Becoming a Military Barber

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Although the television show "King of the Hill" portrayed military barbers as members of the armed services, actual military barbers are civilian employees of a particular service branch. You don't have to go to boot camp to become a military barber, but there are certain steps you must take before you find work as one.

Graduate from a school of barbering or cosmetology. Despite the stereotype of simply shaving the heads of new recruits, military barbers must be able to provide a wide range of hairstyles for military men and women, as well as their dependents.

Have a valid state barber's or cosmetologist's license. A military barber must maintain and sanitize his equipment properly and take proper safety precautions, which a state license regulates.

Apply for a position. Military barber positions are civilian jobs advertised via standard channels: local newspapers, job websites and employment agencies.

Submit to background checks. As an employee of the federal government, a military barber will have to submit to a Local Records Check and National Agency Check. This is equivalent to a pre-employment background check, not the exhaustive check a military officer undergoes for security clearance.

Joseph Cohen has over six years of experience in writing and editing business-to-business media summaries for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of The Future Soldier: Fast Movers, a role-playing supplement from Steampower Publishing. Cohen holds a Bachelor of Science in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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