Only In Japan – The Ginza Style
There is nothing like taking a walk around the back streets of Ginza on an early evening, watching the hostesses and club staff getting ready for the night, I’d say there’s no other place in the world with a higher concentration of beautiful women between the ages of 30-50 than Ginza streets at 1830 in the evening. Most of these women have a set style and set look that is very typical for this profession and this area. I have asked a lot of people if there is any established name for this elegant half-pompadour but no one seems to know, so I am just going to go ahead and call it the the Ginza Style. Actually, the gorgeous ladies in these photos are not hostesses but tourist staff from Akita prefecture in the North of Japan. Obviously the people of Akita still keep the strict hairstyles of the bubble economy! But if you really want to see this style in the wild, head to Ginza and just walk around. On a recent walk through the area I saw this sign outside a beauty salon that answered a question I have been mulling over for years! How much does it cost to get this hairstyle done for yourself? Well, depending on the time it seems to be between 1800-2300 yen, but I am sure there are some salons that charge up to five times as much. Keep in mind that these hostess ladies do this every night of the week before going to work. In the old days, before the war, fashionable ladies used to get their hair set once a week and sleep on special pillows so as to not ruin their hair styles. And before you shudder in disbelief, fashionable women in Europe and North America went to very similar lengths to keep their hair in order.
Still, I love this hairstyle, and apart from hostess bars (which are just way too expensive for the ordinary person to even try) some upscale restaurants (upscale meaning a meal is between 40-300 USD) require their head staff to wear similar hairstyles. It’s considered very old fashioned and even though you still see young women in this style I doubt it will survive more than a handful of decades in the future.
Here in the Western side of the world people would pay even more just for the looks
neat!
Haha… I’d love to see a westerner with this kind of hair, apart from Dolly Parton, of course. (^-^)
Yeah let’s skip Dolly lol!! trust me plenty here who take that look
I do love her music though! (^-^)
I love this post, these women are so elegant, they gently take your breath away (especially the way you captured it). In our society it feels like women over 27 are treated like fading flowers. Like the best years are gone so now you are no longer viable as a person, but I think there is a beauty that we women can attain after those years, because we know better who we are and what we like, we learn to carry ourselves with grace and hopefully good humor. But there is also something about us learning to take good care of ourselves, not to neglect ourselves when many times we have to take care of those around us. I think this is true for both sexes though, and I wonder if men ever feel the same pressure.
Learning to love oneself and express love to others is probably one of the secrets to a beautiful life, but that’s just my opinion. For me, your lovely photos are in a way you capturing things that are lovely and sharing them, and it’s a form of expression of love. Again that’s just my perspective.
Thank you D…! I couldn’t have put it better than you already have! Taking good care of yourself has nothing to do with age, only self discipline and I am pretty much 100% certain that these ladies have more self discipline in their little fingers than most westerners (myself included) have in their entire bodies.
I would try a hair like that, though my hair is not long enough for this
pretty delicate and elegant, I like it a lot
Japanese have really different hair from us poor Europeans, extremely thick and strong. Of course they hate it and try to thin it out to look like westerners. I think it’s crazy since everyone in the west wants thicker and stronger hair, like the Japanese! (^-^;)