More than 16,000 troops could face stricter rules with medical shaving waivers
As many as 16,300 troops could be granted medical shaving waivers in the coming months. If those troops cannot meet the Pentagon’s new “clean-shaven” standards over the next year, they could be separated from the military under new grooming policies.
Numbers provided to Task & Purpose by the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force for service members with shaving waivers were current as of September. The Navy’s data indicated the number of troops diagnosed with medical conditions that prevent them from shaving, but did not specify whether those sailors had been granted waivers. Those figures could change in coming months as service members get medically reevaluated and counseled for temporary shaving waivers under new grooming policies, according to the services.
In the fall of 2025, the Pentagon announced changes to the military’s grooming standards, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calling for a “clean-shaven” military. The policy directed commanders across the services to evaluate service members for separation if they have “permanent conditions” or shaving accommodations that last more than a year.
In the first several months of 2026, the services released their own directives, detailing the steps that service members will have to take to meet new grooming standards. The services now only grant temporary medical shaving waivers to troops, including those who suffer from pseudofolliculitis barbae, or PFB, a painful, inflammatory skin condition that causes papules and pustules. PFB can be worsened by shaving, especially for those with naturally curly hair. The condition is “especially prevalent in African American service members,” according to Uniformed Services University.
Service members with temporary medical shaving waivers have to be intermittently reevaluated as they undergo medical treatment plans, which can include hair release treatment, different shaving techniques, hair removal creams, or even government-funded laser hair removal.
If service members have 12 consecutive months of shaving waivers, they will be evaluated for separation.
The numbers provided to Task & Purpose in September were substantially lower than previous year averages, by the tens of thousands.
As the Army was crafting its grooming policy last year, officials said it would be part of a “back to standards” shift, noting that more than 40,000 soldiers were allowed to grow beards for medical reasons in 2024. Air Force officials told Task & Purpose this month that their number was “down from historical averages” of 18,000 to 20,000 Airmen and 300 Guardians before recent policy changes and “clinical reevaluations.”
As of September, nearly 3,400 soldiers, 144 Marines, 8,000 airmen and guardians have temporary medical shaving waivers, according to data provided to Task & Purpose by the services.
In fiscal year 2026, more than 4,760 sailors received medical diagnoses that officials said could qualify for medical accommodations. The number “represents the upper limit of potentially impacted sailors because a medical diagnosis does not automatically generate a sailor-initiated waiver submission or an approved command-level request,” Navy officials said.
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Previously approved facial hair grooming waivers are undergoing review and approval, according to its July policy. “That process is ongoing; therefore, current numbers are not available for public release,” Navy officials said.
Maj. Travis Shaw, a spokesperson for the Army, who gave the service’s number as of this month, said it “continues to remain in flux due to medical treatment plan timelines.”
Service members who do not respond to medical treatments and require shaving waivers after the 12-month period may be recommended for administrative separation. Marine Corps officials said Marines could face medical separation boards and Air Force officials said there was potential for commanders to submit retention requests “based on performance and mission needs.”
Advocates with the Black Veterans Project said shaving profiles are more common among enlisted troops, whether they’ve been in for one enlistment or several.
“Officers in general, we’re not granted these sort of things at the level to which enlisted service members are,” said Kyle Bibby, co-CEO and founder of the Black Veterans Project. “But the officer corps is also overwhelmingly white, so I’d be willing to bet that probably influences it as well.”
“When a commander dictates something, a lot of people are now going to start to read in between the lines of what that means.”
Richard Brookshire, a former infantry combat medic who served in Afghanistan, said he counseled soldiers seeking medical shaving profiles and worked alongside medical providers who approved them. Brookshire said younger soldiers might seek out temporary shaving waivers, but permanent shaving profiles are likely for troops with more time in service.
“A permanent profile will take several years to get, and you would move duty stations and all of that,” said Brookshire, who is also a co-founder and CEO of the Black Veterans Project. “[It] might be your first time shaving every day, so you don’t even realize that you get razor bumps, or that you’re susceptible to razor bumps, or if you’re in the field and you don’t have the ability to be as hygienic, and you’re shaving every day, and how that exacerbates infection. A lot of times it’s the younger soldiers who’ll be on more temporary shaving profiles.”
Bibby, a former Marine Corps infantry officer, said advocates are worried about how the new policy will impact the military’s culture, end careers, and even impact their benefits as veterans, depending on the type of separation.
“When a commander dictates something, a lot of people are now going to start to read in between the lines of what that means. We are promoting now a zero-defects mentality towards facial hair,” Bibby said. “If the commanders all came forward and said, ‘Hey, we’re going to make sure that everyone who gets out processed for this gets full benefits.’ I mean, that’s okay, but we’re of the opinion no one should be processed out for this.”
Looking back on his time in the service, Bibby called the policy “absurd” after 20 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, where troops in some of the most elite units were allowed to sport beards.
“We have copious pictures of Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Green Berets on action, in country, being actively deployed against the enemies of our nation with huge full beards. It’s just an absurd thing,” he said. “It’s not wrong that it is difficult to get a seal on a mask when you have a beard. But we didn’t care for 20 years.”
As part of the new grooming standard push, troops with beards for religious reasons have also had to resubmit their accommodation requests for review.
When compared to medical shaving waivers, however, the number of troops with religious accommodations has been lower than those with medical waivers. In the Navy, for instance, a little more than 300 sailors on average have received religious accommodations in recent years. And as of September, 19 Marines had approved beard accommodations.
The evaluation process for religious accommodations is completely distinct from the medical waiver process for troops with shaving profiles.
“They operate under fundamentally different frameworks; medical profiles are temporary clinical tools capped at 12 months, whereas religious accommodations are protected by federal law and have no time limits,” Air Force officials said.
While medical waivers are continuously reevaluated and tracked, once religious beard accommodations are approved, they remain “valid indefinitely without periodic expiration unless there is a material change in circumstances or operational exigence,” Navy officials said.
