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 ...
Blacks would get a shaving profile do to their beards resulting in ingrown hairs......it was never an issue tho.
Why give them 12 months? How about 12 hours?
I know it's against the rules, but anybody stupid enough to read the article would have learned that it commences immediately except for people with medical issues related to ingrown hairs from shaving, who are given up to a year to get over it.
I have a hunch that some of this aggravation wouldn’t happen except for enlistment problems as of late. I was in the USAF until ‘60. We sidestepped a lot of problems they have nowadays. It was actually a good time to be alive as compared to now. I really feel blessed because of my “time to be alive”.
12 months?
Should I shave or should I grow now?
Should I shave or should I grow now?
If I shave there will be stubble.
If I grow it will be double.
Come on Navy let me know.
3 mins? Sounds like you are a lousy lover I wouldn’t want to be YOUR wife
“Genetics doesn’t mean ‘race’.”
Since you placed ‘race’ in quotation marks I have to ask: does ‘race’ mean race?
I doubt that a man in bed with you would be thinking about sex at all.
I don’t believe in the concept of ‘race’. I think it’s a political construct designed to divide and control people.
Oh absolutely he would...if I were you I wouldn’t assume that at all...I’m the ⚡💣💗
“The U.S. Navy announced that it had signed contracts with 45,000 future Sailors, hitting its entire Fiscal Year 2026 recruiting objective three months before the fiscal year even ends. It’s the second year in a row that the Navy has beaten its recruiting timeline, and the most Sailors it has signed in roughly two decades.”
https://mybaseguide.com/navy-recruiting-goal
Interesting that you think of it as a hypothetical.
“I don’t believe in the concept of ‘race’. I think it’s a political construct designed to divide and control people.”
I know others have said that as well.
And I agree that race and other words can be defined into meaninglessness.
But it’s a great way to set people against one another, and create artificial causes through which to manipulate people emotionally and politically.
🖕
🖕
Excellent
They also look quite stupid, unless your a pirate... Argh!
Wow, that's a pretty low bar.
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