Sailors bristle over Navy beard rule

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island - Now that women in the US Navy can wear ponytails, men want beards.

The Navy said last week that servicewomen could sport ponytails, lock hairstyles, or ropelike strands, and wider hair buns, reversing a policy that long forbade females from letting their hair down.

Servicemen immediately chimed in on social media, asking the Navy if they could grow beards. A sailor's Facebook post with a #WeWant-Beards hashtag was shared thousands of times.