My take on Beards in the Army

As many of you know I sport a fairly large Tashe and in most units that I have worked with over the years my facial hair is better known that I am:

“Have you seen the Garrison Engineer?”

“Who?”

“Bloke with the big Moustache?”

“Oh him, yes, he’s over at the HQ Building…..”

In recent years there has been much debate in the British Military about if we should allow beards and how that will increase recruitment and it will make the British military better.

Will it? is it the simple solution that will solve everything? is it the panacea that we need to fix everything?

No it isn’t, lets not kid ourselves there are far bigger and deeper problems than just letting the military stop shaving and becoming more hipster. I’m going to throw some thoughts and observations out there, they are my views and as such you can agree or disagree that’s your choice but just hear me out. The one argument that will not appear is the “Respirator” issue – I don’t care on that one and that can be discussed by others to their hearts content.

So lets start with my facial hair background. I’ve been in the Sappers for 36 years and I have had facial hair of various forms for 28 years of my career. There has been the occasional short breaks in that period but normally no greater than 4 months as the maximum. During my facial hair career I have done the following:

• Shaved my tashe off once due to operational necessity. (Norther Ireland)
• Shaved my tashe off once as I was required (ordered)to give an order for others to shave off their “tour” tashes and I could not give that order when I retained my tashe (on the grounds that my tashe was a “tour” tashe from 15 years prior). Our clean shaven status lasted about 10 days and we started growing facial hair again.
• Shaved my tashe off due to a misconceived understanding of an order about the removal of “Movember Tashes”, this resulted in myself and another GE removing our long worn Facial hair and there truely becoming 2 x “Grumpy Engineers” knocking about the unit. This also resulted in the 2 Garrison Engineers receiving orders from higher formations (Our Wives) that we were not to return from Tour without our moustaches.

My wife has always liked me having a tashe, even to the point that she saw a photo of me from a Falklands Tour in 98 where I was sporting something that would not have been out of place in 1982 Goose Green with her comment of “that really suits you, can you grow it like that?” .

My unaccompanied posting to Cyprus for 2 years saw me some what rebel and go back to a time when I joined the army and quite a lot of SNCOs had tashes and facial hair “buggeryboards” on the cheeks, so my tashe became some what bigger and more substantial.

Now all of this is all very well but I want to add an important note, that will be relevant in a short while. My very first attempt to grow a tashe was on tour in 1990 as a young Sapper. It took 6 weeks to be noticed by anyone and it was clear that I was not ready to have facial hair.

So back to my thoughts on the facial hair. when I joined in 1987 most of my Training Sgts and Trade Sgts all had tashes, they were long in the tooth experienced blokes who had been to Northern Ireland, The Falklands War or had spent their time in Germany waiting for the 3rd Shock Army to roll over the inner German Border. Not many of the Officers had tashes and if they did they tended to be the Late Entry Officers, not the blue bloods. Facial hair in the Army of that time was a fairly common sight.

Years later I chatted with a OC that I worked with closely and asked why most officers didn’t wear tashes and he put it down to being traumatised by Walrus Tashed Colour Sgts and Sgt Majors while at Sandhurst. He may well have had a point!

The Moustache used to be compulsory in the British Army until the rescinding of Kings Regulation 1695 in 1916, this was brought about by General Macready. I used to have a problem with this chap until you dig into his history and his work in Ireland is a real insight, the fact that he hated having a moustache is something that we may need to just keep in the back of our mind when we look at the discussion about beards, they are not going to be everyone’s taste.

So the discussion is that we should allow beards, well I think that is a fair point and I don’t have a problem “having beards”. However (you knew there would be a however….) we (the Army) need to think this through, because the RAF clearly did not.

What do I mean by this. When the RAF changed the rules I was doing regular visits to Northwood for meetings and it was clear that most male RAF Officers below Wing Commander where now having a crack at growing beards, and my observation is that the Royal Navy and Army staff officers were clearly enjoying watching the really bad and poor efforts that were being cultivated by their light blue brethren . Some of the people working with these guys should have taken them to one side and said “you’ve had a couple of months of this, it just isn’t working, shave it off sunshine until you get a bit more testosterone…”

This is what happened with my very first effort, I just wasn’t ready for it, it would take 5 more years before I was “mature” enough to start growing facial hair.

My view on this is – just because you are allowed doesn’t mean that you should!

