Women's Hair in the US. Army

Do you think that women in the US Army should have to wear their hair a certain way?


In 1948, Legislation formally allowed women to join the military. Ever since 1948 women have always had to follow many rules on how their hair could and could not be. For many years women have always had to wear their hair “Spick and span”. This means that their hair had to be put in a low bun, had to be out of their faces and had to have no fly-aways. 


In 2014, the Army started to change the rules concerning women's hair. Over the past year or two, they have added multiple options for women to choose from. Currentally, women have approximately 3 or more options. The 3 main options are; Low tight buns, Braids, and Ponytails. Some of the other rules women have to follow are things like; soldiers who choose dye/color their hair must not show 1.5 inches or more of natural root growth, hair colors must be natural looking and not distract from a soldier's performance or the performance of others, and no coloring your hair colors like; blue, pink, green, orange, etc. 


Soldiers have complained of contracting traction alopecia (TA) which is a type of hair loss that is often connected to certain hairstyling practices, like tight buns. Having multiple hairstyle choices, let soldiers keep from contracting this. 


Women have these rules for many reasons. These things help them with being and doing their best on the field. One of the sources below states, Staff Sgt. April Schacher, said that wearing the buns would make it hard to wear a helmet during training. It "would affect how low the helmet lies on our eyes, so, especially with shooting our weapons, that did affect being able to see the target properly," she says. 


I think women should have multiple options of how to wear their hair. As long as their hair is kept clean and neat. 



Questions:

  • Do you think that women in the Army should have to keep their hair neat and tight?

  • If you were in the US. Army, would you like to have multiple options of how to wear your hair? 


Sources:

https://www.army.mil/article/242536/army_announces_new_grooming_appearance_standards 

https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/22/army-haircut-women-grooming-standard/

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/23/999313152/the-army-is-expanding-allowed-hairstyles-for-women 

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  • Bump

  • I think woman in the army should keep their hair neat and tight because one it looks good which then looks good on the Army. If I were in the Army I would like to have multiple options because I may not want to have the same hairsyle everyday. I think the variety of hairstyles they have now is good and decent.

    • Agreed. Having neat and tight hair does look good on people in the Army. And yes, having options is good because its good to change things up once in a while.

  • This reply was deleted.
    • I agree with you because neat hair does give them a respectable and serious look. Also, I agree that 3 options is plenty to choose from.

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