Canadian Military Tightens Personal Appearance Rules

Members of the Canadian Armed Forces attend a ceremony held at the Engineer Training Element on Operation UNIFIER in Poland on March 26, 2024. (MS Zach Barr/Canadian Armed Forces via Flickr)

The Canadian military is updating its dress regulations in a bid to revisit limits on features like beard length and untied hair.

Starting on July 2, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members with long hair that extends below the lower portion of the shirt collar will have to tie it away from the face. Accessories used to tie hair must be black or match the same colour as the hair.

With regard to facial hair, members can still sport all kinds of styles, from sideburns to goatees, but length or bulk must not exceed one inch.

It will also be easier for those seeking religious or spiritual accommodation with regard to the dress code, as it will be placed on the member’s personnel file instead of having to file a new request for every new posting.

A major overhaul to rules impacting a soldier’s appearance took place in 2022, in a bid to make the policy “more inclusive and less prohibitive.”

CAF now says that while the changes “have had positive effects, there has been inconsistent interpretation and application.”

The dress instructions state that a CAF member, whether in uniform or not, “shall on all occasions reflect credit on the CAF and the individual.”

Before 2022, men in the military could not sport facial hair save for a moustache, and hair had to be short and neat.

The new regulations allowed for any length of hair, of any colour, as long as the headdress can be properly worn and the hair does not impede safety or operational effectiveness. It also allows facial tattoos as long as those are not related to criminal gangs or promote things like racism or homophobia.

“What got lost in translation is what we, who choose to serve, represent when we wear the CAF uniform,” Chief Warrant Officer Bob McCann told a defence publication. “We do not represent just our individual selves but everyone who wore this uniform and fought before us so that we can enjoy the freedoms and way of life we get to enjoy today.”

The Epoch Times became aware of the change to dress regulations back in February, but the Department of National Defence (DND) would not confirm the move at the time.

“Periodic adjustments to the Dress Instructions will be made to provide clarity and amplification where necessary,” spokesperson Andrée-Anne Poulin said in a Feb. 2 statement. Ms. Poulin said the 2022 overhaul involved a “rewrite of critical policy where change was necessary.”

Ms. Poulin said the National Defence Clothing and Dress Committee (NDCDC) was holding planned meetings to discuss the “ongoing phased approach” to dress instructions.

“The NDCDC periodically reviews areas of concern, considers a broad range of factors and, when appropriate, develops recommendations for possible changes,” she said.