"the Navy cracked down in the 1970s on facial hair among sailors deployed at sea for extended periods of time"

This reminded me of when I was on a six-month cruise in the Navy in the early '70s. When we would be at sea for a month or two, the whole crew started to look like pirates. Beards, mustaches and cut-off dungarees were the norm.

However, when we would put in for liberty in Subic Bay in the Philippines, almost everyone shaved their beards off.

Why?

Because the hookers didn't like beards. True fact.

Because I bet that you all had an "official" reason why everybody shaved their beard off before docking.

Does the US navy allow just a beard or a mustash or do the sailors have to have either the full set or nothing?

i had a beard in the navy. admiral zumwalt was CNO and used to send out z-grams saying that the navy had no official loicy about hair or beards and it was up the discretion of the division officers.

it drove those lifer chiefs nuts.

after we lost vietnam, they decided that the hair thing showed a lack of discipline and the used the excuse that facial hair prevented you from getting a good seal on your OBA during general quarters.

they used to give you extra money to grow a beard in the brit navy from the tradition that not shaving saved water in the olden days. they called a beard a 'king george'.

"Because the hookers didn't like beards. True fact"

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"True fact"...LOL, spoken like a real old salt.

Reminds me: How can you tell the difference between a Fairy Tale and a Sea Story?

One starts out "Once upon a time...", and the other with "Now this aint no shit...."