stupid question

**JPetru82** · May 23rd, 2012, 04:37 PM

well, like the title says this is probably a stupid question, but I'll ask anyways. I'm shipping out on Saturday for my commercial cruise with MSC. Are there hair restrictions for CIVMARS on MSC vessels? My hair, I know, is short enough, mainly wondering about facial hair. I'd like to make a good first impression on arrival, and not have to be told to go shave my mustache and goatee(sp). Thanks.

**c.captain** · May 23rd, 2012, 06:42 PM

You're right that this is a rather stupid question. I mean why chance it? Just show up with the Navy standard little stash and if you find more is ok after you are aboard then grow away. Beards (even goatees) may be verboten if you are a fireteam member but I am not MSC experienced so can't say but in offshore that is not uncommon...

if fact Noble doesn't want you to have any chin hair at all which I was told was just the peave of some ex president of the company who is long dead and buried...perhaps it was Dave Beard! I wonder what they would have said if I grown Ambrose Burnside mutton chops?

Man...the Civil War years where awesome when every man had at least a thick stash and many wore the most incredible beards ever! Too bad all those men got blasted to pieces with musket balls smack in their faces. Literally marching straight into the face of enemy fire! WHAT AN EFFING STUPID SENSELESS WAR THAT WAS!

"How womanly it is for one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, and to arrange his hair at the mirror, shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them!...For God wished women to be smooth and to rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane. But He adorned man like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him as an attribute of manhood, with a hairy chest—a sign of strength and rule." St. Clement of Alexandria

HEAR, HEAR....HARRUMPH! Now Smithers, bring me a big fat cigar and another Cognac my good man!

.

**JPetru82** · May 23rd, 2012, 07:19 PM

as always, well said c. captain. why risk it is what I was thinking as well. I doubt as a cadet I'll be put on a fireteam, but I get where you're going with that. Guess tomorrow I go clean shaven.
That's one thing I always loved about studying and reading about our history, the epicness of the beards that they rocked with pride. maybe one day, that'll be true again. doubtfull, but one can hope.

**c.captain** · May 23rd, 2012, 08:54 PM

gotta love this one!

5. Grooming Regulations

a. No eccentricities in the manner of wearing head, facial, or body hair will be permitted. If applied, dyes, tints, bleaches and frostings which result in natural colors are authorized. The hair color must complement the person's complexion tone. Color changes that detract from a professional image are prohibited. Fingernails will be kept clean and neatly trimmed so as not to interfere with performance of duty, detract from military image or present a safety hazard. Nail polish for male Marines is not allowed. Nail polish as it applies to female Marines will fall under standards in subparagraph 1004.5.c(5). (ALMAR 256/96)

b. Men will be well groomed at all times and will abide by the following:

(1) Hair will be neat and closely trimmed. The hair may be clipped at the edges of the side and back; will be evenly graduated from zero Fig1-1

length at the hairline in the lower portion of the head to the upper portion of the head; and will not be over 3 inches in length fully extended onFig1-2

the upper portion of the head; the back and sides of the head below the hairline may be shaved to remove body hair. Sideburns will not extend below the top of the orifice of the ear, as indicated by the line A-A' in figures 1-1 and 1-2. Sideburns will not be styled to taper or flare. The length of an individual hair of the sideburn will not exceed 1/8 inch when fully extended.

(2) Head hair will be styled so as not to interfere with the proper wear of uniform headgear. Hair which protrudes from beneath properly worn headgear in an unsightly manner is considered excessive, regardless of length.

(3) No male Marine will be required to have his hair clipped to the scalp except while he is undergoing recruit training or when such action is prescribed by a medical officer. This does not prohibit a male Marine from having his hair clipped to the scalp if he so desires.

(4) Members of the Selected Marine Corps Reserve will comply with these regulations, except that wigs are authorized for periods of inactive duty for training. If worn, wigs will comply with the above grooming regulations.

