And through it all I continue to find the hairstyles utterly riveting. Many of the men here love to stand out with their personal style, and that is reflected very much in the hair. I have seen things that border on mullet, but the rest of the person doesn't quite match the American mullet ideal. For example yesterday I saw this guy who had long wispy bangs, hair worn long to his shoulders, dyed a reddish hue and wearing a white tee-shirt, jeans and sandles. The entire look was very thought-out, and for this guy it was his personal man-style Japanese look. I'm still growing accustomed to the male ideal of what looks masculine. Forever I have been used to the American ideal that is commonly the strong, manly, and not too primped look. Here it is exactly the opposite. In fact, the more you style your look, the better you appear. I have even encountered a man with startling sculpted eyebrows. That one was a little scary.
This is an ad I pass by every day in the train station on my way to work. It's an ad for Softbank, one of the major mobile/cell phone carriers in Japan. They provide the service for iPhones, and as most people have an iPhone, you know they're getting major yen. Anyways I look at this ad daily, and the obvious attempt by each person to be tremendously appealing makes me laugh. It's the expressions on their faces, you can just hear them saying to themselves as they pose.. 'Think sexy! Be sexy! Look sexy!' Except for that 2nd guy from the right. He's the Mona Lisa of the bunch, I can't read him.
Even though it's the recorded 2nd hottest summer in Japan(!) the women here know no limit to their personal perseverance for looking good. Even when it's 90 degrees at 8am on the morning commute, you will see women wearing their hair down even though you know it's got to be killing them. They spend so much time straightning, curling, styling their hair that when I see them I have to wonder how early they had to wake up that morning to complete their look for the day. Still they find the will to rock their high heels and let their hair down even as they are trekking in the intense, hot sun on the way to work.
Another hair thing I continue to notice is that the women all detest having hair on their arms. The ideal look is no arm hair, and so they all get rid of it. I haven't seen a single woman who has any hair on their arms, but for the men they don't hold the same regard for their arm hair. I continue to find this amusing.
Finally, I'd like to just point out that there are disturbing number of hair scrunchies all around me. Know what a scrunchie is? It is a fabric device for putting your hair up. You've seen it before. It's reminiscent of the 80's, when leg warmers were commonplace, Dirty Dancing was the soundtrack to every teen's heart, and the Reagans ran America. Yes.. in the U.S. all the ladies know, if you're rocking the scrunchie it will date you, and make you look exactly the opposite of hip.
In Japan, scrunchies are normal. It's strange.. the 1st scrunchie I saw I had to fight the abhorrent feelings that surfaced and the 'ew' that tried to escape my lips. They are everywhere, so while I am far from embracing them I have tried my best to tolerate them.. just as I am sure the Japanese are tolerating my apparent disregard for my appearance with my arm hair (it's not like I have Robin Williams arm hair) and hair tied up I walk to work in the hot sun.
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