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Salvadorian students walk past signs indicating permitted and prohibited haircuts at the National Industrial Technical Institute in San Salvador, El Salvador, on Aug. 22, 2025. Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images
A memo from El Salvador’s new education minister, Karla Trigueros, took effect on Aug. 20, requiring principals to check students’ appearance at school gates to enhance discipline.
Trigueros, a captain in the army, issued the memo just days after being sworn in as education minister on Aug. 15.
The memo requires principals to conduct daily checks on students’ appearance to ensure they wear clean uniforms, maintain a “proper haircut,” and give a “respectful greeting” upon entering school.
“Today, I sent this memorandum to all school and institute directors nationwide, so that they assume their role as models of order and discipline for our students,” Trigueros stated on X.
Schools are required to ensure strict compliance with the guidelines, according to the directive, though it did not specify what actions would be taken in cases of noncompliance.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele also shared the memo on his social media account, expressing support for the measure.
“To build the El Salvador we dream of, it is clear that we must completely transform our education system,” Bukele said on X.
The “Edgar” haircut, a bowl-like hairstyle with a blunt fringe popular among Latino communities, could be prohibited for students under the updated guidelines, according to local reports. The memo did not explicitly reference the hairstyle, but Bukele shared reports on social media suggesting it would be banned in schools.
In announcing Trigueros’s appointment last week, Bukele said the new minister will focus on preparing future generations to successfully face challenges and “meet the highest standards of quality demanded by the new El Salvador we are building.”
“If we want to build the country we deserve, we must break paradigms,” he said. “The new minister, in her dual role as captain and doctor, has demonstrated the ability, leadership, and commitment necessary to drive a profound transformation in our education system.”
In January, three youths aged 12 to 15 in El Salvador were sentenced to five years in prison after being arrested last year for appearing in a video making gang signs inside a school. Five others in the case were placed on probation. The signs were allegedly linked to the MS-13 gang, a criminal organization designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government.
Bukele has declared a state of emergency in the Central American nation since 2022, suspending some constitutional rights and constructing a so-called mega prison amid a crackdown on criminal gangs.
More than 80,000 people, including more than 3,000 minors, have been arrested since the state of emergency was imposed, according to a 2024 report by Human Rights Watch, which called for an end to what it said was an “abusive approach.”
The report states that “For decades, pervasive poverty, social exclusion, and lack of educational and work opportunities” created conditions that enabled gangs to recruit and exploit children in the country.
Bukele was first elected as president of El Salvador in 2019 and was reelected in 2024 after the country’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal allowed him to run again.
In 2015, El Salvador had 6,656 homicides, making it one of the world’s deadliest countries. In 2023, there were 214 homicides. El Salvador closed 2024 with a record low of 114 homicides.
In February, Bukele agreed to accept deported illegal immigrants from the United States, including members of gangs such as El Salvador’s MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
“No country’s ever made an offer of friendship such as this,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the time, according to a transcript issued by the State Department.
