Army's New Hair Guidelines Spark Backlash
The U.S. Army is catching heat for encroaching on unfamiliar territory: beauty routines.
On Monday, it released a memo titled Regulation 670-1, which outlines new appearance guidelines for men and women that some say discriminate against female African-American troops. Those updates have quickly spurred some heated backlash, as well as a petition, posted to the White House website, urging for changes to the rules "to allow professional ethnic hairstyles. As of Wednesday had received more than 7,400 signatures. Petitions require 100,000 signatures in order to receive a response from the White House.
The petition, created by an Army sergeant named Jasmine Jacobs of the Georgia National Guard, specifically takes issue with the fact that, under the new rules, hair twists (defined by the Army as “two distinct strands of hair twisted around one another to create a rope-like appearance”) and dreadlocks are not authorized. Multiple braids and cornrows are OK, as long as they’re bigger than a quarter of an inch in diameter. Women with banned hairstyles do have the option of covering them with wigs and hair extensions, but that's not ideal, either. The idea is that by having neater hairstyles, headgear can fit more easily.
The idea is that by having neater hairstyles, headgear can fit more easily. Check out a graphic from a Power Point presentation the Army released in mid-March (above) illustrating some banned hairstyles deemed “faddish” and “exaggerated."
"More than 30% of females serving in the military are of a race other than white. As of 2011, 36 percent of females in the U.S. stated that they are natural, or refrain from chemically processing their hair," Jacobs writes in the petition's summary. "Females with natural hair take strides to style their natural hair in a professional manner when necessary; however, changes to AR 670-1 offer little to no options for females with natural hair...These new changes are racially biased and the lack of regard for ethnic hair is apparent. This policy needs to be reviewed prior to publishing to allow for neat and maintained natural hairstyles."
Although Army spokesman Paul Prince told the Army Times on Monday that dreadlocks and twists have been banned since 2005, these new guidelines are much more specific.
“I’ve been in the military six years, I’ve had my hair natural four years, and it’s never been out of regulation. It’s never interfered with my head gear,” Jacobs said in the same Army Times article. She added that she’s not sure what to do with her hair now. “Most black women, their hair doesn’t grow straight down, it grows out,” she said. “I’m disappointed to see the Army, rather than inform themselves on how black people wear their hair, they’ve white-washed it all.”
On Monday, the current sergeant major of the Army, Raymond F. Chandler III, posted the new guidelines to his Facebook page, prompting more than 200 comments, many of them from female members of the Army, who shared their frustration.
"I have twists and now because of this new regulation I am out of reg. I deployed I had them never stopped me from doing my duty and serving my country," noted Rena Wilkins. Joan Dawson wrote, "When saying a female soldier cannot have an afro is ridiculous. How are you telling a woman that they cannot have their hair the way it grows naturally."
Other commenters criticized another update to the guidelines: new tattoo restrictions. No petition on that one yet ...
