Beards were outlawed, and the maximum permitted hair length was one inch.ĭuring World War II, the Army required soldiers to “keep your hair cut short and your fingernails clean,” and most men in both the Army and the Navy wore a medium-short tapered cut. There were two reasons: to get a proper fit and seal on the gas mask and personal hygiene. World War I was the first conflict where shaving was required. Luce had a much more wild look.īut, while beards were officially outlawed, soldiers and Marines in sustained combat operations sometimes grew beards – if for no other reason than it was too hard to shave under fire. Grant had a somewhat neatly trimmed beard while Adm. This preference, however, was very much in the eye of the beardholder. While a beard could be worn “at the pleasure of the individual,” both services preferred that it be kept short and neatly trimmed. From 1841 to 1857, regulations provided that “mustaches” or “moustaches” would not be worn by any soldiers except for those in cavalry regiments, “on any pretense whatsoever.”īy the Civil War, hairstyle standards had changed markedly, as senior officers in both the Army and the Navy wore beards and mustaches as a matter of course. When it came to facial hair above the lip, the Army took a very different approach, at least in the years before the Civil War. Luce, a contemporary of Grant’s, serving in the U.S. Wilkinson ultimately approved the sentence, it was never carried out because (unbeknownst to Wilkinson) Butler had died a few days earlier (probably of yellow fever) with his queue still intact. This was a severe sentence, given Butler’s seniority and three decades of service. A panel of officers found him “guilty of mutinous conduct in appearing publicly in command of troops with his hair queued.” The panel sentenced Butler to be suspended from command, without pay, for 12 months. Thomas Butler, Jr., a 30-year Army veteran, who refused to cut his hair. In July 1805, the Army court-martialed Lt. It seems that soldiers believed that the short hair requirement was nothing short of self-mutilation. Some historians believe he took this action because the pigtail was an aristocratic affectation that had no place in an egalitarian republic, but whatever the reason, Wilkinson’s decision caused soldiers to “howl in protest, until their resentment swelled almost to mutiny,” according to a February 1973 article published in American History Illustrated. James Wilkinson, commanding general of the Army, abolished the queue. A major change in military hair rules occurred in 1801, when Maj. It seems that soldiers believed that the short hair requirement was nothing short of self-mutilation.īeards were forbidden in the Army of the early Republic and soldiers were required to shave a minimum of three days a week, at least while in garrison. Mounted troopers liked the club because it was “likely to stay in place during the excitement and violent action of a mounted fight.” In the late 1700s and early 1800s, cavalrymen preferred a “clubbed” hairstyle in which they gathered their hair at the back of the neck and tied it in a firm bundle, then folded it to the side before finally tying it again in a club. This powdered hair was usually tied in a pigtail or “queue.” National Archives photoĪlthough hairstyle rules were relaxed when soldiers were on campaign, Continental Army personnel who did powder and tie their hair did so with a mixture of flour and tallow, a hard animal fat. Grant, who led Union forces to victory in the Civil War, was one of many soldiers of both sides sporting facial hair during the conflict.
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