People aren’t really psyched to be soldiers these days, and that’s not just because we’re not (officially) at war with anyone. Being a soldier just isn’t a lot of fun, which is why the government has made an incredible amount of effort to loosen the limits on what would previously stop someone from enlisting. These lifted restrictions include, for example, loosening education requirements, offering financial incentives and becoming accepting of different kinds of hairstyles and body art.

However, the newly-christened Secretary of War isn’t a fan of that last part. When he’s able to focus his eyes for more than a few seconds, he’s a very optics-obsessed guy — which is why he’s cracking down on the army’s appearance. Specifically, he’s taking a stand against poor shaving maintenance.

Despite being a guy who can never seem get the length of his sideburns even (I understand it’s hard after a few!), Hegseth has now decreed that “the Department must remain vigilant in maintaining the grooming standards which underpin the warrior ethos.” As such, people who require exemptions to the Army’s strict shaving rules, such as those with pseudofolliculitis barbae, will only have a year to grow a beard and… I don’t know, change their genetics?

If they don’t do this, Hegseth says, they’ll get kicked out of the service.

Where will these facial hair-having army men go? Who knows, but if they want to keep their jobs, they know what they must do. Like Hegseth at 2 a.m., those beards are getting cut off!