After 50 years, Thailand finally strikes down strict rules on students’ hair lengths

It was still early in the morning when the crowd of sleepy students – all in matching uniforms and identical neat hairstyles – lined up for a daily gathering by the flagpole of their Bangkok high school. Eighth grader Baramee Chaovawanich was among the 3,600 students in attendance as teachers walked through each row, examining every teenager in a monthly spot check of their dress code compliance and appearances. Then, a teacher pointed at Chaovawanich, who goes by his nickname “Khao Klong” — indicating his hair was too long. Mortified, the boy was forced to step forward and have his head partially shaved in front of the whole school, with the teacher deliberately leaving the haircut unfinished for him to wear for the rest of the day. “There was a feeling of shame, like a child being singled out, made into a joke, isolated, and having their hair shaved, making them look ugly,” said Khao Klong, now 20 and at university. He still vividly remembers walking back into class afterwards, where “everyone turned to me and burst into laughter.” “It was a scene that remains stuck in my mind, and it made me really insecure,” he said. The punishment may seem extreme, but for decades, these scenes were common across Thailand, with students subject to strict rules about their appearances that go far beyond the school dress codes seen in other countries. For instance, male students had to have an army-style crew cut and female students had to wear their hair in short, ear-length bobs — before rules were loosened in 2013 (when boys could grow their hair to the base of their neck, and girls could grow their hair even longer, so long as it was tied up). Khao Klong’s hair had only been a few centimeters over the limit, but even that was too much to allow. But rules on hairstyles are changing in a significant way. In March, the country’s highest administrative court annulled the directive – set by the Ministry of Education in 1975 – declaring it unconstitutional. The rules “imposed excessive restrictions on personal freedom,” thus violating the Thai Constitution, read the court order. It added that the 50-year-old regulations “did not align with contemporary social conditions” and harmed children’s mental health during developmentally significant ages, and especially those with diverse gender identities. The court ruling has been a long time coming, after nationwide student protests in 2020 pushed the issue to the fore and prompted the education ministry to leave it to schools to decide their own rules. The decision was met with delight by some students, who have long wanted to express themselves freely in their appearance. “Things have changed, especially (regarding how) they checked hairstyles,” said 16-year-old Nijchaya Kraisriwattana in April. Her school in Bangkok used to hold weekly checks to examine students’ appearances, and she’d previously had academic points deducted for her hair being too long. The rules were so strict she even had to pin back her bangs and tuck away stray baby hairs curling around her face – but these days, the rules seem “more relaxed,” she said. But concerns linger among others who fear some schools will continue to impose strict guidelines and harsh punishments without government intervention. “At first, I was happy when I read about it, but then people started analyzing it. It seems like there are still gaps, which makes me a bit worried because it doesn’t seem very different from before,” Khao Klong said. He and other student activists “haven’t seen much change happening,” he added. CNN has reached out to the Ministry of Education for comment. Military past and conformist culture Though it can be hard to fathom why the rules were so rigid, they reflect Thailand’s conservative, hierarchical Buddhist society — and a culture born from many years of authoritarian rule. The powerful military’s influence runs deep in Thailand, a constitutional monarchy that has seen a dozen successful coups since 1932 — the most recent in 2014. The student dress code regulations were drafted by a military government under the decade-long dictatorship of Thanom Kittikachorn, who was ousted by a violent uprising in 1973. But the military’s conservative influence on how students are told to show up to school has persisted until today, said Thunhavich Thitiratsakul, an educational policy researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute who has previously written about the dress code policy. “It’s a social norm, the social value is that students have to abide by the law, and if they behave well, they become a good person,” he said. In Thailand, “students have to listen to their parents and follow the school regulations,” he added. “If (they) get a job in the future and can follow by the rules … it means like, OK, you’re a good person, and you tend to do well.” The March court order acknowledged this line of thinking, pointing out that the hairstyle regulations had “aimed to cultivate students as future responsible citizens, emphasizing