Can you wear makeup in the army?

Hello,

To give you the text book answer, this is from Chapter 5, Part 9, Paragraph 5.366 b of The Queen's Regulations for the Army:

(1) Males. Make up is not to be worn.
(2) Females. Make up (if worn) is to be inconspicuous. Brightly coloured nail varnish is not to be worn.

So in simple, yes, you can so long as you identify as female and it is not too noticeable.

Hi there,

Thanks for your question.

As Greg has highlighted above, the Army dress standards do allow women to wear make up, and most do. The key is that you must still look professional, and most importantly the make up must not prevent you from being able to do your job or cause any potential health and safety issues. An example of this would be something like long nail extensions which could get caught during combat PT or whilst operating in armoured vehicles.

I hope this answers your question but if you want to know anything else please do ask.

Katie

As Katie said above, most females do wear some makeup (after basic training - when you either can't be bothered or don't have time because that's an extra 5mins sleeping!). We have female soldiers with fake nails (kept short and neat and neutral nail colour), eye lash exensions (that look natural), have had lip fillers, tatooed eyebrows etc etc. I've more recently seen male soldiers wearing light brown eyeliner. We even have people who were makeup artists before they joined the army. As long as it's subtle and does not hinder your work it's up to the individual.