Inside Big Navy’s war on beards
By: Courtney Mabeus  
In a black and white 1954 photo, sailors mug during a beard contest while underway from Haiphong to Saigon, part of an American-led effort to evacuate refugees from North to South Vietnam.
Much of the Navy’s history has been hairy, but the days when kids could tug on a sailor’s flowing beard are long gone. And despite an ongoing online campaign in recent years to bring beards back, earlier this month officials signaled that they don’t intend to ease male grooming standards.
Effective Oct. 8, the Navy scrapped permanent no-shave chits, waivers that allowed some sailors who suffer from Pseudofolliculitis Barbae — a common condition often called “razor bumps†— to grow out their scruff throughout a career.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/10/14/inside-big-navys-war-on-beards/
