Harajuku Street Style

Teen-agers in Japan have stepped out of the conformity of Japanese culture in an unusual way. Harajuku style is rockin’ in Tokyo and other urban areas.

The hair shows in the United States have nothing on these kids. The styles range from sweet and innocent with an edge, to all out demonic. Hair colors are outrageous, the fashions are outrageous.

Harajuku History

In 2000, Harajuku, a neighborhood in Tokyo, became the center of an outrageous sub-culture known as Harajuku. Harajuku has small designer shops and other attractions that give it a unique flavor.

Japanese teenagers developed a completely unique look based on dressing up as their favorite fantasy characters and walking the promenade of the Harajuku fashion district. The characters were from Japanese pop culture.

Gwen Stefani recorded a song about the Harajuku girls in 2004.

What do you think of Harajuku style?

TELL HAIREALITY

Matt’s Married? Shear Genius

In Round 3 of cut or be cut, Charlie,as last week’s winner, is asked who is struggling.  He  names Gail.  Will she be sent  to the hairstylist home for the hapless? 

 The short cut challenge:

Style hair 30 to 68 inches long in an updo without cutting  (where do they find these women?) in one hour.  Matt does a pretty job.  Nekisa’s looked awful. Nicole’s was awful, why complain about paper thin hair, and then braid it to make it even thinner.?  Nekisa lost the challenge.  Matt won.

Elimination challenge:

Red carpet glam hair. Matt, as he chooses which dress to style for,mentions his wife again. Rene Fris says “your wife is not here’ and everyone laughs. Wife mentioned much?  Reminds me of El Cruz on Split Ends, with the girlfriend.

Doth protest too much?  

Matt’s model tells him her hair will not hold curl. But Matt does it anyway. Charlie runs Fris away from him (yay). Matt is getting the losing edit.  when his model presents, she has absolutely no curl. Paulo’s style is downright ugly. Charlie’s color and style rocked. And so did Gail’s.

Go to Bravo TV to see the before/after pictures.

Charlie wins again.  Deservedly so.   Matt loses.

Technorati Tags: shear genius,bravo,reality tv,el cruz,jaclyn smith

The Other Culture Clash

African Braiders vs. African-American Braiders

In Culture Clash, Part 2, the problems of African Braid Shops needing to obtain state license was discussed. there is another part of the other culture clash…the one existing between African braiders and African American braid shops

Haireality has not been in an African Braid Shop in many years. But all the old information on these shops is still pertinent.

Reviews of these shops by customers are the same…these shops are not clean. The same combs and implements are used on many people, the facilities are awful, and the Africans are blunt and rude. Some of this is cultural, other things are due to the lack of standards, ie…licensing.

Many people like the quality of the work so much that they “put up with” the other things. Remember, the customer receiving services such as microbraids, will be there for hours.

African braiders have a unique ability to braid very tightly, so tightly that the customer could lose hair from the follicle because of the tension from the braid.

Many African-American braiders in shops are licensed and went to Beauty School. There is much competition for the dollars going on in the braiding community, and sometimes the two cultures clash, as they try to steer business away from each other. Amazon Smiley owns one of the largest African American braiding shops in Chicago, specializing in locks, twists, extensions, in addition to braids.

Smiley was involved in the founding of the International Braiders Network, a trade association that met every year in a different city until it folded in 1998. She thinks the group had 1,000 members at its height.

There were no Africans involved in this organization.
In a quote from The Chicago Reader:
“It wasn’t an African braiders organization, it was an African-American braiders association. It was our recognition that we know how to braid,” she says, echoing something Taalib-Al Unquib said. “I didn’t appreciate the signs that I saw Senegalese braiders hanging on their shops when they started coming over here–authentic African hair braiding,” he said. “As if what we’d been doing was fake?”

Exactly…what’s authentic.? There is room for everyone in the hair business. Those involved in it don’t always know that.

Technorati Tags: haireality,culture clash,African braiding

The New Rapunzels

Extensions and Weaves

                                                 The Ultimate Hair Blog
Thanks to weaves and extensions, we can have happy hair everyday.
Let’s discuss the latest trends and the trendsetters in this expanding, multi-billion dollar industry।

HOW ‘BOUT A HISTORY LESSON?

(you know you wanted to go back to school)

Women wearing extensions dates back to anicient Eygpt. In fact, extension hair was recently found on a mummy!
Human hair is grown mostly by ladies of various ages throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa.European hair is more fine or narrow following the cuticle removal process. Indian hair is oval, like European human hair and about the same diameter once stripped of its cuticle layer. Human hair is harvested in various countries, where it is gathered using special hair brushes, and then it is sold to harvesters. The hair harvesters remove the cuticle layer from the hair and bundle it according to length; it is carefully separated into standard color groups. Finally, it is sold to various distributors around the world, then sold to wig maker manufacturers, beauty supply houses, and hair salons.

Today, hair from India is in very high demand. This is a multi-billion dollar import business in the United States.