Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth doesn’t appear to be letting go of his beef with facial hair anytime soon.
U.S. troops with facial hair reportedly have been barred from attending an event with Hegseth this week at Camp Humphreys in South Korea.
The restriction for troops was announced in an email purportedly sent by the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan Air Base in South Korea and was posted Sunday to an unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page.
The email, which an Air Force official confirmed to Task & Purpose, a news outlet focused on military reporting, noted that troops with “shaving waivers are NOT authorized to attend” the gathering.
“As you know, it is typical for senior leaders to visit the troops when they travel to installations around the world,” the official said in a statement to the news outlet.
Hegseth is set to travel to multiple areas in Asia this week, including Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia, to drill down on the U.S. military’s focus on the Indo-Pacific region, according to the Pentagon.
Reps for the Pentagon and the U.S. Air Force didn’t immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
Hegseth’s beard ban for troops comes after the defense secretary delivered a controversial speech in which he declared, “No more beardos.”
At the rare meeting of hundreds of senior military officials at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, last month, Hegseth announced that service members must give up “superficial individual expression.”
“No more beards, long hair, superficial individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave our beards and adhere to standards,” Hegseth said in his speech, which detailed impending changes to the military under the Trump administration.
He added, “If you want a beard, you can join special forces. If not, then shave.”
Hegseth also railed against “woke” culture within the military and decried “fat generals and admirals.”