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Today I just realized I'm screwed,since I'm living in a country where going to the army at the age of 18 is obligatory,I'll have to do it so next year,and that means bye bye to my hair,which will be approximately 14 months old when I'm forced to shave it off.My only salvation is finding a legible excuse for them to dismiss me from my mission,and that is going to be terribly hard for me,since I'm a tall,skinny guy,and that's the male pattern the army is looking for.I'm so desperate that I already thought about getting overweight,starting drinking and smoking to get health problems or even breaking my legs by purpose to be dismissed.I have aproximatelly 9 months to think of something,or I'll be serving the army for the next 1 year-1yr 1/2.Have any of you guys gone through this and know anything I could do to save my butt?Thanks in advance.
If it's only a year or so, it may just be best to be realistic, serve and get out. Saying this, I absolutely don't support conscription, but seeing as you are in a country where it isn't a choice, it's probably the easiest way to do it. Afterward, just grow it back. After all, you're young, have a full head of hair, and will most likely have no problems eventually growing it out again.
Of course, you could just move to the US and renounce your citizenship...
Either way, best of luck, Rafael. Enjoy your hair and hope you can figure it out.
-James
Thanks,James,but I'll do whatever I can to avoid shaving my head,as I have very thick hair,it is extremely hard to grow it long,and it will be pretty long by the time I go to the army.I'll just wait and see if anyone in my family can do anything about this,and if things end up the worst,I'll just shave it off.Another reason why I don't want to serve the army is that I have a hatred for it,as in my country the military is useless and doesn't do anything to help reduce violence and the criminality rate,and also my stepfather is from the airforce,and he is just the person I hate the most in the face of Earth(for many reasons),so I would feel great about not going to the army and spitting this in his face,as it would show that I don't wanna be the kind of person he is.
Any chance you can qualify for being a consciousness objector? If not, what James said is the best way to go IMO.
I don't think so,they do many tests and exams to see if you have any mental problems or disturbances.What I'm sticking to is pretending to be gay in the day I enlist,as it is the best oprion i've found so far :p.
I would think seriously before mutilating myself, be it my hair or other body parts. Consider how much harm will be done to your psyche as well as to your physical body before making any decisions. Options are:
1. Let your hair be mutilated and go into the army.
2. Do something to flunk the physical, as you suggested. This is a dicey choice since by then option #4 below may no longer be in reach by then, should you fail at this tack.
3. Refuse to enlist. Consider what the punishment will be and compare that to how you will fare should you go into the army instead.
4. Sever your relationship with that government and get out.
None of these will be easy on you, or you wouldn't have sought advice. Don't overlook web resources. There are web sites that can help with information about each of those choices. Items #3 and #4 may be easier to undertake if you get an attorney.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
Bill
Until the late 1980s I lived in a communist country which had, of course, mandatory military service. There were no exceptions made to allow for any kind of objections - one had to serve regardless of his religious affiliation or anything else.
I had to do that - three times... The first time I had my head shaved.
I didn't have to do anything about the physical, I flunked it all three times because I was too overweight. But I had to travel from one end of the country to the other, only to be sent back home - after having my hair cut!
In my country of origin refusal to enlist was punished with 5 - 10 years in military prison.
This is what I did eventually, for many reasons.
There was no web at the time I was called for the last time - the HTTP was still some 5 years in the future...
--
A Linux Longhair
Same thing here in Brazil,and you not only get a black mark on your name and become someone with shorter chances to get into colleges and receive shorter payments,but you also have to pay a large fee,which I'm not yet sure about.
If I do three I will be drown out from my house by the army and get many disadvantages in relation to jobs and college enlisting.
If I do 4 I'm doomed for life XD.
National Service which is common in Europe and elsewhere is something that's hard to escape. I would agree with James just tough it out. Degrading your health is a bad idea and could be bad for your hair as well.
As for Questers consciousness objector comment for those outside the US may or may not know that was one way to avoid the draft, or at least going to war usually on religious grounds. It was used a lot during the Vietnam War but not any more as we've had an all volunteer army since the mid 70's. I don't know what if any other countries have a similar exception to National Service as the purpose of which is defense where as in the US we tend to go on the offense.
We could go on for hours on this but in short you have 9 months to find any alternative way to serve your country and keep your hair if such alternatives exist.
Good Luck
Kevin
Thanks for replying,and I'll see if I find out any other way to serve my country not having to shave my hair off.
Off the top of my head, I can't recall which country you are in. If you were in the US (and we still had the draft), I'd be able to give you resources for getting Conscientious Objector or doing alternative service. If you aren't willing to reveal your country, try to look up Quakers or the Religious Society of Friends in your country.
