And not just twists and dreads — long hair unpinned and long bangs are also non-regulation, for a reason: "Loading rounds into artillery tubes," Conway said by way of example, "you don't want hair getting into the way, obscuring your vision."

But retired Lt. Col. Patricia Jackson-Kelley, a member of the National Association of Black Military Women, told the WashingtonPostthe new hair regulations mostly target black women. "I don't see how a woman wearing three braids in her hair, how that affects her ability to perform her duty in the military." (In the same interview, Kathaleen Harris, NABMW's current president, noted the Army is innately conservative in its standards, and said that while some women look "gorgeous" in their twists, "some people go overboard. The twists are not smalltwists but they're real large ones and it doesn't fit the cover, your hat.")

African-American female soldiers were involved in the process of developing the new female hair standards. ... Not only were nearly 200 senior female leaders and soldiers (which included a representative sample of the Army's populations) part of the decision-making process on the female hair standards, but the group was also led by an African-American female.

The rules apply to non-black women, who are also forbidden to put their straight hair in large twists or braids, or to grow dreadlocks. But as Anatole France once dryly observed, "In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread." Black women who are upset with