Why does the military shave recruits heads?

For both male and female recruits, as well as transgender recruits? What is shaving civilian hair, which often unless you get hair implants or wear a wig, can take months to years to regrow naturally, supposed to mean? A rite of passage, a transition from civilian to service member? Shaved heads have always looked somewhat unattractive, they often indicate losing hair, whether by chemo or natural causes, or simply just looks out of place.

What is wrong with long hair in the military, or even short hair for that matter? We already have uniforms that are in need of intervention from designers in the NYC and LA area stat, camouflage just looks so desert storm. Is it too radical of an idea to allow male recruits to have hair down to their shoulders, and women have naturally blonde hair? To have American Eagle make new uniforms, and implement less restrictive dress codes for the military as a whole?

If you're going to shave your head, you might as well go all in, and go bald. But in all seriousness, why does the military have the obligation to shave recruits heads?

 

lice. Same reason for latinos.

 

I always assumed that it is about breaking down individuality and promoting conformity.

 

Two reasons -
1) Health
2) Break down individuality
There are those who come in with head lice, which can spread in cramped quarters - easier to spot them
Boot camp is a process where you are broken down, then rebuilt. Part of that breaking down is to remove individuality, and make you think more as a team rather than an individual. You are to see others with you in boot camp as your teammate, so they want you all to look as much alike as possible.

 

Wouldn't you think there would be some sort of medical procedure for removing and preventing head lice in individuals by now?

That's a problem with boot camp. The "Break you down, to rebuild you into a different person" philosophy to rebuild character and eliminate individuality really just hinders an individual over helping them. Thus why so many have trouble returning to a civilian lifestyle. Individuality traits are what make each person unique, the military should be promoting that. It's sad when servicemembers are broken down so much they won't smile as much anymore. Imagine how dull society would be if we all looked alike? You go to the supermarket, and everyone looks like you. The military is in the wrong on this one. Promoting indidivuality needs to be a goal that all ranking officers include, over simply conformity, this authoritarian like environment.

 

I never serve in the army, but from what I red and listen, without a iron discipline, military expeditions can lead to disasters.

 

I never did either, which is how I still have my hair.

Discipline is necessary, but the whole "break you down and build you up" philosophy ultimately leads to failure. It makes adapting to civilian life much more difficult, many military folk are unable to relate to average, non-military folk in the sense they have less of a sense of humor, and in more severe cases, are less empathetic. Individuality is an important part of the human condition, what do generals not get about that?

 

You were never in, were you?
If I had my life to live over, I would have gone to just Marine Boot camp after high school - not the rest, just boot camp. You get filled with so much self-confidence you feel you could do anything. The rest of the service time you just look to avoid hassles.
Look at China - Billion + people - all with the same haircuts.
The military is NOT a democracy - you don't take a vote - an individual is only a component. It IS an AUTHORITARIAN environment - it HAS to be.

By the way, I promised myself when they shaved my head "When I get out, I'm gonna let my hair grow until I can't stand it" - and I did.

 

Fear of Lice.

 

How do you feel about this in retrospect. While I understand the need for this mentality in war, that doesn't make the personal price any less. It is how cults indoctrinate people - break them down and then build them back up in your image.

I have great respect for the service of people who joined for the right reasons. But I also suspect that many can no longer be objective in some matters related to issues of war, nationalism, and patriotism. For example, if your best friends die while serving their country, it is hard to emotionally detach from that and be critical of your country.

On the other hand, I've had people [vets] talk about the military in highly negative terms. If anything, their sense of patriotism was lessened by their experience in the military - SNAFU.

 

Read my previous response. I would not go in even if it meant the cops sent the dogs after me. I still believe the military could afford treatment of head lice, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on armory, what is hair pest control going to hurt them?

And that is unfortunate, even the Japanese are more diversified. Self-confidence is good, but unfortunately too many veterans lose that self-confidence trying to adjust in civilian life, and end up taking their own lives. For every news report on a celebrity hanging themselves, I would be willing to place a dollar on the table 20 veterans, somewhere throughout the country, took their lives in a similar fashion but never gets reported. Suicide is an enemy you can't swarm with artillery, or bomb the hell off the planet. It's a enemy too many veterans lose to.

 

War is hell. How do you think that preparing people to war can be done humanly ?

 

Well, most females don't get shaved heads, just shortened. For the males, the answer is convenience--when you only have a few minutes to shower and shave, the less hair the easier it is. I keep my hair fairly short now, it's less work, always looks neat, etc. Most men with long hair look like slobs half the time.

 

None that work as well or as easy as shaving heads. Living in FL, most healthy clean-haired kids get head lice during their K-2 years. The easiest solution for boys is to shave their heads. Otherwise it takes multiple shampoos with a chemical shampoo, as well as combing with a fine-toothed comb (a nit comb, which is where we get the expression nitpicking).

Most people I've known that come back to civilian life after the military are better people. Few have been worse (except the ones with PTSD from combat, which is a different issue).

