Chinese Students With Trendy Hairstyles Forced to Get Haircuts in Front Of Their School

September 4, 2016

Chinese schools now have barbers stationed at their gates to ‘fix’ the haircuts of the students returning from their summer break. Those who are found sporting restricted ‘fashionable hairstyles’ will be given an instant make-over.

Curly or blonde hair must be proven to be natural and not salon-styled, reported the Telegraph. Some schools have even required students to provide a doctor’s certification to prove that their curls are authentic.

The initiative is part of the government’s crackdown on teenagers’ trendy hairstyles which is deemed to have “negative social influence”. It is also supposed to have been enforced “to ensure they (students) can focus on their studies.”

In China, strict policies in hairstyles have already been in place which prevent girls from having hair longer than just below their ears. Only two hairstyles are allowed for the boys: ‘crew cuts’ or ‘flat tops’.

The stricter enforcement of such provisions in Chinese schools have been met with mostly negative reactions from Chinese teenagers who have began adopting the fashionable hairstyle trends from foreign influences. Perms and hair color becoming the popular choices.

Qinhan Secondary School students from Xi’an, China’s have shared photos of unhappy students wearing freshly trimmed hairstyles provided by the gate barbers.

“A small number of students were found to be affected by the negative social influence of dyed and permed hair, which affects their comprehensive development,” said the school’s statement reported by Shaanxi News Website.

“In order to create a positive and healthy learning environment for students, the school has ruled that boys should have crew cuts and girls should grow hair down to the ear, to ensure they can focus on their studies.”

Xiamen Industrial and Commercial Tourism College, in the Fujian province, has rules that banned girls from fashioning a fringe hairstyle while boys are prevented to have hair longer than six millimeters in length.

“Anyone who was born with either curly or blonde hair should go to the hospitals to prove they did not dye or perm it,” said the official school rules, according to thepaper.cn.

For some students, refusing to go to school is seen as a more viable option rather than getting their hair cut. The Chinese social media have been flooded with angry posts and comments criticizing the rules, with some stating they are treated as prisoners in the Chinese schools, with reference to China’s prisons with a similar law on short haircuts.

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