Posted by:
Backseater
(
)
Date: July 25, 2017 12:26PM
Orthodox Judaism requires males to have beards, but many or most reform types don't pay much attention to it. Same with always wearing your hat.
In the Air Force in the late 60s beards were forbidden without a medical excuse, which eventually became a racial issue because of a condition known as "pseudofolliculitis," more common among some minority groups.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudofolliculitis_barbaehttp://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/pseudofolliculitisOTOH, for a while there the Navy under admiral Zumwalt allowed beards, under a raft of qualifying regulations as you might expect. The Marines didn't go along on that one.
AF regulations while I was in allowed a "neatly trimmed" moustache, whatever that is; but local commanders were occasionally known to--ah--"discourage"--such things. Fighter pilots sometimes grew impressive handlebars, and there were concerns about moustache wax causing fires in your oxygen mask, although I never saw any actual accident reports on that.
Regulations also went into great detail about sideburns, which were not supposed to extend below the lower edge of the hole in your ear. It was nice to know they concentrated on the important things. I was wearing a helmet at the time, so I just kept it short, about like two weeks after your first haircut in Basic Training. Occasionally I was held up as an example: the commander would say to some shaggy person, "Why can't you just get it cut like Backseater?"
Nearly 50 years later what's left of the hair is still about the same, but it's a bicycle helmet now. I also have a neatly trimmed beard, whatever that is, but then I'm 72 years old and a college professor.
In 1979 the missionaries didn't say anything abut my moustache. I guess they were going to bring it up after baptism. When and if I get another missionary visit, I'll ask them about that.