Japanese with anime voice: episode25
Hello, I’m Sachi.
April 5 is Haircut Day. The origin of why it is Haircut Day is a bit interesting, so I would like to share it with you. It is said that this day commemorates the prohibition of haircuts for girls that was issued in 1872, the 5th year of Meiji era. It’s a haircut ban, yet it’s established as a haircut day. It is strange, isn’t it?
The reason is that the year before, 散髪脱刀 (Sanpatsu dattou) was issued, which abolished the Edo period’s form of haircut and dress, which was determined by status, saying that one did not have to be a chonmage or carry a sword.
Chonmage” is now a hairstyle for sumo wrestlers. However, after the promulgation of the law, a number of women began to cut their hair. This led to the prohibition that women could not imitate the haircut permitted only for men. The action taken by the women resulted in the proclamation of a ban on haircuts. This led to the establishment of Haircut Day in modern times to honor the actions of these women. I guess it is a sign of respect for the women of this era.
If I had been born in this era, I would have gone to get my hair cut too, wondering why only men were free.
If my hair is beautiful, I don’t think I’ll cut it. If my hair is smooth and silky, and if long hair suits me. If my hair is stiff, thick, and hard like mine, it won’t hold together beautifully even if I let it grow long. On the contrary, it looks even worse. And it’s too hot in the summer. It’s too hot and humid around my neck. And the most depressing thing is when my hair gets caught under my arm by the wind. That is really annoying.
When I was in my twenties, I had grown my hair long, to about the level of my chest. One day, I noticed that the hair in the back was incredibly damaged and wavy. It looked good from the front, but the back was just too bad.
When I was that young, I did everything they told me to do at the salon, and even tried shampoos, treatments, hair packs, and other things that I researched in magazines and on the Internet that were good for my hair, but none of them ever made my hair beautiful. In the end, the only time my stiff, voluminous, frizzy hair becomes properly beautiful is when I straighten it. But it will come off eventually, and it hurts my hair a lot, and above all, it costs a lot of money! I’m really sick of it.
I have a long hair dream, but I don’t have a face that looks good with long hair, so I should not wear long hair. What is it that makes people look good with long hair or short hair? It’s really strange, isn’t it? I don’t really understand. I once thought that I don’t look good with long hair because I am short, but there are many people who look good with long hair even if they are short. For some reason, when I grow my hair long, it gives a dark impression. I am often told that cutting my hair “brightens it up” or “you look better with a shorter haircut,” and well, I think so myself.
When I think about it, I’m glad I wasn’t born in the Heian period or something. It would have been terrible to have long hair that didn’t suit me. But I am confident that the Japanese hairstyles of the Edo period look good on me! I don’t know why, but I have no proof. Next time I grow my hair long, I’d like to keep my hair in the Japanese hairstyle. That might be a good idea. Wearing a kimono over Western clothes and Japanese hairstyle on my head. I’m not even a maiko, just a fashionista. I think it would be really cool.
A while ago, I wanted to wear my hair in a bun with a stick in it, but I cut it off because I thought the bun didn’t suit me either. I don’t know why I didn’t think of the idea of having Japanese hairstyle at that time…what a pity I did. It’s all because of my face that long hair doesn’t suit me.
But why does everyone agree that long hair doesn’t suit me so well…? When I used to look up “faces that look good with short hair”, I found that people had to be white, round, small, feminine, with a slender neck and soft hair. I did not meet any of these criteria. Before that, I wanted to ask why skin color has anything to do with hair style. I don’t fit the definition or the statistics, but if you say I look better in short ones, does that mean I only have short ones because I don’t look good in long ones? What? A process of elimination…? Is that what you’re saying?
