Student hairstyles are top trending on Twitter today (Thursday), with a “scrap hairstyles” hashtag going viral after the “Bad Student” anti-establishment group posted a picture and strict rules related to student hairstyles at a school in the southern province of Phatthalung.

The rules state that the hair of male students must be cut evenly short, with hair on the front not exceeding three cm in length. Female students must have their hair cut evenly up to the earlobes, for junior high school students, and 4cm below the earlobes for senior high school students.

The hashtag, which was featured in more than 150,000 tweets on Thursday, comes as schools in Thailand are preparing resume on-site classes next week.

The “Bad Student” group, which emerged in 2020, during the height of the anti-government protests seeking to challenge school rules they deem archaic, also posted the hairstyle rules of an unnamed school in the eastern province of Sa Kaeo, with a comment that a school not following the new hairstyle rules of the Ministry of Education, issued in 2020, could be a breach of the law.

A Twitter post cited the case of Matthayom Wat Thatthong School in Bangkok, saying that male and female students there have the choice to keep their hair short or long. If the hair is long, in case of a male, it must be parted at the front and the length of the hair at the back must not be below the hairline. For girls, long hair must be neatly gathered.

One page administrator commented that hairstyles should be up to the individual, a comment which has received more than 12,000 likes as of Thursday afternoon.

The new hairstyle rules of the Ministry of Education state that, in principle, students can wear their hair short or long, but it must be neat and appropriate.