New Dress Regs 🤣

[Underway]

Personally, my “big question” is how will our Allies view us as a military; the changes are far more broad than I’d thought they would be, if I am honest. There will be the possibility of a mbr to be in DEU with skirt, multiple earrings, gel nails, with long hair dyed blue and a beard dyed pink. If that mbr is on a picture on say, a BBC/CBC/CNN article how will Canadians and our Allies react?

Should we/do we need to care about that?

As to COs/Chiefs and others making their own dress regs; there will be some push back no doubt from those who don’t like the changes. There likely was with weed too and they don’t get to make their own rules. I suspect there will be some clear direction from the most senior leadership on this subj.

There really should be no surprises at the CO/Chief level when this is officially public consumption (in details) and detailed at the unit/sub-unit levels.

Apparently, you've never worked with the Dutch.

 

[lenaitch]

Meh, with that there's at least a somewhat legitimate concern that it'll affect people's performance on the job. A largely misguided concern since alcohol has been allowed the entire time mind you, but still.

When I dye my hair purple, it will have no impact upon my ability to do my job. It'll just mean I'm a bit happier while going about it, because I'm finally allowed to do something that previously I've been stuck doing only during xmas vacation.

I don't think it's unreasonable to refer to such biases as stupid, given the complete lack of any rational link to actual operational effectiveness.

Alcohol has been in legal use for decades. it's not a perfect science, but the chemistry and biology of alcohol consumption and its impact on human performance is pretty well understood; cannabis less so. Expect laws and regulations to evolve.

Are non-objective responses to matters of appearance 'stupid', 'silly' or 'misguided'? Yup. Welcome to human nature. Everything past buck naked falls along a spectrum that not everyone will agree upon. Said by probably every parent that raised a teenager.

If purple hair was that important, one might ask why someone would voluntarily joined an organization that, up until the apparent near future, doesn't allow it?

 

[Underway]

Adhering to some people's notion of how a military member "should" look is a completely different thing.

I agree, completely cultural. The Sikh Turban is associated with warriors in India. The face tattoos in NZ. The specific height, weight, and size requirements for the Marine Corps, kilts for the Scottish, billion medals and ribbons for the French etc...

 

[SupersonicMax]

Yes you do BUT there’s always one in every crowd, right?

Not sure what you mean.

 

[OldSolduer]

Not sure what you mean.

One that will push the envelope

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

Alcohol has been in legal use for decades. it's not a perfect science, but the chemistry and biology of alcohol consumption and its impact on human performance is pretty well understood; cannabis less so. Expect laws and regulations to evolve.

Are non-objective responses to matters of appearance 'stupid', 'silly' or 'misguided'? Yup. Welcome to human nature. Everything past buck naked falls along a spectrum that not everyone will agree upon. Said by probably every parent that raised a teenager.

If purple hair was that important, one might ask why someone would voluntarily joined an organization that, up until the apparent near future, doesn't allow it?

Sado-masochism?

 

[SupersonicMax]

One that will push the envelope

In what sense? Have you observed this “pushing the envelope” with females that have long hair?

 

[OldSolduer]

In what sense? Have you observed this “pushing the envelope” with females that have long hair?

I’m not in any more so no.

We did at least in the units I was in have guardhouse lawyers who’d challenge just about evert policy.

 

[Brad Sallows]

If you really want to push the envelope, develop a quirk - a brace of old pistols, an umbrella, a decorative sword, a small dog that goes everywhere with you, mix-and-match headgear.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

30+ years ago when I joined, some people didn’t follow or pushed the line on dress regs. People are doing it today. I’d bet 30 years from now people will still toe and / or cross the line, whatever that may look like at the time.

That’s what Officers, Warrant/Petty Officers and NCOs are paid, partially, to do; enforce the regs on their subs and set a positive example.

 

[btrudy]

Are non-objective responses to matters of appearance 'stupid', 'silly' or 'misguided'? Yup. Welcome to human nature. Everything past buck naked falls along a spectrum that not everyone will agree upon. Said by probably every parent that raised a teenager.

Sure. They exist. That doesn't mean I need to respect them, not does it mean that I consider it reasonable to be taking these non-objective responses into account when drafting policy.

