Head shaving

Head shaving is the practice of shaving the hair from a person's head. At different times and places people have shaved all or part of their heads for very diverse reasons including practicality, convenience, low maintenance, religion, culture, and aesthetics. A shaven head therefore has widely varying connotations depending on the context.

The earliest historical records describing head shaving originated in ancient Mediterranean cultures, such as Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The Egyptian priest class ritualistically removed all body hair by plucking. This included hair on the head, eyebrows, and beard.

The practice of shaving heads has been used in the military. Although sometimes explained as being for hygiene reasons, the image of strict, disciplined conformity may certainly be a factor. During the allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day, many soldiers chose to have their heads completely shaved, denying the defending Germans something to grab onto when the battle moved to close quarters. For the new recruit, it can be a rite of passage, and variations become a badge of honour.

The militaries of the United States, Russia, and several other countries have welcomed their recruits by giving them haircuts using hair clippers with no guard attached. As of 2011, shaved heads continued to be standard haircuts in the United States Air Force, United States Marine Corps, United States Army, and the United States Coast Guard during basic/recruit training – upon graduation from training, grooming restrictions are relaxed in accordance with each service's regulations. In Greece, this practice was abolished on June 25, 1982, when the military started allowing recruits to have up to 4 cm of hair. Before then, the regulation haircut in the Greek army for recruits was en hro (an archaic phrase for "shaved to the bone").

A shaved head continues to be common place in the United States military. There have been traditions spawned from shaving a service members head. Most notable is the tradition of shaving one's head when a service member enters the Mediterranean Sea by ship for the first time, known as "Med Head".

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