 

I've got a good friend who grew up the next block over. Known him my entire life, and he's always been a lazy pothead. We both enlisted, and while I went on to be extremely successful my buddy to this day lives with his parents and can't hold down a job. Our friendship pretty much ended when I called in a few small favors to get him a job. All he had to do was call a guy, schedule an interview, and he'd be making a decent living in a pretty cushy job.

Except that didn't happen at all. We both grew up with similar socioeconomic backgrounds, except his parents loved him and my dad was an abusive alcoholic. Don't blame the military because he's habitually unemployed.

 

I only knew one guy who took his life - he had dropped LSD and was having a "bummer" - went to go find guys to cheer him up - came back and he had stuck a .45 in his mouth and blown the back of his head off...
I am glad you are concerned about veterans, but I am 99% certain it has nothing to do with having their head shaved in boot camp. Since the draft was cancelled, we have the same people going on deployment over and over like to Afghanistan - that has to weigh on you - how many tours before your luck runs out??

 

Well, I was a quite well-read person when I enlisted in the Marines, KNOWING it was just about guaranteed I'd be sent to Vietnam.
I knew the history - that it was a French colony, and I bought into the "domino theory" that communism had to be stopped - and below Vietnam lay Indonesia and Australia.
When they sent me to Khe Sanh, then a firebase near Khe Sanh, I was very concerned - I had read about the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu - and Khe Sanh had all the same characteristics!!
I wondered if they had read history???

While I was in Vietnam, I reached several conclusions.
--To the average Vietnamese, it had nothing to do with communism, most just wanted to be left alone, others wanted foreigners out (us), others liked the money from trading with Americans (black market) brought, but NONE were pro-South Vietnam - the government was corrupt and didn't do anything for the people.
--I began to question whether communism was our biggest problem - communism didn't give us slums, or racial problems, or pollution, or corruption - I realized it was the old political trick of pointing to something for people to focus on while nothing was changed. I am not saying communism is good or that I didn't want it to fail, but I wouldn't have risked my life for people who would rather I wasn't there.

When I first got home, I didn't even mention Vietnam service in job interviews - there was a negative about it.
I am still astounded that America's attention span is so short that we got fooled into the Iraq fiasco - the lessons of Vietnam forgotten.
I am proud now that people value veterans - the best way to honor them is to go back to having war as a last resort. It was NOT the last resort in Iraq, and look at the mess we still have.

I think we should have mandatory service for EVERYONE. That way, wars WOULD be a last resort as everyone would have "skin in the game" - as it is now, less than 1% of America is in the military, and that is easy to overlook.

 

A few comments.


1. Shaving heads is as much a convienence as it has to do with anything else. We got a haircut every week and it was always the same. High and tight. It's a base for what's to come.

2. Breaking you down to remove individuality has become an art form. It's not about demeaning or anything negative despite what a random YouTube clip might suggest. It's about putting team and mission ahead of personal comfort. Individual thought is encouraged buts its also made clear that instant obedience to orders is what your job is. Kinda hard to explain unless you have been through the process but you come through the other side smarter, more confident, more aware, and more mature.

3. People with military service have no issues returning to civilian life in all but rare cases. Military life is nothing like boot camp. When you aren't deployed to a war zone, military life is closer to college (if you live in the barracks) or a regular blue collar job than boot camp. Might start a little earlier or work a little later, but for the most part, it's just a job.

4. Deployments are the best time you will ever have unless you end up in a war zone. I've been to Japan, Australia, Philipines, and a very brief stop in Germany in my time. All of them were a great experience that few people get to enjoy.

 

From your point of view. Other people might have a different perspective. For example, I met a guy who reupped so he could kill people. He was angry that he never got to use all the kill skills he learned. So when the first Gulf War broke out, he reenlisted so, in his own words, he could kill people. More confident sure! A better person? Hardly.

Provided they don't have to actually be a soldier.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...sd-me-landis-homelessness-20170209-story.html

 

I am so glad I am past the age where any of this matters. In principle I agree with you. But in principle I hate to see anyone join the service. Just go to school, get a good job, have a nice life, and never learn how to become a professional killer.

 

Ok, you win. Your decades of experience with vets prove that everyone that joins the military is a psychopath just looking to kill people.

 

You do know that the military has quite a few jobs, as in most of the jobs, that do not involve killing anyone don't you, and they train you in them for free.

 

I liked your post until the last sentence as we had a draft in the 1960s and that did not stop the war in Vietnam.

 

Recruits heads are shaved because:
1) Everyone is in uniform
2) To take everything from you (to break you)

Every recruit must be in uniform in the literal sense. Your hair is your possession so it's taken from you so literally everything you have is gone, or belongs to the military. The job of basic training is to break you and then mold you into a warrior. EVERYTHING you do in basic is calculated. Down to where you can walk, when you can talk, how your feet are placed when you eat at a table, when you sleep..etc

 

Two tours and never went anywhere but underground SAC headquarters. I did get to come above ground after Vietnam.