I was curious from those who have been to Japan or live there: what is the image that most Japanese seem to have about foreigner's (particularly Americans) hairstyles. Does long hair elicit any type of different treatment? Dreadlocks? Beards? Any experiences?
posted by:
|
Colorado
|
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Mon, March 26, 2007 - 12:14 PMI have long hair. I don't get any stares for it. I think they just figure you are into hebi metar or something...
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Mon, March 26, 2007 - 6:48 PMYou are fair game for stares if you are different in any way.
What kind of situation are you talking about? Walking down the street? Applying for work?
I would guess that 98% of Japanese men are totally clean-shaven. In more metropolitan areas you'll find (usually young)men with long hair or dreads.
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, March 28, 2007 - 2:01 PMWhen i visited Japan last April i had my mohawk still, i did get quite a few stares, but most people who I spoke to just wanted to touch it. I found I didn't get treated differently because of my hair, they probably just looked at me and though, strange gaijin... -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Sat, May 26, 2007 - 6:38 PMI guess you're talking about men's hair, but i have extremely long hair for a woman (i can sit on it).
I do get people touching my braid a lot. Especially at work (i work at an elementary school). Kids always ask me if i braided it myself, how long it took, and why i have long hair. I just tell them i forgot to cut it (which is actually true for the first several years of it growing out).
I live in the countryside a bit, and the mullet or shoulderlength fluffy style seems to be fasionable among men these days. Longer than that, and people will assume you must be some kind of artist or something.
In the cities you see all kinds of hairstyles though. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Sat, May 26, 2007 - 10:42 PMMost of my years were as a long haired misfit and maybe I intimidated some, entertained many, but also I found wonderful friends. I have this Japanese friend, in the countryside, that has a knappy Jerry G.-do and is as hairy as a bear that smells of the wild, but the guy is quite popular. But yeah, he is an artist too... Maybe I just know a bunch of people who don't care what others think?
I suppose I am cleaned up for the time being, now, and maybe less people are intimidated.
The people that matter will see you for who you are anyway.
Are you talking about working for a company?
If not, don't worry about it.
Either way you will always be a gaijin and have your own adventures.
I also know a gaijin that looks like a '?''terrorist'''' and people still give him money!
-
-
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Tue, May 29, 2007 - 3:57 PMI had a pony-tail (and clean-shaved facial hair) when I went there in 2002. My buddy from highschool even declared that it was rather awkward to walk with me side by side in public. That's understandable, as we are both approaching 50 in our age :-) Traditional societies all have "if you are nn-years-old, you are supposed to be this and that" mentality. Nearing 50, I am supposed to have a clean-cut, cleanly separated salaryman look or something... Well, fuck them.
Gaijin hair styles might get stares, but Japanese (and Asians) stare anything "Gaijin", or at least some "momentary WTF? stares", anyway.
Japanese kids are pretty liberal on having interesting hair styles and viewing them in general, but the older generations can give their younger generations some openly disgusted look, more than toward Gaijin.
Personally, I think Gaijin can get away with pretty much any looks, because you all are "oh, Gaijin", and no more. If there are any sense of "fear" among them, we all know that we all fear things that we don't know about.
I personally think that Japanese kids' hair styles in recent years are just ugly as hell. I am not talking about hair color, but overall looks of "heads". Young Japanese men can have pretty ugly hair styles. It's pretty funny to look at them. Looking at them in, for example, Union Square in SF or Berlin or Amsterdam or even in Bangkok, I am thinking that those Japanese young men's "funny" hairstyles just don't translate outside Japan :-) Too bad that those cool, artistic students in Beijing are copying Japanese hairstyles.
You can nullify all of the above if you are a Gaijin but in corporate business circumstances, unless you are a some kind of "god" figure in the industry.
Still, the Japanese middle-age salarymen's hairstyles are still the worst and the ugliest, often the funniest.
I wrote this assuming all the context of Tokyo - big cities. If you are in the country side, good luck :-) -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, May 30, 2007 - 1:58 PMi think staring is a worldwide phenomenon. Some of us actually bring it on ourselves. Sad really. I dont consider it rude though. if you are intentionally or not giving people something to look at, then there you go. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Thu, May 31, 2007 - 6:35 PMI dont understand why staring is rude. Sure if there is a scowl accompanying it then that's different, or if its inappropriately sleezy its rude. But if it is just out of genuine intruigue... I dont understand what the problem is. I have bright red hair and big eyes... so I often got stared at, even some people came up to me and made comments to that effect. When I work at a junior high school my students were fascinated by my hair color and they were never sure if it was real or not. I love looking at people, especially faces. I just think we think its rude when people stare coz you feel uncomfortable about yourself but what's wrong with wanting to look at people? Sure you have got to do it respectfully but I dont think there is anything wrong with it. Human beings are amazingly interesting to look at. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Sun, June 3, 2007 - 9:13 PMI don't care if it's curiosity.
But my hair has been smelt and touched on more than once occassion by complete strangers. :(
So I usually tie it up or put it under a hat if it's late a night. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Tue, June 5, 2007 - 1:05 PM>But my hair has been smelt and touched on more than once occassion by complete strangers. :(
that's different from just staring, obviously. But is that your experience in Japan??? If so, Japanese has become more aggressive in approaching strangers (gaijin or otherwise) with such a manner. I am quite surprised, if your experience was in Japan.
