Seoul students win 'unfettered hairdo freedom'

By Park Si-soo

Students sitting in classrooms with uniformly short, black and neat hair are expected to become a scene from the past.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education declared “freedom of students' hairstyles” on Thursday, suggesting schools in its precinct not control “hair length, color and shape.” The office demanded schools with hairstyle restrictions scrap or revise them by the autumn semester of 2019.

The office is also pushing forward with a policy to give students more leeway in terms of school uniforms.

“The decision (on hairstyle freedom) is a bold step forward to make schools a place where students are happy and excited,” Cho Hee-yeon, the superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, said at a press conference. “Students have the right to decide the length, color and shape of their hair and the rights should be protected.”

Regulations on students' hairstyles and clothing are considered a legacy of the 1910-45 Japanese colonialization of the Korean Peninsula, during which students had to cut their hair in a uniform manner in a show of obedience. The military junta kept the practice in place in the 1970-80s for the same reason. But such rules faced challenges from the late 1990s as students voiced their rights.

As of late last year, 84 percent of primary and secondary schools in Seoul did not have hair length limits, according to the office. But many schools still ban dyeing and perms.

This move is expected to press other education offices to follow suit.