Military officer slams 'racially motivated' policy that enables Army to kick out Black men

Alternet ^ | Jun 27, 2025 | Carl Gibson

[TheThirdRuffian]

“ All units are at risk if one is living in a reality-based world.”

It’s the rare unit that has MOPP in deployment. Or at least not stored in some warehouse somewhere.

You’d have plenty of time to shave before you get your kit.

[WildHighlander57]

French foreign legion.

[Hootowl]

I retired more than 30 years ago but I recall the treatment back then was for men with this problem to use a stiff brush daily on their aces. The bristles on the brush would straighten the hair follicles and keep them from becoming ingrained.

[Antihero101607]

Men who I would never dream of showing the slightest bit of disrespect.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Agree with everything you said.

[jjotto]

The anti-religious IDF senior General Staff were forced to give in on the beard issue. A few years ago things were different.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-criticized-for-forcing-religious-soldiers-to-shave-their-beards/

[stylin19a]

I don’t know the history of this, but it was a waiver back when I was in - 69-71.

[sgt_lau]

They can use “Magic Shave.” In the prison I worked at, every black inmate used this rotten-egg smelling paste to remove facial hair. After applying it, they used their ID card to scrape it off. Stunk up the entire 84 cell block.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Huh. Even there. Interesting read. Thank you.

In the Middle East deployments, in particular a beard is useful:

1. Keeping Sun off your face. If people don’t think this is an issue, try Mosul for a summer.

2. In the backwards cultures of the Middle East clean shaven equates with boys and homosexuals. A beard assists in overcoming this cultural issue.

As an aside, but somehow related in my mind, our men wearing sunglasses equated with badass in locals’ minds. No one in the are wore sunglasses. Now basically every guy who has the money there does.

[cuz1961]

I personally think the clean shaven policy is stupid.

\

when i was in boot i had a friend who had severe pockmarks from teen acne and a very coarse beard. the poor guy failed every daily inspection over all the blood stains all over his shirt collar. his face after his morning shave looked like he had kissed a badger. i was 17 and had no facial hair to speak of ( my indian genes i guess ) and was still made to shave . was in my 30's by the time i even needed to shave. cutting hair / beard , makes it grow back thicker ive heard.

[rlmorel]

I am not black, but had that condition for decades and shaving was a real problem for me, so I have experience with it.

(NOTE: I am a traditionalist on this. In the military, I don't believe men should have beards, ponytails, man-buns, braids, or dreadlocks and should have short haircuts. I understand all the rationale for allowing beards and everything else, I am just on the other side of the issue.)

I first discovered the issue when I joined the Navy, and they teach you to to shave in four different directions. For the next four years, my face was a mess, really unsightly, but...the Navy doesn’t care. You gotta shave. I even had a barber repulsed by the sores ask me if I was doing anything about them. I didn’t understand the issue, and tried EVERYTHING but nothing worked. I have tried all varieties of razors from an old unit from the 1930’s that came in a nice chrome “case” with a built in strop (only tried that once) to safety razors, to all varieties of multiblade razors. I have purchased and tried at least four high end electric razors, but my hair was too thick and curly, they didn’t work.

Worst of all was a multi-year phase with facial depilatories made especially for men. Some black guys I served with used it. It was a powder, and I had a special cup and straight metal spatula (a little sharper than a butter knife) and I would pry the top off the can, measure out some powder into the cup, add water and stir it to make a paste. It stunk to high heaven. If you ever lived with a woman who used a gentle depilatory on their legs (like Nair) you know the sulfur smell...but this paste was many times stronger and worse. The fine hair on a woman’s legs is nothing like the coarse, thick hair on a man’s face. That hair, to dissolve it so it could be scraped off, demanded a chemical far more powerful and malodorous to do the job.

Then, I would spackle my face with the paste to my face, applying the paste like spackling a wall. It was thick and blue-gray, and it took practice to do it right, and even then mistakes could be made. You had to mix it correctly and leave it on for a specified amount of time.

If you didn’t make it thick enough, it not only wouldn’t stay on the face correctly, it wouldn’t dissolve the hair correctly. When you went to scrape it off (and hopefully take the hair with it) you would get swatches of beard you couldn’t scrape off. You had two choices, and only one was correct: either take a razor to the patch, or reapply focally to that area. Reapplying focally was a bad idea, but shaving would give you bumps. After a few incidents, shaving that patch was the only alternative.

