SAS troops banned from growing beards prior to deploying on operations

SAS troops have been banned from growing beards prior to deploying on operations, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.

The crackdown was ordered by the elite unit’s Regimental Sergeant Major following a complaint about dress standards during a VIP visit to the SAS’s HQ.

Now the crack troops have been ordered to be clean shaven at all times and to make sure their hair is kept at regulation length while they are stationed in the UK.

Elite soldiers like TV’s Ant Middleton grow beards and wear their hair at much longer lengths to help them blend in with the local population when taking part in operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

While the dress rules are bent on operations, senior commanders have now ruled that they should not be ignored when SAS troops are stationed at home.

The Sun has learnt that a senior foreign special forces officer was visiting the regiment’s HQ in Hereford when he commented on the fact that many of the soldiers were sporting beards.

The British commander accompanying the foreign soldier was said to be deeply embarrassed by the comments and allegedly described some of the SAS soldiers as looking like “vagrants”.

It is understood that the Director of Special Forces, the soldier in charge of the SAS, the SBS and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, was told that his troops had to follow the same dress standards as the rest of the Army while in the UK.

The unit’s Regimental Sergeant Major - often regarded as the most powerful soldier in the SAS - has now ruled that all troops must follow the Army’s standard dress code and has banned beards.

The RSM has also ruled that the members of the regiment must wear the British Army uniform, including the famous SAS sand coloured beret and blue stable belt when in barracks.

One source said: “There is a lot of frustration within the regiment over the no beards ruling.

“The problem is that some of the guys have started growing them weeks before they are due to deploy and it looks very scruffy.

“You can bend the dress rules quite a bit in the special forces but there is less room to manoeuvre back in the UK.

“It has become accepted that if you deploy on ops to Afghan, Iraq or Syria you have to have a beard and long hair.

“But the RSM has put his foot down. His message to the troops is you are soldiers of the Queen first and special forces troops second.”

Another veteran officer said that the SAS always stood out on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan because they were the only soldiers with beards.

He said: “The beard thing began in the early days of Afghan back in 2006 when soldiers were living in such harsh conditions that they couldn’t afford to waste water by shaving.

“Now its become the easiest way to identify a member of the special forces - it’s as if they are saying “look at us we’re special forces.”

An MoD spokesman, said: “We neither confirm nor deny reports of Special Forces activity.”

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