A resourceful Thai hairdresser uses banana leaves instead of aluminium sheets to style her clients' hair.

Ajarn Somporn, 40, said she switched to using strips of the resilient green leaves from banana trees after noticing that a lot of her salon's products were non-biodegradable.

The new products are readily available for free from local farms, and they are more environmentally friendly.

She said: 'It takes hundreds of years for aluminium foil to decompose. We use so many of these while bleaching hair.'

The transgender stylist claimed the eco-friendly method also confers more beauty-enhancing benefits compared to traditional methods.

She has piles of them ready to be to used at her salon, the Somporn Beauty School in Phatthalung province, Thailand,

Ajarn added: 'Chemicals and heat destroy the hair. It becomes dry. But with banana leaves, there is moisture. You use the banana stem to feed animals and the leaves to wrap Thai sweets. Now you can use them for hair, too.'

Footage shows Ajarn bleaching a customer's hair, separating and wrapping bundles of her locks in fresh banana leaves.

Ajarn said the results are the same as using aluminium sheets.