I was pretty much stared the whole time I was in India and other Asian countries. It's only natural for them to look at somebody just outside their daily simple lives. Unlike in Tokyo, people do have plenty of time to observe things like foreigners walking around, in their daily pace of life. Often staring got to me - especially when it's followed by aggressive sales pitch on souveniers and such, but I was busy doing my own observations and looking as a traveler, too. Nobody smelt and touched me, though. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Tue, June 5, 2007 - 4:15 PMYes, it's been smelt in Japan. If it's someone I know, I don't love it, but I don't mind. The last time was on a crowded Yamanote line at night. It was one of those faux-chikan guys. He just got really close to me and stuck his nose in my hair by my ear and was letting "gravity" bump his hands against my hands (and he was about a foot taller than me so he was hunched over), etc.
Actually, when some people get to know me a little the first thing they do is usually touch my hair. (They've been waiting a while, I can tell!)
Because it's blonde and wavy a lot of people want to know if it's my REAL hair (Real colour? Real wave? Real length? Wig? Extensions? etc). I don't mind people asking questions and I usually don't mind the stares. Because I'm small and "kawaii" most people will just walk over and start talking to me. I feel lucky (most of the time) that adults still allow themselves to be curious, but sometimes I do get tired (I've been literally chased down on the street, in stations, etc by people who want to be "friends" or want me to come to their salon, etc) with some of the attention. And I get home around 11 from my job, so it's drunken salaryman time at the station and a LOT of them assume because of my hair that I'm a Russian hostess...and that attention, at that time of night is not fun. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, June 6, 2007 - 4:00 AMthis kind of getting off topic but my experiences as a gaijin woman and all the gaijin women I know go something like this:
I was asked 'how much' by 2 old drunk men at a station one night. I told them in my best japanese to 'get fucked'. They asked me ' why did you say that?' I responded, well why did you ask me how much
Friends of mine:
one had her breast grabbed while walking home by a guy on a bicycle
one had her breast grabbed while riding a bicycle by a guy on a motorbike
one had her breast grabbed while sitting on a train by a guy who jumped out the doors just as they were closing
just to name a few
goes way beyond looking. I fortunately, even after 5 years in Tokyo never personally experienced any of this. Got a lot of verbal insults from men though about my intelligence or opinions. I saw a lot of this whole chikan stuff on the trains and got involved in quite a few incidents. -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, June 6, 2007 - 11:26 AMEshe's and your descriptions both simply confirms my theory about:
- Japan as a nation as a whole
- Quality, integrity of Japanese (in Japan) in general
are both deterriorating, FAST.
I believe it's a social issue in a larger picture, and I do not mean "young kids these days... sigh" kind of impression. It's across generations, top-down. It's sad that my tribe is going down like this, although most of my friends in Japan whom I got to know through alternative music scene (or underground music scene) are of much higher quality. It's intereting that the rest of the society doesn't think much of them except as "dropouts" or something like that.
When I visit Japan and get on trains/subways in larger cities (Tokyo, Osaka, even Kyoto - my hometown), I just feel that something is wrong among people. It's hard to describe with words...
I hope you all have better experience there. -
-
This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, June 6, 2007 - 4:22 PMOut of like 130 000 000 people I've met maybe 50? over 4 years who've been strange. And I've met thousands of people who have just been amazing.
It's not every night I get off the train and someone strange is following me but maybe 1x every 2-3 weeks. And I can usually find a way to put them off.
I've only had the gravitational faux-chikan thing happen 3 times I think over years...And I'm never sure it's happening usually until I get off the train.
I love Japan. I love most of the people I meet here. It's just a few bad apples. Sorry, this is getting off topic!! -
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Wed, June 6, 2007 - 10:26 PMand to tie it all together...well maybe...
I totally agree with Eshe. Its only a minority. Every country has it.
But it does make me sad that the younger generation have so much pressure on them to conform, because I think they are some of the most brilliantly creative, driven, talented, amazing people in the world. My Japanese partner had long hair, rode a motorbike, busked on the streets and is the most amazing musician and gentle soul I ever met. Yet he was constantly put down and struggled to pay his rent because he didnt finish university, didnt look or dress right. i think its a world wide phenomenon that the energy of youth is not used efficiently. Young people really want to make this world a better place, but I think the world doesnt take advantage of this energy. We are all about Global warming and energy efficiency. I think that should apply to humans too. Let people express themselves creatively! Put their passions into action.
Haaaa.. off my soap box now.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Mon, June 11, 2007 - 9:20 PM"You can nullify all of the above if you are a Gaijin but in corporate business circumstances, unless you are a some kind of "god" figure in the industry. "
Yeah, or an artist of any type as well. Creative types can get away with whatever they want, at any age.
-
-
Re: Gaijin hair opinions.
Fri, June 8, 2007 - 2:42 PMI've been to Japan 4 times in the past 6 months - and the first 3 with somewhat longer hair. But I just got my hair cut and in this past trip my girl friend and everyone else made a big deal about it - in a positive way. "SUPER NICE HAIR" - "SUPER YOUNG GUY" - are just some of the comments. It's not that they didn't like my longer hair - just that they seem to like this ALOT more!