Next, I have not seen any beards in the RAF (with an exception that I will talk about in a moment) that have an element of style other than plain trimmed or clipper graded. These beards seem to lack body or style. Come on Guys, they gave you the opportunity to have a beard now damn well make an effort! At the moment it just looks like you have a beard because you can’t be arse to shave and now that you have it you can’t be arse to do some proper care and maintenance other than get it clippered.

If you are in the RAF and you have a beard then take a leaf out of the efforts done by your Sikh brethren, they show you how to wear a beard. I have chatted regularly with Sikhs to understand the meaning and customs of their facial hair and beards, and it is important to them and they have some bloody impressive sets of whiskers. So if you are going to have a beard then learn from these fine chaps, build up that tashe and get a curl in it, add body and substance to the beard itself and damn well invest in some beard products such as beard oil! I appreciate that it takes time but you need to invest time and effort into it. If you are going to have a beard then bloody well have a beard and be damned proud of it!

Now what about the Army, well we have something the RAF doesn’t have. We have a history of beards in the British Army, the Victorian period was awash with the Facial Hair of the British Army expanding the Empire.

In some parts it was the practicalities of Campaigning, the military fashion of the time or to match (and exceed) the facial hair of the Martial Tribes, Clans or Races that we fought against or fought along side. The moustaches and beards of the Army had a lot of meaning.

For me if we are going to allow beards then lets get back to the Historical links and the precedents, standards and styles. Don’t be distracted by the “hipster” style, lets give the beard and tashe that Regimental Identity, give it Tradition, give it a place in the Regiment History.

Make it the “The British Army Beard” not some facial fluff of a soy latte drinking twat with a fecking top knot! (if that upset you – why are you here on this blog? )

Right I’ll pin my colours to the mast, if beards come in prior to the end of my service then I’m going for this style as worn by Lord Roberts and Lord Chelmsford. Side boards extended, sweep round the jaw line and linking in with a full tashe with a waxed curl to it. Throat and chin clean shaven.

Now that facial accoutrements will need care and attention to grow, mature and maintain. My current tashe attracts attention and comments as I move around the multi nation environment as it is, this badger is going to knock my existing tashe for 6. I’d say that style may meet the requirements for a British Army Beard! what are your thoughts?

But regiments can make their own styles, we saw this in the Raj where different regiments would have a style. Did the Army follow the style of society or did society follow the style of the Army?

I know that the Army in India did it to match or be comparable with those that they had dealings with so that they would be on par with the society and the environment they were engaged with.

So my question is “are we, the Army, are going to allow Beards?” and if so what rules are going to be applied? We already have a set of rules for moustaches, how do we develop the rules for beards?

• Ask permission to grow?
• 28 days to grow enough to show clear intent and substance?
• Inspection by the CSM/ SSM at 21 Days to see that its going in the right direction.
• Well trimmed, uniformed length?
• what styles are forbidden? Braided Pagan?
• What styles are allowed – Jan Smuts Goatee perhaps?
• Beard oils and Tashe Wax?
• Regimental preferences perhaps?
• Does it come as an optional privilege of rank or time in unit?

I will say that what ever happens it should not be compulsory. Facial Hair comes and goes from fashion in society. And the wearer should at least commit to putting the effort in and not just use it as an excuse to not bother to shave.

I’ve worked with several other forces and you can see some of them put the effort in (the French and Scandinavians) and for some other forces it is just a token effort that does look pretty poor on the soldier and the unit (you know who you are you scruffy wretches…..!).

Allowing beards will not solve recruitment as it will come with responsibilities for a soldier to look after it and to get it right, there will be very few recruits that will arrive with it right on day one and may end up getting it shaved off along with the trendy hair cut that they arrive with. Also while in training a recruit has enough on their plate to get through an inspection without having their beard inspected – How many recruits arrive at the training depot with a decent tashe – not many I would say.

However once an individual is in a unit why not aim for developing the famous beard style of your particular Regiment or Corps? Join the 1st Battalion Blankshire Rifles – The Fighting Walrus Tashes or the Mad Ginger Beards of 3rd Battalion Royal Highland Lunatics.

The army is pretty good at accommodating different cultural and religious traditions and has made some sensible changes for women’s hair, so I think we can embrace the allowing of beards but lets do it by accommodating and using the cultural facial hair traditions that the British Army had previously and not be blinkered by some modern fad when we already had the answer!

Its just my thoughts……I will leave you with Field Marshal Sir John Linton Simmons of the Corps of Royal Engineers and his exceptionally fine set of Military Whiskers!