Update: Military Revises Hairstyle Rules

When the military announced its new rules for tattoos, hairstyles, and uniforms in March 2014, the natural hair community within the military made it clear that they didn’t appreciate being discriminated against in regards to the hairstyle rules.

The military requested that women stop wearing dreadlocks, twists, braids and cornrows larger than a quarter of an inch. Keep in mind that these new set of hair rules only affected African American women who are in the military. Of course anyone who has hair can sport dreadlocks and twists, but African American women are the ones who primarily wear these hairstyles. Also, the hair is not to be more than 2 inches from your scalp. If you have natural hair, then you know that it is always more than 2 inches from your scalp. It’s simply how our hair grows, and it’s something that cannot be helped.

Those same people who were concerned about the military trying to regulate how African American women wear their hair while on duty will be pleased to know that the military decided to revise its rules. A petition was started by Sgt. Jasmine Jacobs of the Georgia National Guard. She wrote on the White House website:

“These new changes are racially biased and the lack of regard for ethnic hair is apparent.”

Most agreed with Sgt. Jacobs and quickly signed the petition. Five months later, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced that the hairstyle rules and offensive words such as ‘matted and unkempt’ would be eliminated from the Army and Air force grooming regulations. See the new regulations outlined in Hagel’s letter below:

Army

►Determined the terms “matted and unkempt” are offensive and will eliminate them.

►Authorized temporary two-strand twists.

►Increased size of authorized braids, cornrows and twists; removed spacing requirement.

►Authorized a ponytail during physical training.

Air Force

►Determined the terms “matted and unkempt” are offensive and will eliminate them.

►Changed the name “dreadlocks” to “locs”.

►Authorized two-strand twists, French Twists and Dutch braids.

Navy

►Determined no offensive language in the current policy governing hairstyles.

►Removed some dated terms and descriptions on the Navy’s “Frequently Asked Questions” website, including “Twist hairstyles are not authorized because they fall within the guidelines of being faddish”.

►Authorized a two-strand twist and multiple braids may hang freely if above the collar and must encompass the whole head.

Marine Corps

►Determined no derogatory or discriminatory language in current uniform regulations.

►Convening a special uniform board this summer to consider the expansion of authorized hairstyles.

Are you satisfied with the hairstyle rules changing, or would you like to see more changes to the regulations?