Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Why do many japanese dye their hair to brown, red, blonde...?

I started to be interested in japanese culture since childhood. My first introduction to it was through 70's and 80's movies. The first thing I noticed was everyone had black hair, except for the old people. Of course it sounds obvious, but when we are three years old it's a big surprise to know that all asians have black hair.

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But, a bigger surprise happened when I started to watch movies from 90's to nowadays. The black hair of japanese people have suddenly become brown, red, blonde, all the collors! 

And I asked myself why. Why are japanese people dyeing their hairs? Well, if we take a look at the celebrities, we can get the answer: it's fashion! I don't know who started it, but now everyone wants to do it - specially young people - because it looks cool.

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I've many friends in Japan with colored hair, maybe much more than the ones with original black hair. I've asked some of them for what reason they or people they know do it. Many confirmed it's because of fashion and because make people look younger, specially women. But, others said it's because some japanese want to look like foreigners. And the first step for it is dyeing the hair.

During college I read a book that mentioned that. Ceuntries ago, when japanese gates were closed to the westerns, the beauty pattern was korean because according to japanese of that time, korean women had a delicate beauty. But, when the gates were open and the westerns started to come, the european beauty started to be more valorized. The biggest proof of that was how japanese stopped to paint theirselves as asians and started to draw their selves as caucasians like we see in manga and anime until nowadays.

Some say that's why Goku, the main character of the anime Dragon Ball, was the biggest hero of Japan in 90's because he looks like a japanese - black hair - but, looks like a foreigner - blonde hair - when gets stronger. 

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But, having colored hair is forbidden in some moments of life. High School students, for example, cannot dye the hair or even use earring. The same for some company employees. For this reason, many japanese with a different look are university students or adults who work for companies which do not prohibit them to do the same.

And this maybe better. People can be more happy if can assume their own style, since it's not exaggerated. Are there people with the same fashion style in your country? So, upload some pictures off them in Taptrip! 

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