From News Editor to Volunteer Barber:

One late morning in mid-2026, with the weather neither hot nor cold, I had the chance to sit down with a brisk, capable woman with short-cropped hair who volunteers as a barber, and hear how early retirement unexpectedly recast her life.

She is both a barber and an indefatigable driver. In late May, she drove her stylish barber truck from Bangkok toward Pak Chong District, stopping at several prearranged locations to carry out her mission. For her final stop, she parked outside So Good 'N Green on Thanarat Road, where she set up to serve passersby who wanted a haircut.

Walking around the truck, we saw a large, eye-catching sticker that read, "Metta Barber: Free Haircuts for Children and Seniors," before stepping inside to greet the owner, who was taking a break.

Since taking early retirement at the end of 2025, Metta Thapthim - the former real estate news editor at Prachachat Business, or P'Met, as she is known - has seen her life change dramatically. Among friends, she has long been known for both her extensive network of news sources and her generosity toward fellow journalists. The turning point came when she decided to enter her company's early-retirement program.

In a flash, the news editor became a volunteer. Her pen and computer gave way to scissors and clippers as she began traveling from place to place, giving free haircuts from her striking barber truck.

What inspired a news editor who had spent her entire career immersed in information and current affairs to take up unpaid volunteer work?

It was a question I had in mind but had yet to ask. We had once worked for the same company, albeit on different news desks, and P'Met's warmth had often led us to talk and exchange ideas whenever our paths crossed. So when we met again, catching up on each other's lives naturally came first.

P'Met decided to take early retirement at the age of 58, effective December 31, 2025. Shortly before retiring, she happened to invite a news source she had known for more than 20 years - Kromchet "Lek" Vipanpong, CEO of AssetWise - to join a golf event organized by the company. That meeting became the catalyst that brought her dream of becoming a volunteer barber to life sooner than expected.

"I sat down with Khun Lek at the golf course. He asked what I planned to do after retiring. I said I wanted to rest, but I also wanted to volunteer by giving free haircuts because I had done it ten years earlier, in 2016. At the time, I took a 200-hour vocational course run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration in Chatuchak. It cost 105 baht and took four months. That same year, King Rama IX passed away, so I volunteered at Sanam Luang. Back then, I cut men's hair with clippers. I kept doing it from time to time after 2016. So I told him I wanted to volunteer because I had been doing it for years and had become reasonably good at it."

The conversation between journalist and news source should have ended there. But the moment the soon-to-retire journalist said that a barber truck was her dream, silence slipped between them. A beat later, the news source suddenly uttered a completely unexpected sentence.

"I'll give you one."

The astonishing offer stayed with her for days. About a week later, after turning it over in her mind and barely sleeping, Metta Thapthim sent him a LINE message to ask once more whether he truly meant that he would give her a barber truck. When she received the same firm, unequivocal answer, the heart of the soon-to-be former news editor swelled with joy.

"After that, we spoke over two or three mornings. Around the fourth morning, Khun Lek transferred the full amount. This was in mid-December 2025. I had originally planned to have the barber truck built after entering the early-retirement program, but once someone else's money was sitting in my account, I had to move quickly and show results."

P'Met chose the Suzuki Carry, a popular base vehicle for food trucks, and turned it into a barber truck complete with powerful air conditioning. A skilled fabricator built the cabin, and when the vehicle was finished, Metta Barber was born, ready to take its service on the road.

"The first time I used it was at a New Year's Eve prayer ceremony at Wat Damrong Tham Sathit in Pathum Thani. My older sister and niece are ordained Buddhist nuns for life in the lineage of Luang Por Chalermchok, so I had the chance to set up a booth there. That was where I parked the truck for the first time, and I have kept going ever since. From that day to May, it had been a full five months," P'Met said, her eyes sparkling as she recalled the beginning.

At first, the service was intended for men's haircuts. Even so, grandmothers soon began offering themselves up for a trim. There was no escaping it: P'Met had to go back to school, this time to learn how to cut women's hair.

"This time, I had to study at Bangkok Vocational Training School (Din Daeng 2), because people say the best beauty instructor is there. Her name is Kru Noi, Amphawan Wichaidit. The course emphasizes practice. The theory covers angles, holding sections, parting the hair, and tools. Everything else is actual cutting."

And when the day of her early retirement finally arrived and the clock ushered in the New Year of 2026, she stepped out of her role as an economic news editor and into a new life as a full-time volunteer barber.

Although she is a volunteer, P'Met says the work must follow an orderly system. She cannot simply decide on a whim to park and cut hair anywhere. Everything requires planning and management: appointments, a local host, and connections with volunteer-barber partners.

Metta Barber's goals have been firm and clear from the outset: to help ease the burden of living costs. Its first destinations are rural schools; second, homes for older people, both women and men; and third, workers looking to reduce their expenses, such as delivery riders, motorcycle-taxi drivers, and security guards. Other visits are arranged on a case-by-case basis.

