Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth makes a speech aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington at the Navy base in Yokosuka, Japan, October 28, 2025.Kyodo/AP
Pete Hegseth appears to have found a great workaround for racial integration at military events: When the rules won’t allow you to put up a “No Coloreds” sign, you can just ban soldiers with shaving waivers instead.
The Pentagon boss—who now insists on being called the “Secretary of War”—is refusing entry to servicemen with beards at an upcoming meeting at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, according to a report from Task and Purpose.
On Sunday, an email from Osan Air Base reportedly stated that “members with shaving waivers are NOT authorized to attend” the event with Hegseth. A screenshot of the message, posted on an unofficial Facebook page, was later confirmed by an Air Force official to be real.
Hegseth’s disinvitation is just one more spiteful jab against primarily Black and brown military members who have already been the target of discriminatory anti-beard policies that were unveiled last month.
In September, the former Fox News host announced that he would be firing troops who would need a shaving waiver for longer than a year, a policy that would overwhelmingly affect Black armed forces members, who are far more likely to suffer from pseudofolliculitis barbae, a skin condition that makes daily shaving lead to cuts, sores, and scarring.
As I wrote at the time:
With more than 200,000 Black active-duty members serving in the military—historically one of the country’s few avenues of social mobility for the Black community—Hegseth’s grooming policy will no doubt have a devastating impact. That’s no accident.
A few weeks later, during a presentation in front of more than 800 of the highest-ranking officers in the military, he doubled down on this grooming standard, decrying there would be “no more beardos.” (Don’t worry, he also took the time to slam “females” and “fat troops” too.)
Hegseth also took potshots at troops in need of shaving waivers for religious reasons—stating, among other things, that we “don’t have a military full of Nordic pagans.”
According to Air and Space Forces magazine, soldiers in need of a religious exemption from shaving, like many Sikhs and Muslims, will be permitted to serve but flagged as “non-deployable,” which would “essentially end their careers” by making them subject to termination.
Hegseth’s press spokesman has yet to respond to an inquiry on whether soldiers with religious exemptions would be allowed into Hegseth’s event. (JD Vance’s beard also declined to comment.)
