U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Jeremy Rojas shaves before an exercise at Fort Barfoot, Va., now named Fort Pickett, on Oct. 20, 2024. (Nicholas Pilch/Department of Defense)

The Pentagon will cease granting permanent medical shaving exemptions and end most religious exemptions that have allowed some U.S. military troops to wear beards in uniform in recent years, according to a Tuesday memorandum from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth issued the memo after lambasting a military culture that has allowed thousands of troops to sport beards in the last 15 years during his 45-minute speech Tuesday before hundreds of generals, admirals and senior enlisted troops at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Virginia. The memo gives the Pentagon’s military branches 60 days to construct plans for implementing the new grooming policies and about 90 days to enforce them.

While Hegseth wrote in his memo that the new standards were “not about appearance,” but instead “about survivability, interoperability, and mission execution” — including the need to wear properly-sealed protective masks in some environments — he took aim at service members’ appearance in his Tuesday speech, calling out “fat troops” and those with beards.

“No more beardos,” Hegseth said during the presentation, which he ordered top officers and their enlisted advisers from around the world to attend. “The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done. Simply put, if you do not meet the male-level physical standards for combat positions, cannot pass a [physical training] test or don’t want to shave and look professional, it’s time for a new position or a new profession.”

Hegseth has railed against bearded troops for months and ordered a military-wide review of grooming standards in March. The Army and Marine Corps tightened rules on medical shaving waivers shortly after that order.

The memo issued Tuesday ends virtually all religious exemptions that have allowed some service members to wear beards in recent years, including Sikh, Norse Pagan and some Muslim troops. It instructs the Defense Department to return to pre-2010 standards, referring to the first year the Army granted an exemption to a Sikh soldier to wear a beard in uniform. The service began granting permanent religious accommodations to Sikh soldiers in 2017, and other troops have been granted religious beard waivers on a case-by-case basis since 2019.

Under Hegseth’s new policy, “facial hair waivers are generally not authorized,” and those who have been granted an exemption will face “individualized reviews” and must provide documentation proving their “sincerity of the religious or sincerely held belief” to be considered for an accommodation.

The policy also ends permanent shaving profiles for those who suffer from pseudofolliculitis barbae, or razor bumps. Current troops with razor-bump profiles can be granted shaving exemptions for up to 12 months, but they must also have a treatment plan. Those with permanent conditions will be considered for administrative separation, Hegseth wrote.

Pseudofolliculitis barbae, caused by curly hairs growing back into the skin, disproportionately affect Black men and is associated with frequent shaving, according to a study by the Society of Federal Health Professionals.

Army officials said in July they would help train soldiers suffering from the condition to shave properly.

Hegseth said the new policy will bar military hopefuls from entering the ranks if they cannot meet his new grooming standards — including those diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae.

The memo also orders all service members to complete annual training to include a mask-fit test to ensure they can achieve a proper seal on a gas or firefighting mask, he wrote.

Those who refuse to comply with Hegseth’s new shaving standards or fail mask-seal tests will not be allowed to deploy, and “repeated noncompliance may result in administrative separation,” according to the memo.

Hegseth’s policy allows male soldiers to wear sideburns “above ear openings” and “neatly trimmed” mustaches which cannot “extend past the mouth corners or into a respirator seal zone.”

There is one place Hegseth said he would continue to allow beards: In some special operations formations when they request modified grooming standards for “mission-essential requirements.” Some Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other special operators have famously sported beards during combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere during the Global War on Terror.

“If you want a beard, you can join Special Forces,” Hegseth said Tuesday at Quantico. “If not, then shave.”