"There are about ten friends and senior classmates in our group. Whenever there is a mobile service in Bangkok, we go together as a volunteer team, usually every Saturday. And everything we do has a learning curve. Once, we went to the 70 Rai Community and parked beneath the expressway. It turned out another event had been booked over ours, but no one had canceled on us. When we arrived, we had nowhere to set up. The hairdressers who came that day were in the sun all day and got sunburned. That taught us that next time, we must be absolutely clear about the venue."

When Hat Yai was recently hit by flooding, Metta Barber was there too. It was the barber truck's first long-distance journey south. On that trip, P'Met took the opportunity to continue farther south, stopping at several more locations over a total of three weeks.

"And this truck has a manual transmission. It just so happens that one skill I have built up over a lifetime is driving a stick shift, so I went for it. The added cabin puts another 300 kilograms on the truck, which means I cannot drive at high speed. The sweet spot, where it neither sways nor leans, is 80 kilometers per hour. Just imagine: it is nearly a thousand kilometers from Bangkok to Hat Yai. Oh, it took so long that my left leg cramped up," she said with a laugh. "It was the first time in my life that I drove a vehicle and everyone passed me. Even motorcycles overtook me."

In Hat Yai, Metta Barber set up at the Yen Sira Building at Prince of Songkla University (PSU Hat Yai), a cancer treatment center serving Thailand's 14 southern provinces.

"We parked at the building for three days, and so many people came over for haircuts. At first, I planned to stop at 3 p.m., but on the first day I worked from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. So I adjusted the schedule and decided that four or five hours a day was about right - that way, I could sustain it. On my last day in Hat Yai, before driving to Trang the next morning, a security guard waited for me and asked for a haircut. When I finished, he said, 'I will remember this day until I die. You cut my hair for me.' My eyes filled with tears. Some people have never been cared for in their entire lives. I was so glad I had come to cut his hair."

And there lay the answer to the question that had first come to mind: What inspired a news editor who had spent her entire career immersed in information and current affairs to take up unpaid volunteer work?

"When I volunteer to cut hair, it seems as though I am the one doing something for them, right? But in truth, they send positive energy back to me too. There really is positive energy everywhere we volunteer. We give to them, and they give to us. Several real estate CEOs have asked me about it, and I tell them it is that moment when I finish a haircut - whether it comes out patchy or not, though most of them are not patchy," she said with a laugh. "Everyone is happy. It feels as though we are buying happiness for someone. The children wai to thank us and bow so beautifully. Older people shower us with blessings. It fills both the giver and the receiver with joy. It is a moment you have to experience for yourself."

Another deeply rewarding stop for Metta Barber was a real estate project jointly developed by AssetWise and Rhom Bho Property. There, she cut hair for migrant workers, most of them from Myanmar.

"To be honest, I intended to cut hair for children and older people because they are easy. Children are not old enough to get angry - they do not know how yet - while older people have already learned to let go," she said with a smile. "But when I came to cut hair for young people at the construction site, every one of them brought a hairstyle reference. Whenever they told me what they wanted, I nodded and said, 'Certainly.' But what style they actually ended up with was up to me," she added with a laugh. "They asked for every kind of style. It was my first time doing this, and I discovered I could. My heart was so full, and every one of them was happy."

Despite traveling far and wide to give haircuts, cleanliness is never a concern. P'Met stresses that hygiene is paramount, so after every haircut, the first thing she does is disinfect all her tools with alcohol.

Many people may wonder how long Metta Barber can continue its volunteer work, because even a quick calculation shows that each journey costs a considerable amount.

P'Met explains that, besides the sponsor who funded the barber truck, a crucial part of keeping Metta Barber on the road is having sponsors who cover the fuel. Her first fuel sponsor was her own older sister, Dr. Nittaya, who transferred 20,000 baht in one payment. Her younger sister, Khun Noi, also chipped in. Later, another important sponsor stepped forward: Team Pho Wallop, led by Wallop Treererkngam, an executive at Suzuki Motor (Thailand).

"The reason I can keep going like this is that I have sponsors. Fuel for the Hat Yai trip and 21 days traveling around the South came to 10,800 baht. At first, Khun Lek from AssetWise offered to cover the fuel too, but I told him he had already done enough. Later, Team Pho Wallop supported me, so I had stickers made and put them on the truck as well."

Asked how long she plans to continue in this role, P'Met answers at once: for as long as her strength allows, because she is doing it from a genuine desire to do so.

"I am happy to be doing this. I am 59 this year and will be 60 next year. I want to keep cutting hair until I physically cannot. But I believe that for the next ten years, I will still have plenty of strength. At the very least, from today until 2032, I believe you will still find Metta Barber roaming from place to place."

P'Met says this work has brought new experiences to her life after retirement. Many of her friends envy her. She herself had forgotten when she ever mentioned wanting to create a barber truck, only to discover that she had been talking about it for 30 years: the person who congratulated her on Facebook was a friend from high school.

Who would have thought that a drawer holding a dream, shut tight long ago, would one day be opened again - and that the dream inside would finally be brought to life? It is a new path that has filled her heart once more, at an age when many people struggle to accept leaving behind the role and responsibilities that defined their entire working lives.

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