If purple hair was that important, one might ask why someone would voluntarily joined an organization that, up until the apparent near future, doesn't allow it?

Because it's not that important, or at least not to me. I'm sure there's some people who avoided joining entirely because of this rule, and some people who got out sooner than they would have otherwise because of it.

Honestly, the thing that I find is that being in an organization that focuses so much on what I frankly consider to be petty unimportant BS tends to grate over time. My dissatisfaction with the status quo has steadily crept up over time. The more time I've got in the more annoying it is that we waste soooo much time and effort on enforcing rules that don't actually do anything to help. That are, in fact, overall harmful because all they do is hurt the morale of people who would otherwise make different aesthetic choices.

Our job is the controlled application of violence, so why do we spend so much time focusing on being ready for dog and pony shows?

 

[Remius]

So anyone who is in or worked with the PS can attest to the fact that the place is not a hive of multi coloured hair, piercings and men and women switching between skirts and slacks and entire sub units of people rocking millennial mullets. Dress regs are fairly simple in that world and people police themselves on what’s appropriate and what’s not. There are a few scattered around but it’s far from some sort of circus.

Not sure why we think the CAF is going to end up the route of fashion chaos.

 

[btrudy]

So anyone who is in or worked with the PS can attest to the fact that the place is not a hive of multi coloured hair, piercings and men and women switching between skirts and slacks and entire sub units of people rocking millennial mullets. Dress regs are fairly simple in that world and people police themselves on what’s appropriate and what’s not. There are a few scattered around but it’s far from some sort of circus.

Not sure why we think the CAF is going to end up the route of fashion chaos.

And this is primarily because not everyone wants to wear their hair that way. Not many men want to wear skirts. Not many people want to wear mullets.

And those people that do, can, and it's not an issue.

 

[Brad Sallows]

And if I see a man-bun and it's not on a medieval oriental warrior, I'm probably still going to laugh, a little.

 

[btrudy]

And if I see a man-bun and it's not on a medieval oriental warrior, I'm probably still going to laugh, a little.

Probably won't be too much of a problem if the dress regs get rid of the limit on length of pony tails / braids, as I expect them to. Or, even better, just allow long luxurious hair to flow freely.

Except for on parade I guess. Unless they get rid of that rule too. That one I kind of don't expect to see happen. I guess we'll see.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Probably won't be too much of a problem if the dress regs get rid of the limit on length of pony tails / braids, as I expect them to. Or, even better, just allow long luxurious hair to flow freely.

Except for on parade I guess. Unless they get rid of that rule too. That one I kind of don't expect to see happen. I guess we'll see.

I'd just be interested in tracking the careers of any Officers or SNCOS who avail themselves of the 'man bun' option etc.

My guess is their trajectories will be different from those who are more traditionally coiffed

 

[Humphrey Bogart]

I'd just be interested in tracking the careers of any Officers or SNCOS who avail themselves of the 'man bun' option etc.

My guess is their trajectories will be different from those who are more traditionally coiffed

It's almost like people are judgy naturally

But........

 

[Brad Sallows]

Most people put some effort into presenting themselves how they want to be seen and perceived, which means they are trying to influence judgement, which means they don't really want others to be non-judgemental.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I'd just be interested in tracking the careers of any Officers or SNCOS who avail themselves of the 'man bun' option etc.

My guess is their trajectories will be different from those who are more traditionally coiffed

And Warrant/Petty Officers too!

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Probably won't be too much of a problem if the dress regs get rid of the limit on length of pony tails / braids, as I expect them to. Or, even better, just allow long luxurious hair to flow freely.

Except for on parade I guess. Unless they get rid of that rule too. That one I kind of don't expect to see happen. I guess we'll see.

You seem a little…

…about the new dress regs and they haven’t even come out yet. Why not just sit back, relax and wait. They aren’t imminently around the corner and they might not all happen at once.
Anyone sitting on the edge of their seat for this is going to have some ass pain waiting…and waiting…

If I had to bet a bag of marbles, I’d say the CAF / Govt is already socializing this to our bosses, the Canadian taxpayer (yes their opinion matters) based on the number of media outlets that put the story out unofficially recently.

TLDR; relax - you’re complaining that the Christmas turkey is too dry before Mom even puts it in the oven…