(5) The face will be clean shaven, except that a mustache may be worn. When worn, the mustache will be neatly trimmed and must be contained within the lines of B-B', C-C', D-D' and the margin area of the upper lip, as shown in figures 1-1 and 1-2. The individual length of a mustache hair fully extended must not exceed 1/2 inch.

(6) Except for a mustache, eyebrows, and eyelashes; hair may be grown on the face only when a medical officer has determined that shaving is temporarily harmful to the individual's health. In these cases, the current edition of MCO 6310.1 applies.

(7) No male Marine will be required to have his chest hair clipped except that which is so long as to protrude in an unsightly manner above the collar of the long sleeve khaki shirt. Figure 1-1.--Male Grooming Standards (Front View) Figure 1-2.--Male Grooming Standards (Side View).

WTF! The Marines won't let me have a hairy pelt or wear nail polish but I can wear a wig so long as it looks just like regulation hair! And of course, the regulations noticeably also leave out regulations for "other body hair"...hmmm, wonder why?

Anyway, time for personal inspection Marines...my armored Mk. V tape measure and Kevlar ruler please....ATTEN-HUTT!

**jdcavo** · May 24th, 2012, 05:14 AM

Originally Posted by c.captain

gotta love this one!

gotta love this one!

5. Grooming Regulations

a. No eccentricities in the manner of wearing head, facial, or body hair will be permitted. If applied, dyes, tints, bleaches and frostings which result in natural colors are authorized....

The NMC's database/system for generating and issuing the MMC includes green, pink, and purple in the drop down menu for hair color.

**Highball** · May 24th, 2012, 10:42 PM

Haaaahaahahaa!!!!! Listen dude, not only are there no standards in grooming, there are no professional standards either! In MSC you will see all kinds of guys (sorry, men and women gloriously serving their country) rocking all kinds of freaked-out do's: afro, mutton-chops, dreads, mohawk, zz top. So come on Billy Gibbons, let it grow! What are you scared of, they cant kick you off. Likewise it doesnt really matter whether your much of a seaman, mariner, sailor, salt, what have you. So welcome aboard Karl Marx! Be you land-lubber, lazy-ass, wino, former u.s. postal service employee, invalid, quadrapeligic, IQ lower than the last president of the united states, or just plain from Norfolk, VA, the Navy's Military Sealift Command will value your honorable service. CADET??? Even better!!! Whats expected of you just dropped by half! To begin with you will probably only be working a couple (two) hours a day doing chart corrections in your stateroom (weekends off of course). So saddle up my Russian Orthodox brother! If you dont fuck up this golden opportunity to serve the greatest-country-on-earth as a Civilian Mariner and get fired say by stabbing a fellow shipmate or failing to show up for navigational watch 37 days in a row then you can expect a long and glorious career as a CIVMAR and make a bunch of money (well a whole lot more than they'd pay your worthless ass on land) and get a good pension and some sweet service medals to boot! Just keep your gnarly beard out of my soup!

Denis Bielenberg

FV Nomad II
MV Trinity
USNS Lewis and Clark
USS Emory S. Land
USNS Richard E. Byrd

**c.captain** · May 24th, 2012, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by Highball

Haaaahaahahaa!!!!! Listen dude, not only are there no standards in grooming, there are no professional standards either!

Just keep your gnarly beard out of my soup!

This has to be the funniest post I have ever read here!

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! My God, sir, you are a character – that you are! There's never any telling what you'll say or do next."

You sir get my sincere vote of thanks for your razor whit and biting sarcasm...BRAVO! ENCORE! AUTHOR!

.

**brjones** · May 25th, 2012, 06:57 AM

Some funny replies here. I love it. But in all seriousness why not just show up clean shaven and then grow out whatever you need while on board? You never know what to expect when you first join any ship. You are still going to need those evals.

**Highball** · May 25th, 2012, 12:22 PM

Sydney Greenstreet as the Fat Man, Excellent!

