All about Japanese hairstyles

To take a look at hair in the various postwar decades throughout much of the world, I am covering Japanese hairstyles first. 

Hime cuts 

Modern Hime cuts are probably the longest running hair craze in Japanese history. They might’ve begun their lives in the late 1960s, until taking a major stride from the early 1970s onwards. Such cuts of both the first and second generations come in many sizes. 

In other words, Megumi Asaoka is the one big Japanese talent who has spawned a generation of curtained haircuts! Her trademark hairstyle, the Megumi cut, codified the hime cut family revival in the first place. 

People have indirectly been imitating Hime cuts or any relative thereof since the 1970s thanks to her and the more workout friendly Saori Minami. 

The Saori cut, which defined Minami’s early career, does have rarely seen medium size front bangs, but has otherwise been popularised internationally by Chichi in Dragon Ball, which means it’s also called the Chichi cut. 

A more angular variant, called the Sayoko cut after model actress Sayoko Yamaguchi, is better known for being worn by Kaya Daidouji in Shin Megami Tensei’s Devil Summoner spinoff series. 

Critter and Food hairstyles  

Of the critter and food themed hairstyle family, the Ukkokei mullet perm of Eri Nitta is amongst the most famous hairstyles in the bubble period of Japan. A fluffier cousin with different bangs is the Cotton Cheesecake perm, popularised in Japan by singer-songwriter Chisato Moritaka. 

The Lionhead perm of Shizuka Kudo is a hairstyle which was unexpectedly popular in early 1990s Thailand since tokusatsu, Doramas and lakorns co-exist largely peacefully for decades. It is wavy, with bangs (inspired by those of Lionhead rabbits) that can be straight or curled up.

There is also an early variant with chicken-like wings at the front named the Chicken Wing Pageboy perm, which was popularised by Akina Nakamori at the start of her career. 

Midi cuts

Famed for its day in the Japanese pop culture spotlight is the Ran cut, named for idol singer turned actress Ran Ito, which is itself a pragmatic adaptation of the Midi cut for Japanese ladies. 

The Seiko cut, derisively called the early 80s Burikko cut, is named for Seiko Matsuda on the first year of her multitalented career, even though it’s otherwise based on the Woodstock Pageboy cut from the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

The shullets and shags

Of the shullets and shags for women, one of the most famous is the bubble shag, a haircut that was popularised by singer and actress Mari Amachi. A bubble-punch mixed cut, the Kentaro shag, is named for Kentaro Shimizu, the street smart yet troubled tarento and the current king of Japan’s straight to video yakuza cinema. 

Wolf Cuts

Wolf cuts for guys, as we know today, likely began their lives near the end of the 60s, but didn’t take a big stride or two until the next decade when multitalented actor-singer-songwriter Kenji ‘Julie’ Sawada gained a wolf cut shortly after the supergroup Pyg was disbanded. His unisex style is called the Julie cut due to his lifelong admiration of Julie Andrews. 

There are other kinds of shags and wolf cuts for guys. A mixed pageboy-wolf cut was made popular by the late rocker Hideki Saijo, who used it until the mid 1980s. 

A midi-wolf hairstyle for humble young guys was popularised by Goro Noguchi in the early days of his career. It is called 

A cooler alternative may be known as the Street Surfer cut popularised in Japan by Toru Okazaki as Kamen Rider Amazon, worn afterwards by many kinds of street smart adventurers and young ruffians in popular youth culture during the 1970s to early 1980s. 

There is also a hybrid wolf-page boy cut, made more internationally known by Neel Sethi as Mowgli in Disney’s live action-cgi take on the Jungle Book.

The long curls and rolls 

Wolf rolls are named for the now extinct Japanese wolves that used to live in the country itself. Although they’re all unisex styles in origin, they’re mainly for young women due to being a bit rougher and more tomboyish than bubble shags and other hairstyles. 

Agejo curls can come in various colours but are very hard to maintain for normally straight haired people. Still, they’re somehow more attainable for wavy haired women than many of the much more implausible anime and manga hairstyles. 

The Ebi chan roll is named for model-actress Yuri Ebihara, but is better known on tumblr as the Tsun Tsun special for some weird reason. However, on the other hand, its popularity in both 2000s and early 2010s anime may have led to it soon being dubbed as the Tsun Tsun jellyfish roll instead. 

Surfer perms 

Before becoming all the rage in 1980s California, the wolf surfer cut was used by Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi himself in the early years of his career. It is gender neutral but used mainly by guys. 

The Sauvage surfer perm, the Japanese perm without chicken bangs, is like a spiritual predecessor of what’s to come, not only due to being featured occasionally in American tv but also in some tokusatsu shows, rock music and more, although it simply had to retire by the mid 1990s.  

The peppier waffle perm, popularised by Puffy Ami Yumi in their early career, is a better known, quirkier 90s cousin which has its own merits.  

Punch perms

Although the Croissant Perm is known for being the wackiest of all, the Schnitzel Perm with its ducktail-like texture is related to it. 

The Onigiri Perm and the Tempura Perm are of the curly and kinky types. The very short Corndog Perm, from Osaka Prefecture, also appears in many works that focus on modern chinpira. The Iron Perm is more famous outside of Japan for appearing in Santa Inoue’s Tokyo Tribes manga franchise. 

All the hairstyles are related, albeit distantly. 

Twist and Spiral Perms

The Graffiti twist perm seems so relevant thanks to both manga like the Tokyo Tribes franchise and video games like the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series using it to their advantage. It also has a shorter and more toned down descendant in the Hipster twist perm. There is also the electric spiral perm, which also has a descendant in the Reiwa spiral perm. 

Techno cuts

The techno cut family of short curtain cuts still deserve a big honorary mention, in which they’ve spread from various Asian countries to many other nations all over the world, which means that they’re amongst the current most popular and roasted hairstyles in world pop culture history as a whole. 

The two block cut used to be a major hairstyle for many young male pop stars and singer songwriters from the early-mid 1980s to mid-late 1990s in many nations, especially its native Japan. Its most famous user in Japan is Eisaku Yoshida. However, the haircut likely gained a belatedly big international boost thanks to Prince Eric donning one in Disney’s take on the Little Mermaid by (Hans Christian Andersen), and so it’s more well known as the Snarky Antihero’s long running, current cut of choice.  

One of the best known is a short, somewhat wavy cut being quite overused by young hotties in the 90s. It’s also famously used by Filipino heartthrob Patrick Garcia when he was a teen. Its Japanese equivalent is named the Ryuichi cut after musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. 

That being said, it doesn’t deserve to be dumped on as heavily as the Conk, which is quite telling because the Conk itself is just that bad for the environment as a whole, thanks to being filled with not only too many toxins but may also shorten the lifespan of its wearer, even when being done regularly. 

The Yukihiro cut is partly modelled on both medieval and early modern cuts. Although it’s named for Yukihiro Takahashi in Japan, it remains more famous in the anglophone world as inspiring the less peekaboo haircut of Devon Sawa when he was youngish. 

Curtain cuts

A curtain cut with super long hair was popularised first by the late nightclub star Ai Iijima in early Heisei Japan, and so is known as the Ai curtain cut. 

However, the male variant is usually called the Sephiroth cut after a popular villain in Final Fantasy 7 and its own sub-franchise, so it remains better known in video games and the like.