Someone posted this story on my facebook page and my B.S. meter went off for some reason: http://www.sott.net/articles/show/234783-The-Truth-About-Hair-and-Why-Indians-Would-Keep-Their-Hair-Long The article claims that Native American scouts during the Vietnam war lost their abilities when their hair was cut. While I might find this plausible for cultural reasons, it goes on to say that the government commissioned studies comparing long haired with short haired scouts and found a difference. I want to know if these studies really happened.
Did they let the prospective Scouts go thru their initial basic training and subsequent other instructional courses with long hair?
It is nonsense. Your BS meter is working perfectly.
Now, there was a lot of resistance in some sectors of the population to the notion of (young) men wearing long hair, and well into the 1970s I would encounter articles in which various athletic coaches would quote supposed “studies” that long hair was less hygienic than short hair. I would not be surprised to discover that the military actually participated in a few of those studies–if they ever happened.
However, scouting is a learned behavior, not an inherent one, even among American Indians. The Army never specifically recruited Indians to be scouts in Vietnam and the Indians who signed up to serve had no mystical powers that disappeared when their hair was shorn. Thus, the Army never had any reason to investigate why cutting anyone’s hair deprived them of powers.
IIRC, the original style of very short hair (crew cut, etc.) due to hygiene issues during WWI; one of the big problems in muddy trenches is lice. Short hair prevented that problem. The military adopted that as a standard.
What effect hair length has on anything, other than morale… I have never heard a link and I have trouble imagining one.
If you see pictures of men around the civil war or, say, late 1800’s England, 1980’s type longer hair was the norm, athough nothing like the late 1600’s “hippie” look.
http://www.google.ca/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1093&bih=551&q=oscar+wilde&gbv=2&oq=oscar+wilde&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l0l5484l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0
http://cutcaster.com/photo/800974598-Prince-Albert/
http://www.google.ca/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1093&bih=551&q=oscar+wilde&gbv=2&oq=oscar+wilde&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=0l0l0l5484l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0#hl=en&gbv=2&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=Charles+II&oq=Charles+II&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3154l5550l0l5957l10l9l0l0l0l0l249l1786l0.5.4l9l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=e6de4e40b53f50b&biw=1093&bih=551
Department of the Missouri during Philip Sheridans Command 1867-1883 scroll down to Buffalo Bill.
I would imagine that long hair would help act as an insulator if you were say serving on ww2 Russian front in the middle of winter.
Couple of questions:
–What is the currently allowed hair length in the U.S. Armed Forces?
–Are there any formally organized armed forces anywhere that do allow their soldiers (of either sex) to wear long hair?
I always thought the reason (or a reason) was so if in close combat, the other guy can;t grab you by the hair.
The dashing young cavalryman George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. Navy hero William B. Cushing both had rather long hair during the Civil War; I’ve never read that anyone gave them a hard time about it:
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcgee411/GHTOUT/G4-George-Armstrong-Custer-4.jpg
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h63000/h63224.jpg
I don’t think it has anything to do with samson-esq magic powers. One could imagine a pentagon study to objectively determine the parameters of highness and tightness to maximize combat effectiveness.
Another advantage to the military haircut is uniformity. In the military, you want to emphasize that everyone’s part of some larger whole, rather than just individuals, and giving everyone the same look is one part of that. And it’s a lot easier to go from long hair to short than from short to long, so given that you want a standard, the standard ends up being short.
That was why Alexander the Great(?) made his men shave their beards. It has zero applicability to modern combat.
OTOH, the rules about facial hair are very practical. Your gas mask has to seal properly, and it can’t do that if you have a beard.
I know that my school removed its hair requirements for graduation due to either a new law or court ruling. I think the latter, since every student handbook had to explain that it was against the law for you to be discriminated for hair length.
Why it didn’t apply to hair color, I never knew. A lot of the stuff that was supposedly to keep gangs away seemed to not be under the jurisdiction of being “disruptive to the educational process.”
Until 2005, the German army had a standing order that required men’s hair to be short enough not to cover ears or eyes, while women only had to wear their hair in a way that did not interfere with military headgear.
An eighteen-year-old recruit (that was back when there still was mandatory service for young men) then filed a complaint after his company commander had threatened him with three weeks of confinement for insubordination if he didn’t cut off his 10 inch ponytail. A military court found that the standing order violated basic human rights and was unconstitutional.
German cite here: Bundeswehr erlaubt lange Haare für Soldaten - DER SPIEGEL
So, why can’t I just shave my neatly groomed, closely cropped beard when I’m issued a gas mask, which I never have been issued?
The Israeli army doesn’t force reservists to get military haircuts when it calls them up for their yearly duty. I’ve seen a few majors with ponytails.
Female soldiers, regular or reserve, can wear their hair as longs as they want; they just have to keep it in a braid or ponytail if grows past the nape of their neck.
The military haircuts do provide uniformity. I remember making friends with some of the other guys heading to basic training, but then after we all got our buzz cuts, not being able to tell who they were.
I don’t recognize some members of my unit when they aren’t in uniform… lol.
I can’t copy/paste from a pdf on my phone, but if you’re interested in the hair standards of the US Army you can find them in paragraph 1-8 of AR 670-1. Should find it with a simple Google search.
Because the result is a formation of Soldiers at various stages of beard growth between “unshaven” and “neatly groomed, closely cropped” facial hair. Soldiers who fail to shave or decide to grow a beard that day will look sloppy and unkept. It looks like total ass. Mandatory daily shaving promotes discipline and proper hygiene and presents a neat, professional appearance.
Gas masks are always mentioned as justification but that is rather antiquated IMO.
Lots of things look like ass in formation. Different haircuts are authorized. Mustaches. Girls can put their hair up or cut it a bit shorter. Fat people look like ass.
I mean, I know why they say the rule is there, it’s just an outdated rule.