I live in Brazil,and it is extremely hard to get rid of the army.I've already checked all my friends and family members,and they revealed that I will either be lucky and not have to go to the army,or be unlucky and have to sleep in the mud and eat crappy food while in a torrential rain XD.
I can offer the experiences of a couple of other people,not my own.
I used to rent a room from a guy who invited me to visit some friends of his with him, and when I got there it turned out they owned a mansion! They had all moved from England to France, but they still owned this huge house in England, where we went to see them. I think they had too much money for any of them to need a job. Anyway, France still has the draft, and as that was their primary address, one of them had been called up. Apparently he spent the induction interview staring at his feet all the time, making sure not to look up at the person interviewing him, and told them he was feeling depressed and that he was gay. This was all an act, and it worked. Now, I realise that this may offend some of the gay members of the board, but if you can claim (or feign) membership of a group that they are likely to discriminate against, this is one case where you don't want the job, so it helps you. Feigning mental illness also helps, but it has to be something that isn't too serious, or you may find yourself in a closed ward! This guy did both, as he was taking no chances, and he didn't have to go. They later found out that France has a quota of people to excuse service.
The other story concerns my own father. He in fact was drafted into the Royal Artillery in England two months before the end of WW2, and actually served his two year term, although he was never sent overseas. However, he kept receiving reserve papers afterwards, which carry the possibility of having to go back in. In fact, most armies draft the reserves before anyone else. So, he sent them back with just one word - 'COMMUNIST' scrawled on them in large capital letters, and never heard from the army again!
Of course, lots of Americans avoided being sent to Vietnam by moving to Canada, and some of them are still there.
In the US the law is that aliens can be drafted but can refuse to go on the condition that they are permanently barred from becoming US citizens if they do, although they can still stay here permanently on a greencard without becoming citizens. Registration also only takes place between the ages of 18 and 25, so anyone who is out of the US for those years of their life, or any alien who arrives after that age (like me) is never registered and is permanently out of the system, so they can never be drafted (unless the upper age is extended as it was just once, in 1945, or unless they have been in the forces before). Of course, there is no draft in the US for the time being, but registration is kept going to enable a draft. The UK, OTOH, abolished it completely in 1969 and has no registration system in place.
Your country may have a similar system. You may find that if you can stay out of the country until you are over a certain age then you can come back and be safe from the draft. Or not. YMMV.
Hope this helps.
Peace.
You just reminded me of the story of an activist in Washington, DC who did not want to get drafted; back when that was done. His tactic was to refuse to shave. This, apparently, was a tactic they didn't know how to handle, since whiskers grow back quickly. Ultimately they decided to charge him with the standard insubordination kind of thing that gets you into military prison or whatever. Of course, they really don't want to send guys there, and he didn't want to go. So. He agreed to shave and get re-processed in. The catch? He shaved EVERYTHING. So. When it came time for the physical, the docs just freaked. Whaddya know, the army just gave up! They just got tired of dealing with him. I think he was also claiming to be gay, but they didn't buy that for whatever reason.
I hadn't thought about people trying to get out once they are in, but my dad has some stories of that kind. There was even one guy who threw the pin and kept the grenade during training - on purpose. It won't go off unless you let go of the lever, and then the fuse still has to burn down, but apparently the sergeant was having kittens, LOL! Then, in another exercise he wouldn't keep down where you have to crawl on your hands and knees while people shoot over the top of you, hopefully using blanks (?). I don't know if he got out, but it sounds a risky way to do it.
OTOH, the guy in France did avoid being drafted by pretending to be gay and depressed, and my dad's UK reserve papers did stop when he told them he was a commie. Those things did work, and without playing with grenades!
I guess shaving off your eyebrows, etc., works too, but it defeats the ob ject here if you have to shave off your hair as well.
Lol,I have never shaved my eyebrows,but I would absolutelly do it so if I had no other choice,so I'll make sure to keep this in mind,thanks :).
Hi electros,
I thought about sharing this idea as well; but, I thought better of it when I remembered hearing what a gay friend of mine said who went through an induction interview, and the tactics that the interviewers use to test whether someone really is gay or not. Appaently the ordeal they put you through is quite humiliating, including asking some extremely sexually graphic questions, and spoken in a very degrading sort of way. I can't use actual examples of the types of questions they would ask, because this forum will not permit the kind of language I would have to type out in order to be accurate (lol); but, let's just say that "it ain't pretty!"
Re. my friend's ordeal, once they got him on the verge of actually crying and feeling close to a nervous break-down (because he still confessed to being gay, in spite of all the humiliation) the interviewer stopped, said the process was over, --- and then actually apologized for being so rough on him; but, also adding, "this is the only way we know how to make sure you aren't faking it!"
For sure it's an interesting topic, regardless, --- and for those of us living in the US now, thank goodness we no longer have that damn draft anymore! (Cross your fingers that this stays that way - lol....)