the need for close supervision by parents and teachers to ensure they adhered to societal norms and laws.” This military-style education extended to other forms of discipline, too. Khao Klong recalled teachers beating him almost “every day” in middle school for “lacking discipline,” sometimes using a ruler until it broke. The rules are strict about uniforms too, which are similar across all public schools – even specifying the types of socks and shoes students must wear. As times changed, students began pushing back. But even a relaxation of rules in 2013 stoked controversy — with some parents and teachers arguing that looser regulations would encourage disobedience and distraction. That debate continued until protests broke out across the country in 2020, with a band of students deciding they had had enough. ‘Bad Students’ fight back That year was a monumental one. Across the nation, tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets, demanding reforms to the military-drafted constitution and powerful monarchy. The protests were remarkable because they challenged long-standing taboos against criticizing the royal family — which under Thai laws is punishable by jail time. As the demonstrations stretched across the summer and fall, students took action too. Middle and high school students vowed to overhaul the dress code and hairstyle regulations, and to reform what they called the abuse of power by teachers and administrators. The two movements were separate, but the students’ protests may have been influenced by the larger pro-democracy demonstrations, said Thunhavich, the researcher. Photos from student protests showed hundreds of teenagers adopting many of the visual cues used in the pro-democracy demonstrations, like the three-finger salute and yellow rubber ducks. “Our first dictatorship is school,” read one popular slogan written on protest signs. Khao Klong was one of those students. His head-shaving experience had left a “mental scar” that he didn’t want anyone else to endure, he said — so he joined a coalition of activists called Bad Students. “Cast off the bitter, outdated uniforms!” read one Facebook post by Bad Students in November 2020, urging students to “dress as you please.” The following month, the group organized a protest in front of the Ministry of Education, where students hung their school uniforms on the gates. The protests were colorful, lively affairs — with students kitted out appropriately. Some put black masking tape over their mouths to represent their feelings of oppression at school; others came in inflatable dinosaur costumes, poking fun at what they called the older, outdated generation of Thai politicians dictating their uniforms. In a show of defiance, some even cut their hair at the protests. One 19-year-old, Pimchanok Nongnual, shaved her hair on the steps of the education ministry and in front of a top official, Reuters reported at the time. “What about gender fluid or non-binary students?” she said — echoing many students who showed up in rainbow clothing to demand more gender-diverse uniforms. “We felt hopeless. At that moment, it was like, if not us, then who? In the sense that if we don’t speak up, who will speak for us?” Khao Klong said. The group filed petitions and complaints with the government — which eventually led to the education ministry repealing its hairstyle regulations in 2023 to ensure they “do not limit students’ bodily freedom.” Last year, the ministry also told schools and teachers to use caution when doling out punishments. The recent court order appears to, at least on paper, cement these victories — and by declaring the hairstyle rules “unconstitutional,” could give students more leverage at schools that choose to maintain stricter rules. Nijchaya, the student in Bangkok, felt the change when she arrived at school recently without her bangs pinned back. “They just let it pass without saying anything,” she said. When asked whether she wanted more freedom in her clothing, she emphatically answered, “Yes, absolutely,” and said she’d like to wear T-shirts and jeans, and let her hair down loose. But Thunhavich said it’s too soon to celebrate. Schools now need to be held accountable and consult with their communities and school boards on how to adjust their regulations, he said. But it’s not clear if students will have a seat at the table. Five years after the protests swept Thailand, the students once on the front lines are also tired. Many have moved on with their educations, juggling the demands of schoolwork, jobs and daily life. The issue of student rights has faded from headlines, though obstacles linger. Still, Khao Klong said, “with this court order, I hope we can return to discussing rights and freedoms in every school, issues of oppression or authoritarianism.” “Just because we haven’t talked about it doesn’t mean it has disappeared; we’ve just forgotten to address it,” he added. “We feel that the desire to fight may have diminished, but everyone still remembers the feeling of being threatened when we stood up to fight for our own rights.”