Posted on 07/10/2026 12:33:16 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Sailors whose medical conditions prevent daily shaving now have up to 12 months of treatment options before the Navy evaluates them for continued service and, in some cases, administrative separation.
A safety argument has ensued around facial hair, with the service saying it can break the seal on the masks that keep a crew breathing through fire or gas. Behind this argument sits a study the Navy has kept close to the vest.
NAVADMIN 162/26, released July 7 under the signature of Vice Adm. Jeffrey J. Czerewko, The order reverses the Navy’s 2022 policy, which prohibited separation solely because PFB treatment had failed, and ends what two retired officers writing in Proceedings described as a roughly four-decade practice of allowing renewable medical accommodations.
In place of that open-ended allowance, the message sets a countdown for any Sailor who now gets twelve months of medical treatment to reach a clean-shaven standard, and those who cannot get there are headed toward a separation board.
Most of the men caught by the change carry the same diagnosis. Pseudofolliculitis barbae, the ingrown-hair condition better known as razor bumps, afflicts roughly 60% of Black men, according to the American Osteopathic College of Dermatology, and it worsens with the very act the policy now demands.
Shaving vs Separation
The order's demands are clearly detailed, stating only a commanding officer may grant a medical waiver, and even then only as part of a documented treatment plan.
These waivers will arrive in 90-day blocks, four at most, and they expire in one year. Facial hair stays under a quarter inch, and anyone who relies on breathing gear draws a mask-fit check every three months.
After twelve months, if the Sailor is still unable to shave and the condition is marked as "unmanageable", this will firmly place them in a...
(Excerpt) Read more at military.com ...
“””””Require the sailors in positions which require a mask at any time to sign a waiver that they understand they will die, and nobody can be counted on to save them”””””
You can’t let them die, you need every man, there aren’t just extras around.
This is like the female in the military people, they think we have extra soldiers that can take up the slack.
A rather spineless Admiralty if I say so myself. What is wrong with “tomorrow for all”?
I did a NG stint for a year try it out program offered to prior service vets. I shaved once a month for a year LOL 1984-85. It has not been shaved off since.
Don’t know about your NG unit, but Reagan was right.
https://x.com/i/grok/share/56178d54404e4fcaa5eb2293f3d5d6fa
The U.S. Navy has issued NAVADMIN 162/26 (July 7, 2026), reversing its 2022 policy and ending decades of renewable medical waivers for sailors unable to shave due to conditions like pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB, or razor bumps). Sailors with such conditions now have up to 12 months of treatment to meet clean-shaven standards. Those who cannot will face evaluation for administrative separation.
Key Policy Details:I don’t know what doctors can do about ingrown hairs. This is a big problem for some Black men, many of whom keep beards for exactly that reason.
It's why we sport the pornstache. Or used to. (Retired)
We have all served with blacks and have watched them abuse the system, Hegseth has also, he can work it out.
I don’t see what ‘abusing the system’ has to do with this.
But I gots da bumps!!! Ha ha
You brought blacks and beards and that is a running topic in the military, and this is a military and beards thread, what is with you?
Actually the Navy used coveralls as an authorized uniform and it was highly functional. Dickies makes a Navy Blue short sleeve or long sleeve coveralls. When I was on ship and deployed, when we pulled into a liberty port I had to go TAD to the Boat Shop as a boat snipe one of three members of boat crew. We wore them then. Also we unofficially wore coveralls in engineering spaces. It save our dungarees.
In civilian life I'd wear them to work. I was a maintenance mechanic in health care facilities. I had to respond to building emergencies. My boss said I needed to wear a uniform shirt and look professional. I made a point he couldn't deny. I asked him which looked more professional? Me running down hallways responding to an emergency and my tool belt pulling my pants down plus showing crack when working on equipment etc, or having my entire body covered in what even the Navy considered a professional looking uniform? He said you're right.
“I don’t see what ‘abusing the system’ has to do with this.”
When people abuse the system rules have to be tightened.
Any head gear with a chin strap is a pain in the arse with a beard.
This is long overdue. I drove ships around for 16 years including being damage control assistant on an aircraft carrier and the bottom line is this you cannot get an airtight seal on the firefighting equipment or the gas mask both of which are required pieces of personal equipment on any warship. No beards is just the cost of doing business. That seems an indication the combat utility is winning out over social considerations and that’s a good thing!
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Black men have a legitimate problem with this. That is not ‘abuse’, it’s just a fact of life. I’m only asking what solution there is to it; I’m not aware of a medical one.
You’re the one who jumped at the opportunity to mention Blacks’ ‘abuse’ of the system. That tells me a lot.
This is the first you have heard of this many decades old, at least 60 year old military topic?
Do you actually think that the vets here don’t know that some blacks have a legitimate problem with shaving and facial hair? What is with you and your reaction, did you not expect this routine part of the conversation to show up on a thread about beards in the military?
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