I think you haven't heard about all the latest protests in France? Between the new work code (loi travail), the Notre Dame des Landes airport and the recent transport strike, there are still organized protests here.
Troops in the field for long durations tend to have dress and grooming discipline more lax than what would be enforced on a base in peacetime. Special forces seem to have especially large leeway about that with their infamous "tactical beards".
It will seal just fine up to a 4 or 5 inches or more I can't remember anymore. I do remember it being discussed when I went for training to be the company NBC NCO. And it boiled down to appearances more than anything.
Also special forces are expensive to replace and are out in areas that could have NBC related threats and have some of the biggest beards I've ever seen.
RAF allows moustaches too.
Apparently "not to extend below the edge of the mouth" which still leaves quite a lot of room for expression I would guess.
Rule still applies while on secondment [1].
My Grandfather was born before the days of safety razors and tells me that Navy personnel were able to petition to avoid shaving on account of delicate skin (something about the salt water and fresh air). I think anybody who could grow a beard would have done.
Interesting observation. The area of the upper lip is known as the "Danger triangle" of the face, in which due to way blood circulates in that area, including the upper lip, infections can spread back towards the brain:
I never thought that mustaches had a health / self preservation / natural selection origin, but it could very well have been the case. Shaving every day without modern tools and products could easily cause infections, which in that area could prove fatal.
The Navy has always permitted beards, and still do. Has to be a full beard though, not just moustache.
Special forces too on ops. Some Scots regiments like Scots Guards still allow beards for Sergeants and possibly other ranks. They might even still encourage it.
I didn't know the Navy does, or that it forbids moustaches on their own. Is that a recent change? Or maybe depends on rank or post? It conflicts with stories I've heard re: my uncle (who was a submarine commander in the 90's) being barred from beards but not from moustaches, and thus growing his out to ridiculous lengths at the annoyance of my aunt.
A quick web search and Queens Regulations don't seem to go well together. :)
Turns out to be more complex than I thought. "The CO may permit all personnel (except Royal Marines) to request to wear full set beards. RM personnel may wear moustaches at their discretion."
The moustache only ban seems to be Queen Victoria's doing.
It's up to the CO if the resulting beard is good enough. Uneven growth, e.g. scrappy, is unacceptable. The advised maximum time to achieve a sufficiently thorough beard is 2 weeks. lol
As far as I know it goes back to the days of Drake. No idea if there's variations for submariners or COs. I know there are some variations of regs and traditions for the silent service.
I think we might be talking about two different navies. I thought the discussion was around the US Navy; looks like you're referring to the Royal Navy?
That's probably a fair assumption, OTOH paras and commandos are "projection" force so one could expect them to be able to arrive very quickly and set up with little to no resources. Wouldn't be the worst disaster relief force early on.
This is an interesting article and all, but I have to say that the picture of a waiter with a tray and a bottle of wine in mid-fall was even more interesting. Probably staged, but still an arresting shot.
Before I clicked the link to the article, I thought this comment was referring to the season (i.e. "mid-autumn"), and I was really confused about why this would be so interesting
The tremendous Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds has a section on "Influence of Politics and Religion on the Hair and Beard", detailing the various times it's been banned/compulsory/taxed.
Hemingway talks about similar mustache-relates social strife occurring in the 1920s, in _A Movable Feast_, his memoirs of his life as a young man in Paris.
The conversation is set at the Cafe Lilas (which is still open today, though mostly as a tourist trap), with Evan Shipman, a fellow American writer and journalist.
“He’s in trouble already,” Evan said.
“How?”
“They’re changing the management,” Evan said. “The new
owners want to have a different clientele that will spend
some money and they are going to put in an American bar.
The waiters are going to be in white jackets, Hem, and
they have been ordered to be ready to shave off their
mustaches.”
“They can’t do that to André and Jean.”
“They shouldn’t be able to, but they will.”
“Jean has had a mustache all his life. That’s a dragoon’s
mustache. He served in a cavalry regiment.”
“He’s going to have to cut it off.”
I drank the last of the whisky.
“Another whisky, Monsieur?” Jean asked. “A whisky,
Monsieur Shipman?” His heavy drooping mustache was a part
of his thin, kind face, and the bald top of his head
glistened under the strands of hair that were slicked
across it.
“Don’t do it, Jean,” I said. “Don’t take a chance.”
“There is no chance,” he said, softly to us. “There is
much confusion. Many are leaving. Entendu, Messieurs,” he
said aloud. He went into the café and came out carrying
the bottle of whisky, two large glasses, two ten-franc
gold-rimmed saucers and a seltzer bottle.
“No, Jean,” I said.
He put the glasses down on the saucers and filled them
almost to the brim with whisky and took the remains of the
bottle back into the café. Evan and I squirted a little
seltzer into the glasses.
“It was a good thing Dostoyevsky didn’t know Jean,” Evan
said. “He might have died of drink.”
“What are we going to do with these?”
“Drink them,” Evan said. “It’s a protest. It’s direct action.”
On the following Monday when I went to the Lilas to work
in the morning, André served me a bovril, which is a cup
of beef extract and water. He was short and blond and
where his stubby mustache had been, his lip was as bare as
a priest’s. He was wearing a white American barman’s coat.
40 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 91.5 ms ] thread(there are two distinct expressions to denote a strike in French, one for when the right is holding power, one for when the left is)
Also special forces are expensive to replace and are out in areas that could have NBC related threats and have some of the biggest beards I've ever seen.
My Grandfather was born before the days of safety razors and tells me that Navy personnel were able to petition to avoid shaving on account of delicate skin (something about the salt water and fresh air). I think anybody who could grow a beard would have done.
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7451939.stm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_triangle_of_the_face
I never thought that mustaches had a health / self preservation / natural selection origin, but it could very well have been the case. Shaving every day without modern tools and products could easily cause infections, which in that area could prove fatal.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/beards-now-p...
Special forces too on ops. Some Scots regiments like Scots Guards still allow beards for Sergeants and possibly other ranks. They might even still encourage it.
Turns out to be more complex than I thought. "The CO may permit all personnel (except Royal Marines) to request to wear full set beards. RM personnel may wear moustaches at their discretion."
The moustache only ban seems to be Queen Victoria's doing.
It's up to the CO if the resulting beard is good enough. Uneven growth, e.g. scrappy, is unacceptable. The advised maximum time to achieve a sufficiently thorough beard is 2 weeks. lol
More here: https://www.forces.net/news/beard-royal-navy-tradition
As far as I know it goes back to the days of Drake. No idea if there's variations for submariners or COs. I know there are some variations of regs and traditions for the silent service.
Sorry for the confusion :)
Worth to mention the Pioneers of the French Foreign Legion are one of the only soldiers (that I know) who can wear beards. [1]
http://www.ssbcrack.com/2017/02/armed-forces-dont-allow-bear...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_Popular_Delusion...
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518
The conversation is set at the Cafe Lilas (which is still open today, though mostly as a tourist trap), with Evan Shipman, a fellow American writer and journalist.