Hua Lamphong train station is the busiest in Thailand. But amidst the hustle and bustle, there is a small group of people tucked away in one of the corners.
In the unlikely location of the train station, where backpackers venture around Thailand and locals travel back and fourth to their home provinces, can be found a group of volunteer hairdressers.
Every weekend the kind-hearted stylists and barbers from across the city converge on the Hua Lamphong train station where they set out chairs and plug in their clippers to extension cables.
Then from around 9am in the morning until 2pm in the afternoon, elderly men who struggle to afford to visit the barbers regularly for hair cuts take their place to have their hair trimmed.
The cost for one of these hair cuts at the train station? Nothing. They’re all free.
The stylists – some of them the best in Thailand – appear at the informal gathering to ”give something back to the community”.
Nobody quite knows which barber will be there each week, as there are no rules, regulations or rotas. But sure enough, every weekend a dozen or more hair dressers will show up to give out free hair cuts.
And you can guarantee there’ll be a constant stream of people arriving for a new hair doo.
Pon Wattana, 37, said she started volunteering at the train station to help those less fortunate.
The informal gathering has now become a regular fixture well known in the area and hundreds of the city’s poor will have their hair trimmed in a single day.
Pon, who also runs her own successful salon, said: ”There are different stylists that come every weekend. Sometimes very high society fashion stylists will come.
”They can be cutting an actor’s hair one day for a lot of money and the next day they will come here to help the poor for free.
”Other times people come here to practice if they are hairdressing students or they just do it from the goodness of their hearts.
”It’s a very good feeling to help the elderly men who can’t afford a hair cut regularly. It keeps them looking smart and feeling proud.
”It’s a small gesture but it’s nice. There are no costs as the train stations lets us do it for free and we give our time for free. We just have to clear up after.”