- Ken in San Francisco
The person I was talking about was dodging the draft in France, and what country the OP is actually in I still don't know. Now that you mention it, I had heard of gay guys being drafted in the US because the draft board didn't believe they were gay, but I didn't know why they didn't believe them.
You know, I think that you may not have to be gay to answer some of those kind of questions. I am trying to phrase this carefully, but it'd tricky. Let's say that I can think of one question that most people wouldn't know the answer to, but where it is possible to know it from experience with a woman, so they might have asked him about another activity, but even that you could find out by asking a woman, as that's not considered to be deviant atall, Sorry to be oblique. I guess the real killer would be not knowing that the questions were coming. And I can easily see someone refusing to answer and getting drafted.
Wow,these are quite awesome stories and facts.In Brazil the system works differently than in the U.S and other places,here,gay people are discriminated all the time,but the police doesn't do anything about the abusers,as it is only a minuscule part of all the problems we face nowadays in relation to government and living.Once you turn 18,you are obligated to show up in the army,just so they can check you to see if you're in the pattern to go to the army,and you can only be dismissed if you have a physical or mental disease,and I'm not sure about being dismissed for being homossexual or having flat feet,and I plan to check this out later.Just a few people have long hair in Brazil,since the college seniors shave the freshmen heads when you enter a college,and that's pretty much in all colleges,and the government doesn't do anything about it;and industries also discriminate against long haired men,so you always end up having to shave your head for whatever reason,and that's what saddens me the most.
I think I read a post somewhere that they shave college freshman's heads somewhere in Eastern Europe, but I can't remember which country it was. Now I hear they do that in Brasil too. That's awful. I wonder if they do that in more countries? If anyone had tried to do that to me when I went to college in England they would have got injured, I can tell you.
I know,I hate this system,but it's a cliche,and it's hard for people to stop doing it.I will make sure they don't shave my head by carrying a knife in my pocket,or by just missing the first week of classes,since they do it during the first week.
Just say you have flat feets.
My friend told me that today,but how does this work?Aren't they gonna check to see if I really have flat feet?
How bad it may be for your hair at that moment, just go into the army and grow your hair back afterwards. That's the only option imho, the other options you gave are far more harmfull for your body and hair grows back.
As long as there is a way to get rid of the army,I'll do it,no matter how bad things go for me,shaving my head will be my last option.
It all depends on the country you're living in.I'm a consciousness objector myself, I had to work for a year in a library, and that was it.
By the way, if I were gay, it would not have made any difference where I live. I think it's illegal here for the army NOT to accept gays! Funny how things are different in different countries...
There are some other points to be considered besides whether they're going to cut your hair.
1) How do you feel about going into the Army overall?? Is your only objection the haircut, or do you have other objections to serving? A couple of people have mentioned "conscientious objectors". Do you actually have any moral/ethical/religious objections to serving in a military organization?
2) What are the potential ramifications of avoiding military service? A couple of people mentioned the potential health problems of avoiding service through getting fat or injuring yourself, and I'd look at that VERY seriously. If you simply refuse to go, what are the potential punishments?
3) Assuming you're NOT actually either a conscientious objector, a pacifist, or gay; can you realistically expect to pull off the deceptions required to make them think you are? Again, as someone else mentioned, the military recruiters/processors are probably fairly good at spotting those trying to fake it. And what are the consequences if they catch you trying to fake it? And, if you avoid it on any of these grounds, are there potential problems regarding access to government services and/or employment, or other employment for that matter?
4) Are you ready/able to move elsewhere and change your citizenship?
These are all things you need to think about and decide for yourself. Think about the big picture of what to do, not just how it affects your hair. Here on the board, we all love long hair, and would just as soon keep what we've worked for. However, when it comes down to it, it will grow back.
Hope things work out for you in whatever way turns out to be best for you.
Jim
Thanks man,I guess I have no other choice then,since if I don't serve the military it will be much harder for me to find a job.In Brazil it is impossible to grow long hair,since you have to shave it frequently in teenage hood,and then shave it again to get a job when you're an adult,since everyone here discriminates against longhairs.I feel outraged by this,and I would just love to move to another country,but that's the sad reality I live in,and there's no way to change it.
Considering conscription is slavery and absolutely one of the most immoral things to ever come of government (except for the genocides, which are of course a product of conscription).
I'd say resist it in any way possible. Unfortunately, no independant court of morality exists where you could argue against your government, because uhm, they own all the courts... I bet this is the time you wished for independant arbitration eh. Shameless plug for Friedman's extract here:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Libertarian/Machinery_of_Freedom/MofF_Chapter_29.html
Sorry to hear about this, my parents got me out of such a country when I was still an infant. If I were to return today, I'd probably get drafted immediately.