Reapplying could burn your skin.

If you did it correctly and made the paste thick enough, it would be concentrated enough to do the job. But you had to time it very carefully. If you left it on for too short a time, it wouldn’t dissolve the hair enough, and when you tried to scrape if off with the spatula, you had the issue where you had to shave the patches which would cause problems with ingrown hair.

But far worse was leaving it on too long or reapplying. There were several times I got chemical burns on my face, several times because I wanted to be sure I got a good clean face , and the other times because I reapplied the paste.

In both cases, my skin burned and turned red, and once, it turned beet red. I made the timing mistake a few times until I figured out the pitfalls of mix vs time, and only made the mistake of reapplying twice.

I had purchased the facial depilatory a case at a time...it was called “SoftSheen-Carson Magic Regular Strength Shaving Powder” and when I went to look if it was still available (I had last used it about 28 years ago) it is still available, and the white can with the steel blue band on it saying “Formulated for Black Men” looks exactly the same. When I got out of the Navy, I just let my stubble grow, and only used the paste for special occasions to shave. I only threw out that old, nearly full case a few years ago when cleaning and reorganizing the closet.

But I have been able to shave as often as I want for the last 25 years or so with no problem. I worked for an Indian-American woman who had been a Bird Colonel in the Army, and she was very outspoken and quite particular about things. She liked my work (I was ex-military, so I treated her like I would have treated an Army Colonel or a Navy Captain) but one day she stopped me in the hall and said “You always dress well and are squared away. Why don’t you shave? It detracts from your appearance.”

Very matter of fact, not meant as an insult, so I described the issue to her, and she, being a physician and probably used to seeing this issue in black men in the military, said simply: “Use an antibacterial liquid soap like Dial and wash your face with it before and after you shave.”

So...I tried it. Never had a major issue with it after that. It made me a little angry, all those years I struggled with it, and SOMEONE could have clued me in. But I was grateful to her for that advice. v Now, I don’t stockpile the “Magic Shaving Powder” in the white and steel blue can, I stockpile Dial Gold Antibacterial Liquid Soap in the large, golden jugs!

[rlmorel]

You are correct. Military.com is an anti-military, leftist tool used to dispense propaganda into the military and the world in general.

I despise them.

[Wuli]

I don’t think the policy is targeting black soldiers and I think black soldiers that have the medically well understood skin problem will be able to get waivers.

[ansel12]

“””””she, being a physician and probably used to seeing this issue in black men in the military, said simply: “Use an antibacterial liquid soap like Dial and wash your face with it before and after you shave.”
So...I tried it. Never had a major issue with it after that.”””””

Thanks for that detailed and informative post, and the happy ending, I hope the other guys with this problem will comment on your solution.

[CodeToad]

Interesting experience, and thanks for that, but did using the antibacterial soap keep your curly whiskers from aggravating your skin, or did the soap just keep them from getting infected
?

[Bigg Red]

I confess that I know nothing of this condition, but as a curly-haired woman with many male relatives who also have curly hair, I mjust dispute your “near everyone” claim.

[strider44]

I did 24 years in the army. On several occasions had to get a shaving profile due to a similar condition. I’m Irish and as Lilly white as they come. This is a nothing burger. Over my 24 years I probably had a total of 6 months on and off where I didn’t shave every day. Never had any effect on how I piloted a Blackhawk.

Just leave the regs as they are. This is dumb. We got much bigger fish to fry, like easier standards in Ranger School. Female Rangers is a colossal joke.

[SmokingJoe]

“Racially motivated policies”/DEI let in a lot of black men under Biden in the first place.
Time to revers that nonsense.

[Savage Beast]

Why would the military want to kick out Black people? That's ridiculous. Integration of the troops is one of the best things, of many good things, Harry Truman did.

The military sets standards. Servicemen rise to those standards or do not serve in the military. That's the way it is, and that's the way it should be.

Physical impairment or disability is not an excuse for failure to rise to the standards.

The ONLY mission of the US military--and its only raison d'être--is national defense. Military standards are set to serve this mission.

[metmom]

Now that you mention it, I do seem to recall hearing that offered as a solution. But since it’s never been a thing I’ve had to deal with, it’s never been on my radar.

I’m GLAD you found something that helped. I hope others see it and use it too.