My Japanese Haircut

I had been on the fence about getting a haircut here for awhile. Some folks know that when I studied abroad here for 6 months, the prospect of a feminine J-boy haircut was so repulsive that I ended up with shoulder length hair. In the summer. In a country where humidity must reach 143%. My hair has been refusing to stand in the afro pattern for a week or so now, only exacerbated by the continuous wearing of my bald cap for Halloween presentations/parties. After a week of walking around looking like I was wearing a black helmet, I stopped by one of the few places that advertised their price. I was going for a 1900 yen haircut.

The barber shop had a bunch of magazines dedicated to both men's and women's hairstyles, and I chose one that I thought looked decent. What I got didn't really match the picture, and came out as more of a faux-hawk than I wanted. Either way, I'm rocking this at least until I'm back in the States, and maybe longer.

But the real story is the haircut experience. I've never been one for salons of any kind, usually preferring to get my hair cut in places where the people don't speak great English and there's a liquor store next door, so this was a bit of a surprise. The neck shave was standard barber fare, but they shaved my FOREHEAD and my cheeks. Japanese men get their eyebrows shaved at the barber, and I had to tell him to leave mine alone. I got some kind of moisturizer or something rubbed into my face, and hot towels heaped on me about 3 times (those felt good though, especially in this 9 degree Celsius weather). I opted for no shampoo as well.

My friends and I often discuss the feminization of the Japanese men, from their large wallets to their hair to their clothes, and I feel like I experienced a certain aspect of that.