Spc. Rosealina Ortiz, left, assists Spc. Oscarina Pepen with her hair after live-fire training at CFB Gagetown, New Brunswick, Canada, Aug. 9, 2022. (David Connors/U.S. Army National)

Female soldiers may wear ponytails for at least another year, according to a recent message on grooming and appearance standards from the Army’s personnel office.

The service loosened its hairstyle regulations in an April 2021 memo that permitted women to wear ponytails in all uniforms, within limits, rather than the previously mandated hair buns.

The same memo allowed female soldiers to wear stud earrings and lipstick and nail polish in “non-extreme” colors, while donning the Army Combat Uniform. Troops may also wear highlights in their hair, provided the colors blend together and present a “professional and natural appearance.”

The April 2021 memo by then-acting Secretary of the Army John Whitley set no expiration date for the grooming and appearance changes. An Army Activities message, or “alaract,” issued Sunday by Army deputy chief of staff for personnel Lt. Gen. Douglas Stitt says the regulations will expire June 28.

Sunday’s message also states that soldiers may now have hyphens and diacritical accents on their nametapes. That change is made to “accurately represent the proper annunciation of legal names,” the message states.

The message also states that “potentially offensive wording” in the grooming regulations that describes hairstyles like “Mohawk, Fu Manchu, dreadlock, eccentric, and faddish,” will be removed when the next update is published.

The Army typically publishes updates to the grooming and appearance regulation every few years.

All Defense Department service branches permit ponytails in uniform. The Navy was first to amend its regulations in 2018.