**c.captain** · May 25th, 2012, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by Highball

Sydney Greenstreet as the Fat Man, Excellent!

cheers my most wise-ass brother!

.

**Xmsccapt(ret)** · May 26th, 2012, 04:08 AM

Originally Posted by c.captain

You're right that this is a rather stupid question. I mean why chance it? Just show up with the Navy standard little stash and if you find more is ok after you are aboard then grow away. Beards (even goatees) may be verboten if you are a fireteam member but I am not MSC experienced so can't say but in offshore that is not uncommon...

if fact Noble doesn't want you to have any chin hair at all which I was told was just the peave of some ex president of the company who is long dead and buried...perhaps it was Dave Beard! I wonder what they would have said if I grown Ambrose Burnside mutton chops?

Man...the Civil War years where awesome when every man had at least a thick stash and many wore the most incredible beards ever! Too bad all those men got blasted to pieces with musket balls smack in their faces. Literally marching straight into the face of enemy fire! WHAT AN EFFING STUPID SENSELESS WAR THAT WAS!

HEAR, HEAR....HARRUMPH! Now Smithers, bring me a big fat cigar and another Cognac my good man!

.

Ditto. Sounds like you are a cadet? If so then please arrive at the ship looking like a cadet. To answer your question, no. There are no hair restrictions with msc. some years ago they tried to say you could to have a beard. Then some chief mate took them to court, got back pay and msc then came out with the " you can do anything " rule. There are even civmars with body piercings and tattoos. While the CMPI does not cover this well enough. ( and is so outdated such issues were never thought of when it was written) there is nothing Msc can do about hair, tattoos etc.

**c.captain** · May 26th, 2012, 04:55 AM

OH NO! Now I have found this treasure to further cost me endless more hours added to an already wasted life:

Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century
The one-stop blog spot for your Nineteenth Century Mustache needs!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The Fools of April
Warning to the fairer sex, unaccompanied minors and those with weak constitutions, today's post is on a rather shocking matter.

Let us spend this one day contemplating the most foolish of facial hair:

The Mustacheless Beard!

With no mustache, sideburns or cheek bridge,
this represents the reverse face-shelf. Truly horrible to behold.

This mustacheless patriarch surely ruled his family with a cruel and iron fist.
Possibly because no woman could love a deliberately barelipped authoritarian.
The seeds of feminism were sown from his unnatural co-location of facial and chest hair.

A furious expression on a mustacheless face.
What joy can be had without a mustache?

Indeed...what joy can a man have without his mustache?

To think there are people out there with such lonely empty lives to endlessly be spending their free time on the internet doing such trifling.....oh!

nevermind...

.

**Highball** · May 26th, 2012, 04:12 PM

CIVMARS with piercings and tattoos!!!!???? (GASP!) OMG! That is sooo out of line with sailing tradition. What will these hooligans do next?

**DeckApe** · May 27th, 2012, 03:23 AM

Originally Posted by Highball

CIVMARS with piercings and tattoos!!!!???? (GASP!) OMG! That is sooo out of line with sailing tradition. What will these hooligans do next?

Shhh, don't tell anyone but I hear they partake of the intoxicating beverages as well.

**Xmsccapt(ret)** · May 27th, 2012, 05:12 AM

Originally Posted by Highball

CIVMARS with piercings and tattoos!!!!???? (GASP!) OMG! That is sooo out of line with sailing tradition. What will these hooligans do next?

Well, piercings are one thing ( ear rings and be like) , looking like you got into a fight and lost with a lawn mower is another. Also with Msc you have to liaison with the navy. If you look like you were in a low grade jewelry store when a bomb went off your career would be better served at a fast food job.

**Highball** · May 27th, 2012, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by DeckApe

Shhh, don't tell anyone but I hear they partake of the intoxicating beverages as well.

No. Not that! OH SAVE US SWEET AND GENTILE BABY JESUS! Save our wretched drunken and pierced souls from floundering in these wicked waters of temptation.