Adventurasia Community

(Written by: Patrick McCoy, 2001)

Tokyo is the center of style in fashion conscious Japan, and now it is becoming the center for world fashion when you look at the world-wide influence of designers like Miyake Issey and Japanese inspired fashions throughout Asia. The place that young Tokyoites flock to create or mimic the new looks and trends, as well as the place to be seen, is in the Harajuku district. It is located inbetween the sprawling business, government, and entertainment districts of Shinjuku and the crowded youth-orientated Shibuya. There are scores of chic hair salons, used clothing stores among retail clothing stores, shoe stores, accessory shops, restaurants, and cafes. When you visit Harajuku you can sampleall the latest fashions in the shops and salons. The bold and beautiful are out in force on the streets, themselves, as well. It’s all there from the glamorous to the gothic.

One of the first things you will notice about the throngs of shoppers,daytrippers, and idlers are the varieties of hairstyles and hair colors.According to the trendy Street Salon top hairstylist Sato Shinobu, most of her customers are looking for an original color that suits them and sets them apart from other people. They are trying to improve on the genetics that has made everyone’s hair the same. Most of the dyes are made from a base of ash or pink. Sato said that, in essence, her clients are usually trying to achieve a unique, but natural hair color like that of westerners. There are a variety of methods of hair dying like highlights, streaks, and overall/even dye treatments. Most clients prefer gradual dying throughout their hair. Experimentation seems to be in the blood of the customers, many of which will often change their hair color and style as many as three times in a year. However, coloring is just one function of the stylist.

As far as the hair cut is concerned, Sato says that it is usually dependent on the season as to which cut the customer will opt for. Last summer she saw an increase in the popularity of the bob hairstyle, which women will grow out for the winter season. She observes that younger women tend to go for shorter cuts, while women in their 20s and 30s go for a longer look, and then the older clientele will revert back to shorter styles. Conversely, she says that medium length hair is the norm for men, and is popular all year round. Sato, ever theprofessional, says that it all depends on what fits the particular customer’s physical traits. But it is not unusual to see more extreme hairstyles, especially those influenced by hip hop and black American culture.

Vingt-Trente is a hair salon that specializes in dreads, hair extensions, perms and other more unusual styles, like cornrows, that are mostly influenced by black American culture. “The most popular styles among women are hair extensions and long braids,” states hair stylist Komiyama Yoshimi. She mentions that they do a large number of regular perms for women, resulting in more body and/or wave. But a number of women will also opt for the more radical treatments available like accessory extensions of colored synthetic fibers and hair, as well as true French bonding of real hair to their original hair. Sometimes this will include dying hair to match the hair extension color. These extension will usually last two to three months according to Komiyama, and then the clients will usually return to the salon to renew the process or choose a new style. The most popular hairstyles among men at Vingt-Trent are regular perms, dread hair, twists, and afro hair according to Komiyama. Most of the regular perms result in wavy hair styles. Dread hair is any of the variations(short or long) of dreadlocks popularized decades ago by rastifarians like Bob Marley, and more recently by rappers and athletes. This process involves wrapping hair around small wires applying wax, and not washing the hair so that the natural oils can do their job to create the dread strands of hair. Twists are achieved by a similar treatment to dreadhair, and the result tends resemble spikes which aren’t as thick as dreadlocks. Afro hair is the curling of hair to resemble afros, which gained prominence in America in the 70s and seems to be making a bit of a comeback with athletes and entertainers like Snoop Dog and Kobe Bryant growing out their hair. Furthermore, twists and afro hair are also popular among the female clients. More often than not, these hip hairstyles are complemented by piercings and body art.

It appears that piercings are becoming more popular by the number of people sporting eye brow, lip, nostril, and tongue piercings. Extreme Body Piercing owner Mukoyama Gen has noticed an increase in business lately. He says that the most popular piercings among women are the tongue, navel, and ear cartilage(that is the inside part of the ear, which tends to heal more quickly). Among the men, the tongue and labret(the area in the middle below the lower lip) are most popular. Some more unusual areas for piercings available include the nape of the neck, the eye bridge(the area between the eyes), and various piercings of themale and female genitalia. There are a variety of earrings available, however most are simple designs like hoops, balls, bars, and spikes. Incidentally, a friend of Mukoyama’s advertises skin branding on the wall of his shop. Mukoyama sports a branding himself, but cautions that it smells horrible during the branding process and was extremely painful, unlike his piercings which are painless. Moreover, there is another popular body decoration that involves needles, tattooing, seems to be on the rise as well.

America-trained, tattoo artist Ichinohe Yushi of Scratch Addition says that most first time customers opt for small tattoos that can easily be hidden by everyday clothes. So this means tattoos on the neck below the shirt’s neckline, on the lower back, shoulder, ankle or upper arm. These designs can be dragons, skulls, dice and other smaller figures. The most fashionable tattoos of late are tribal designs. These designs come from Pacific Islanders like the Maoris of New Zealand, and can be symbolic or identify a family. Band tattoos around the biceps or ankles have also become popular of late. There seems to be a trend among younger guys to add more tattoos and to get more complicated tattoos these days according to Ichinohe. Kanji tattoos which are gaining popularity abroad due to the influence of a number of musicians and athletes sporting them in America, are not popular among young Japanese. The clients at Scratch Addition are mostly in the market for western style designs, Ichinohe states that if they want traditional style Japanese tattoos they will go to a traditional style tattooist. Some other forms of body decoration, that aren’t quite so permanent, that are on the rise include nail art, body painting, and henna.

Okawa Manami of Nail Art Museum specializes in nail and body art. She uses the same special spray on ink for the nails and body art. While you are there you can have your mobile phone painted as well. The nail art that is most popular among women are sculpted nails and flowers, but mixed colors seem to be popular as well. Okawa does more body art in the summer, when people will wear more revealing clothes. The ink tends to last about a week. Body paint differs from henna in several ways. Okawa uses paper molds and sprays on the ink as she would for the nails. Henna has more intricate designs and involves painting the henna solution on the skin.

Henna has also become popular ever since Madonna was seen wearing it in her videos for Ray of Light. Henna(Mehndi and Mehandi) are names of a bush from which leaves are harvested to make henna powder, from which a paste is made to dye the skin. The henna stain will last anywhere from a few days to 8 weeks depending on individual factors and how quickly the top layer of your skin exfoliates. Apparently many countries from the Atlantic cost of Africa to Malaysia still use henna for decoration or religious ceremonies. There are some street vendors on Meji street, which extends from Harajuku to Shibuya, that apply henna to the fashion conscious. It is the example of another trend gaining notoriety.

It has been pointed out by native Japanese that the fashionable and trend setting hipsters that flock to Harajuku on weekends do not represent the typical fashion style of the average Japanese person. This may be true, but it is the place where the fearless and fashion conscious can exhibit their latest buys and experiments. The examples of fashion range from a modest hair dye to the extreme gothic types that hang out in front of Meji Shrine on Sundays in their gothic costumes and the less than subtle white face make up. There is something for all; the bold and beautiful alike in Harajuku.

This article was written by my friend Patrick McCoy and first appeared in the March 2001 issue of Eye-Ai Magazine.

Filed under: Japan