead by example by meeting these standards, implementing these requirements, and they will be held accountable for delivering results as the Department works to restore a culture of excellence and readiness. Our Armed Forces are stronger when every service member meets and exceeds these expectations.”
The Pentagon’s renewed focus is reflected in a Defense Department memorandum issued last year directing commanders to initiate proceedings to drum out active-duty and reserve service members who continue to require medical shaving waivers after more than one year of treatment.
The policy has renewed debate over the balance between military discipline and accommodations for troops with legitimate medical or religious exemptions. The armed forces allow facial hair in certain circumstances, including for Sikh, Muslim and Jewish service members whose faith requires beards. Before the new Pentagon policy, shaving waivers were also granted for U.S. troops diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, also known as razor bumps, a painful skin condition that disproportionately affects Black men.
Multiple studies estimate that the condition occurs in roughly 45% to 83% of Black men. It can also develop in women with hirsutism — a condition that causes coarse, dark facial hair to grow in a typically male pattern — when they shave.
The military is overhauling how they measure body composition following Pentagon guidance to all the services issued in December in an effort to restore the “warrior ethos” demanded by Hegseth and has rolled out guidance that frames shaving as a matter of military readiness rather than appearance.
Service members with medical shaving waivers must undergo treatment and periodic evaluations, with waivers generally limited to 90-day increments. Those who remain unable to shave without irritation following a year of treatment may be booted from their service.
Officials said the policy is intended to ensure service members can safely wear protective equipment, including gas masks, which the military calls “respirators,” while reinforcing grooming standards that leaders say are essential to discipline, deployability and combat readiness.
The debate over beards and gas masks is hardly new. In 2016, then-Army Secretary Eric Fanning ordered testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground to determine whether Sikh troops with beards could safely wear protective masks. Fanning wrote that the study found that while standard-issue gas masks did not provide adequate seal over beards, alternative equipment — including powered air-purifying respirators and loose-fitting protective masks — could provide sufficient protection in hazardous environments, according to Fanning’s directive.
Hegseth has made little distinction between those debates and his broader campaign to restore what he views as military discipline. Speaking at Quantico in September, he declared that “the era of unprofessional appearance is over,” casting the issue of shaving waivers and grooming standards as part of a wider effort to rebuild standards across the force.
Many service members agree that consistent standards and uniformity are central to military discipline, and some support Hegseth’s effort to tighten enforcement. But others argue that his approach risks sweeping together troops who simply disregard regulations with those who qualify for long-standing medical and religious accommodations.
Hegseth seemed to suggest last year that some religious accommodations lack merit, saying, “We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans but unfortunately, we have had leaders who either refuse to call BS and enforce standards, or leaders who felt like they were not allowed to enforce standards.” The U.S. military formally recognized the pagan faith in 2017, although Hegseth recently overhauled the religious affiliation codes the military uses to accommodate service members’ faiths and beliefs. It’s not clear whether pagans continue to be recognized.
Over roughly 18 months as defense secretary, Hegseth has repeatedly argued in speeches, policy directives and public remarks that relaxed appearance standards are symptomatic of a military culture that has drifted away from discipline and combat readiness.
That view predates his tenure at the Pentagon. In his book, The War on Warriors, Hegseth criticized what he described as inconsistent military priorities, writing that the armed forces had pushed out “good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms” while tolerating relaxed standards “on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity” — though he offered no evidence that such practices had become broadly accepted across the force.
Mike Nelson, a retired Army Special Forces officer, told CBS News that Hegseth is not wrong in some of his criticism of standards but says the defense secretary is concerned about issues below his office.
“He’s not wrong, he’s just spending a lot of time and effort on things that a battalion sergeant major should be focused on, small unit level leadership kind of things that are getting to him and that are taking up much of his time and focus.”
While there are legitimate shave waivers needed in the military, Nelson said he believes the process was abused over the last decade and he agrees with broad guidance of tightening “sloppy” standards but draws a distinction on the issue of drumming out service members for manageable medical issues.
If Hegseth considers it a national security concern, “then fine,” but Nelson called the approach “ridiculous.”