“We understood there was no need to differentiate between locks, cornrows or twists as long as they all met the same dimension,” he said, according to The Northwest Guardian, a publication of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. “Females have been asking for a while, especially females of African-American descent, to be able to wear dreadlocks and locks because it’s easier to maintain that hairstyle.”

The Army directive says that each lock, or dreadlock, “will be of uniform dimension; have a diameter no greater than a half-inch; and present a neat, professional and well-groomed appearance.”

The change was hailed as overdue by service members who said they had labored to stay in compliance under the old rules.

“January 5, in the year of our Lord 2017, we are now allowed to wear locks in uniform,” Staff Sgt. Chaunsey Logan of Fort Stewart in Georgia said in a video posted to Facebook. In the video, Sergeant Logan said she had run afoul of the old rules and risked being removed from the Army. She found a way to comply but said she constantly worried about future episodes.

She praised the revised rules, which she said she rushed to print out, fearful they would vanish from the internet.