Nowadays, for the most hardcore airsoft geardos, having the tactical beard is one the ultimate must haves. Why have the best gear when you can still cannot look like those badass special operations guys operating in Afghanistan? While we do find tactical beards as tacticool, I am ambivalent on their usefulness in every environment, even Optimus Prime cannot grow a beard for genetic reasons. There is still a big part of the world population who cannot grow proper beards, especially if you look at the western side of the Pacific Ocean.

Guns and Tactics wrote about "The Growth of The Tactical Beard", which gives a short overview on beards and mustaches in militaries but mainly it is how beards are grown to fit the locals situation and follow the cultural norms of the operating environment by those who have been trained to stay with the locals. Special operations forces which operate with the villages need to grow beards to show their respect to their Afghan counterparts and be accepted local leaders. Furthermore, having beards let them blend in the environment, especially when they need to bug-out when the going gets tough as their beards make them harder to spot in a village full of bearded men.

The practical reason of having the tactical beard became obscured when operators and their exploits became the stuff of legend and people who try to emulate them, of course, grow their own beard since they just see it as being tacticool, which indeed it does look tacticool. This is seen specifically in the airsoft community where there is a growing base of people with the tactical beard. The growth of TBOC (Tactical Beard Owners Club), with their famous patch is a testament to this, that we see airsoft players buying rip-offs of the TBOC patch even if they cannot grow their own beards.

We see nothing wrong with the people sporting beards as long as they know how to take care of them. As beards, if unkempt, can be unsanitary and unhygienic as they can also carry lice. If you're wondering the reason why some militaries do not allow the beards, it is also for the practical reason of wearing gas masks where having a beard may just make it impossible to seal the mask. Thus, there are also trade offs when wearing tacticool beards.

If you are curious on the policies of militaries around the world on facial hair, click here to go to Wikipedia to find more about them. And for those who can't grow a tactical beard, there's always the knitted beard to fall back on.