Pilots have strict dress codes regarding their appearances and uniforms. They have to maintain a neat appearance at all times, partially for safety reasons and partially to inspire confidence in passengers. Obviously, these rules apply to uniform regulations and visible body modifications, but what about facial hair and beards?
The short answer is that commercial pilots usually can’t have beards. There are a few reasons for this, including maintaining a professional appearance, but also for practical safety reasons since safety regulators believed facial hair would affect how oxygen masks could fit. However, rules are slowly changing in the aviation industry.
Here is what you need to know about facial hair for pilots.
Can Pilots Have Beards?
The answer depends on the job that the pilot wants to do. The rules are strictest for commercial airlines because when working in that sphere, pilots interact the most with passengers. Almost all airlines restrict facial hair for pilots.
Pilots either aren’t allowed to have beards at all or have to trim their beards to a certain length. Part of the reason is professionalism: nervous passengers want to feel confident that their pilot will do a good job, and unfortunately, many people still have unconscious biases against others based on appearance.
Another reason is safety. Regulators banned beards because they thought beards affected the way oxygen masks fit. When a cabin depressurizes, everyone has only a few seconds to put on oxygen masks before losing consciousness. While a passenger losing consciousness is obviously tragic, the consequences are much worse if a pilot does so and cannot lower the plane to a safe altitude. That’s why anything that affects the fit of an oxygen mask is banned.
Do Beards Really Affect How an Oxygen Mask Fits?
For years, the conventional wisdom around facial hair affecting oxygen masks was that it impeded the mask’s fit and the pilot’s ability to put on a mask fast enough. However, a recent study by Canada’s Simon Fraser University found that beard length actually doesn’t affect how pilots breathe using an oxygen mask.
If beards don’t actually affect safety, why did pilots have to shave for so many years? The rules were based on studies conducted years ago, but the team from SFU found many irregularities in the study. Since the original studies were conducted, equipment for pilots has changed drastically, and the initial experiments didn’t even test the fit of pilot-grade masks.
The study wasn’t updated for years because regulators felt it was better to be safe than sorry, so the ban continued. However, now that new studies show beards don’t affect safety, airlines are starting to relax their regulations.
What If You Want to Be a Pilot and Keep a Beard?
If you really like your facial hair but don’t want to give up your dreams of being a pilot just yet, don’t worry. You have a few options.
Some airlines, such as Air Canada, are starting to allow pilots to wear beards. However, depending on the particular airline’s uniform regulations, you may have to trim your beard to a certain length (Air Canada’s guidelines say pilots cannot have beards longer than 1.25 cm.).
Another option is to fly something other than commercial jets. Uniform regulations are strictest in the commercial passenger sector of the aviation industry, in part due to public perception. However, pilots flying private planes, taxi services, cargo transporters, and more have much looser regulations, including those regarding facial hair.
Can Pilots Have Mustaches?
Luckily for commercial pilots, the ban on facial hair is not total. Even the strictest airlines usually allow pilots to have mustaches as long as they are neatly trimmed.
Mustaches have less potential to get unkempt, so they make more sense from a professional standpoint. They also don’t impact the fit of oxygen masks at all (some airlines have been slow to adapt the new information from the study showing beards are safe as well), making them a safer choice.
Can Air Force Pilots Have Beards?
As you can probably expect, uniform regulations for military pilots are even stricter than they are for civilian pilots. In the Air Force, pilots are not allowed to have facial hair at all.
However, the Air Force does issue waivers for pilots who cannot shave for medical or religious reasons (Many world religions mandate that their male members maintain a beard.). A recent study found that even though pilots were granted those waivers, they were usually passed up for promotions compared to their clean-shaven comrades.
The study may force the Air Force to relax its attitude towards beards because a disproportionate number of men who had the waiver, and in turn were affected by the discrimination in advancement opportunities, were African American.
Although pilots with beards are still limited in terms of opportunities, the whole aviation sector is starting to change.
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