All That You Can Be

By Melissa August, Elizabeth L. Bland, Victoria Rainert, Sora Song, Jyoti Thottam, Rebecca Winters.

Even the classic camouflage-wearing U.S. Army can't ignore the winds of changing fashion forever. This spring the Army will update its dress code for the first time in a decade. ALLOWED: Braids and cornrows, baldness (natural or chosen), dyed hair if it looks "natural" (no blue, pink or fire-engine red) and one cell phone, pager or digital organizer per person (but not all three). BANNED: Dreadlocks, colored contact lenses and, on men, visible body piercings or nail polish. Polish is O.K. for women, so long as it's not blue, black, khaki or--things really are changing--camouflage.