Marine Corps Cpl. Jeremy Rojas shaves before a live-fire event at Fort Barfoot, Va., Oct. 20, 2024. Under an administrative order issued March 13, 2025, Marines who received a shaving exemption because of a skin condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae must be reexamined within 90 days and could be separated from the service if grooming exceptions are needed beyond one year. (Nicholas Pilch/Defense Department)
Marines with a medical exemption from shaving for painful skin disorders must have their condition reexamined within 90 days, according to a new administrative order that comes after the initiation of a broader Pentagon review on grooming standards.
The Marine directive, issued Thursday, also said troops diagnosed with the skin condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae could be separated from the service if grooming exceptions are needed beyond one year.
Under such a scenario, a Marine “may be considered for administrative separation due to incompatibility with Service,” the order stated.
A Marine directive issued in 2012 allowed commanding officers to separate Marines with long-term conditions that did not respond to treatment if it affected “good order and discipline.” That directive did not include the one-year timeline.
The new order was described as interim guidance and comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement Wednesday of a rapid review across the military of standards for physical fitness, body composition and grooming.
The review also will examine policies regarding beards. All services grant shaving waivers to members diagnosed with pseudofolliculitis barbae, also known as razor bumps. The condition disproportionately affects Black men, studies have found.
Marines already diagnosed with it need to be reevaluated to assess their treatment protocol and determine the need for further treatment, the new guidance says.
Over the years, military branches have carried out various studies on the beard issue to determine whether regulations could be loosened for the rank and file. But so far, no branch has taken the step beyond special exceptions.
In the Army, clean shaves became a requirement just before World War I, when chemical weapons were deemed a serious threat. The Navy and the Coast Guard were the last branches to ban beards, doing so in 1985 and 1986, respectively.
The Marine Corps has always taken a hard line on the issue.
“We’re Marines, and we’re different. We don’t have beards,” Gen. Eric Smith, the Marine Corps commandant, told reporters in January.
When it comes to pseudofolliculitis barbae, “that’s a medical waiver, not a fashion waiver,” Smith said.
