Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was left fuming after he discovered that multiple sailors were ignoring his demand that all service members be clean-shaven.
The macho image-obsessed Hegseth boarded a Navy ship in June for what was supposed to be a routine visit, CNN reported.
While aboard the vessel, Hegseth noticed that several sailors were sporting beards, a direct violation of the Pentagon’s demand that military personnel be clean-shaven, in keeping with Hegseth’s “warrior” ethos.
Hegseth was so outraged by rank-and-file troops ignoring his “no beardos” demand that, soon after the visit, he had Pentagon officials hold a series of meetings to remind subordinates of the defense secretary’s grooming preferences and other workplace changes.
“Want to bring to your attention that the SecWar is paying close attention to the progress of the EEO [Equal Employment Opportunity] reforms,” a Pentagon official emailed colleagues in June.
“In fact, the push is to move faster… there is a need to revamp some of our timelines.”
Hegseth’s clampdown on beards in the military has been central to the former Fox & Friends Weekend host’s campaign against what he sees as the “woke” decay of the armed forces.
“We don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans,” Hegseth said during a September 2025 speech to several hundred officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
“No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression,” he added. “We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards, and adhere to standards.”
Hegseth has argued that beards are a national security issue because they could get in the way of service members quickly putting on helmets or protective masks in response to chemical or biological threats.
The defense secretary has also appeared willing to scrap exemptions for beards granted for religious reasons or through medical waivers for conditions such as pseudofolliculitis barbae, a painful and irritating condition in which shaved hairs curl back into the skin that predominantly affects Black men.
In August 2025, Hegseth issued a memo threatening to boot out service members who still had shaving waivers after receiving medical treatment for more than one year.
Hegseth’s continuing obsession with banning beards in the military comes as the U.S. is embroiled in the deeply unpopular war with Iran, which has no clear end in sight and is contributing to increasing financial hardship for tens of millions of Americans.
In a statement to CNN, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth “maintains the highest expectations for our service members to uphold the professional standards of appearance, fitness, and discipline that define our warfighting force, and he continues to emphasize consistent enforcement of hair, weight, and grooming standards across all ranks.”
Parnell added that commanders “will be held accountable for delivering results as the Department works to restore a culture of excellence and readiness.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for further comment.
