Getting your haircut in Japan, a two part question.

Hello everyone,

I have two questions regarding getting your hair cut in Japan. The first part is mostly practical, the second mostly concerning language. Excuse me if this isn't in the right forum.

1) Salons vs. 1000 yen cut: Right now I mostly go to the 1000 yen cut places. The expensive hair cut salons of 4000 yen and up, just don't make sense to me. I'm curious if there really is any difference between the experience everyone has had between these places. What would make the more expensive salon place worth it?

2) How to explain what you want?: Unfortunately, there never was a chapter in Japanese language books of "visiting the 1000 yen haircut place" so the vocabulary for explaining what you would like in a haircut can actually be rather frustrating at times. Does anyone know any resources online for vocabulary phrases to explain typical requests at such a place?

Right now I end up with very limited explanations like: 窶慊ｯ窶堋ｶﾆ湛ﾆ耽ﾆ辰ﾆ停?ｹ窶堋ｮ窶堙ｧ窶堋｢窶堙??堋ｷ窶堋ｯ窶堙?、ﾅ津ｺ窶堋ｳ窶堙ｰﾂ静倪?堙≫?堙??堋ｭ窶堙ｪ窶堙懌?堋ｹ窶堙ｱ窶堋ｩﾂ？ﾂ Or the dangerous one,ﾋ?ｪﾆ短ﾆ停?愴蛋窶堙ｰﾂ静倪?堙≫?堙??堋ｭ窶堙ｪ窶堙懌?堋ｹ窶堙ｱ窶堋ｩﾂ？ﾂ Which was interpreted as not to cut off 1cm, but to cut down TO 1cm (luckily I noticed this) It has proven very difficult to explain things like ﾂ"Could you cut just a little bit off to even everything out?"ﾂ As I end up withﾂ ﾂ渉ｭ窶堋ｵ窶｢ﾂｽﾂ行窶堙俄?堋ｫ窶堙≫?堙??ｰﾂｺ窶堋ｳ窶堋｢ﾂ。ﾂ But this doesn't seem to make sense.

Any resources or tips would help.

From what I understand the barbers were more or less price fixing for a long time till finally people started to offer cheaper deals. Of course you don't get the message and stuff but who cares really.

Yes, the Japanese had tolerated those prices for much too long and hairdressers who aren't too skilled. If you stay a long time in a neighborhood, you notice that hairdressers come and go. A lot of women (and more men recently) try out shops to find the hairdresser they like. If they find one, they stick to that person. And, if that hairdresser leaves the shop to work for another (skilled/artistic hairdressers are headhunted frequently), the customers move as well. That's how it goes. Personally, I've never liked hairdressing salons, so I go to the 1000-yen places for the occasional cut and normally keep my hair tied into a ponytail.

Describing what kind of cut you want is actually very difficult even for a native Japanese speaker. Take a magazine clipping of a haircut you want and show it at the shop. If the shop can't do it even with the pic, just never go there again.

If you want to reduce volume: 平均にすいてください。
Generally shorter: 全体に（少し）短くしてください。
When asked どのくらい？： 大体五ミリかな？ちょっとやってみてください。（図々しく言う。笑）

Thank you guys

Those are nice phrases. I always went with something like 大体同じ髪型ですが～センチぐらい and then I think I said 短くしてください or something. It seemed to get the point across.

Incidentally I always went to a place that was around 1000 yen on Karasuma-doori in Kyoto, which was run by these nice older ladies. They loved to chat with me, and even gave me some pineapples once!

Rube said:

From what I understand the barbers were more or less price fixing for a long time till finally people started to offer cheaper deals. Of course you don't get the message and stuff but who cares really.

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Ah, but if you look hard enough you can find cheap places that give massages and what not. I knew this place outside of Nagoya I used to go to, and they were maybe 1200 yen with the works. I think a shave was 500 yen extra.

I haven't received a haircut in Japan for over 20 years, but has it really changed that much? Back in the day I would go to the local barber (always the same one; family owned) where, for 2,000 yen I would get a shampoo, nice haircut to my liking and desire, a shave with a straight razor, and a nice head and neck massage. Total time was about an hour, but I felt like a million yen after I was done and it was well worth the price. Seems like those places no longer exist or, if they do, they must be quite expensive these days. Are those the 4,000 yen places you are referring to Emoni?

epigene said:

Describing what kind of cut you want is actually very difficult even for a native Japanese speaker.

Click to expand...

While I was vacationing in Japan four years ago, my hair was longer (for me, anyway) than usual and I considered getting a haircut there. From reading this and other comments in this thread, I think I made the right decision to wait until I got back home.

Knowing my luck, I'd probably end up looking like Lex Luthor if I got a haircut in Japan.

To my understanding the more expensive salons are basically part of a hairdressers union, and being part of that union means you cannot set your prices below a certain level, and I honestly cannot remember who told me that, but it makes sense. I guess I always imagined the level of pampering is higher, and better quality products are used, but I am a guy.. I don't really care about that stuff. I can see a women paying 4000-8000 depending what she needs, but its just seems like a waste for many men. Anyhow I usually get cut short, so I just use 残す and say something like 上は一センチ残してください、まわりは８ミリ、前は少しだけ、and also whether or not to uses scissors or clippers. Not even sure if 残す is the right word, but they seem to understand, cuz I always get what I want.

One solution:

For about 1 man yen, I bought a pair of electric clippers 10 years ago, and I haven't paid for a haircut ever since!

I use 'em once a month to give myself a "sports-gari" (short on the back and sides, medium on the top) as well as my kids.

With proper technique, electric clippers can maintain ANY length of hairstyle... but my wife still pays for pros to cut HER hair. ;-)

I just got a haircut when I was in Japan. I took a picture of the cut I wanted with me and showed it to the hairdresser. My wife was with me so she did the explaining. I think with shampoo it cost 2800 yen, my wife got hers cut and it was 3000 yen at the same place. I felt it was very good and probably worth the money. Its the first haircut I had had in years though. I usually have long hair tied in a pony tail to keep it out of the way but I like this new cut and its far quicker to wash my hair now too. When my wife was still living in Japan and working in Osaka she went to some place there every couple months and paid around 30,000 yen for a shampoo, dye, and cut. Maybe massage too but I don't know for sure. That always seemed a bit much to me but she said she liked going there.

Thanks everyone!

Yeah, Pachipro, that sounds like maybe the places I was talking about, but I avoid them due to the price so I'm not sure the situation.