Most of you must already know what happens during “Bald Season”, but for those who don’t, I’ll tell you. ROTC or “ร.ด.” which stands for “Reserve Officer Training Corps Student” is a program in which most of the teenagers in Thailand–who do not wish to join the military–would join. After you finish 3 Years of ROTC, you will be assigned a military rank: “corporal”. It doesn’t end here, though. ROTC has a range of 5 years. When you finish the whole course, you will get a military rank as “Second Lieutenant”.
Why do we have to cut our hair for ROTC?
Before talking about the reason we need to have a short haircut, let's talk about what is the difference between ROTC and military haircut. For ROTC, one must be able to see the scalp on all three sides of the head, or the hair on the top of your head should not be longer than 4 cm. For the Thai military haircut, all 3 sides of the head are the same as the ROTC haircut, but the top shouldn’t be longer than 1 cm. You should be able to picture it now.
There are 3 main reasons why this haircut is mandatory: cleanliness, regularity, and safety. Cleanliness and regularity is already quite straightforward, but how about safety? How does going bald have to do with safety?
One of the measurement techniques that the ROTC teachers use are: trying to grab one’s hair with their bare hand. If they can successfully pull your hair around, it means that one’s hair is too long. Grabbing hair is one of the fighting positions that most people use in real life, so having short hair can be a premature method of defense.
**How does it feel to have a short haircut and why? **
100% of ROTC students interviewed don’t like to have a short cut.
According to the interview, 10 out of 10 people disagree on the obligation to have a short haircut. I found out that some think being forced to have a short haircut is silly and nonsensical. We should have the right to have whatever haircut we want. The haircut we were forced to get is also unattractive, taking away our self-confidence. Some feel that it is a tradition that they have to follow, and feel it is unnecessary to have a short haircut.When time passes, something needs to change.
**What are the boys’ feelings towards ROTC? **
From the interview, many people think that ROTC itself should be a voluntary activity. However, at the moment, what we have right now is not voluntary. If we don't go ROTC, we will be forced to draw red and black cards which I think is quite ironic and inescapable. Looking at the bright side, it’s a good thing to practice and be responsible for duty.
**How was the first week of ROTC? **
From the first week, some of the students said that it wasn’t actually not as easy as they expected. It wasn’t what I expected it to be because there was a lot of miscommunication between the teacher and the registration team about how we separate the groups. So, it makes our schedule later than planned.
ROTC Starts on 21st September 2022 and runs for 6 weeks starting from 9:00 to 16:00.