They’ll look more polished with this new nail rule.
The US military recently updated its uniform guidelines to restrict personnel from wearing colored nail polish, much to the chagrin of women in the service.
“People are not happy,” Elora Jean, who currently serves in the US Air Force, said on TikTok, citing online forums she’s read.
According to the updated rules, when in uniform, military personnel are only permitted to wear three manicure styles: clear, French or American.
“They think that the priorities are a little bit skewed right now and that nail polish is really not that serious and that there’s a lot of other things that should be focused on when it comes to military readiness and recruiting and general wellbeing for people in the military,” she continued.
She revealed that the change in uniform rules comes almost a year after the Department of Defense authorized 60 various colors of nail lacquer to be worn while in uniform.
Now, women in the service are only allowed to paint their nails with clear polish, have a French tip or get an American manicure, the latter of which is similar to a French manicure but with a sheer nude color applied on top of the white tips.
“I joined the [Air Force] ’cause I knew I could still have fun nails,” lamented another woman on TikTok. “I’m done.”
“I just got my damn nails done and spent $50 on a color that’s not approved now,” complained another on Reddit, although she recognized that “obviously there are more important things going on in the AF and people who have way harder realities with the changes going on right now.”
“Forcing policy change to take effect a few days after being announced is scuzzy no matter what, let alone when it financially impacts Airmen,” one person commented.
While some viewers questioned why nail polish color affected soldiers’ abilities to do their jobs, others brushed off the Air Force personnel’s gripes with the updated regulations.
“If you are serving for our country you deserve any pretty color you want!” argued one user on TikTok.
“I don’t know why they do things like that just leave it be and let people be happy,” another agreed.
“Lots of people can’t wear nail varnish at work,” scoffed someone else.
“Being in the military is not a beauty pageant,” snarked another user.
“The purpose of a uniform is that all individuals are UNIFORM to one another,” someone else wrote. “You’re in the military, get used to not expressing yourself.”