The excess hair pointing forward was heavily oiled/stiffened and then tucked under, forming a large airy pouf lying forward across the top of the head. This was tied down to the original base of the ponytail. The ponytail was folded up and forward, forming a small flattened bun pointing backwards. In my opinion this style is the most difficult and seems a bit fragile. Girls of marriageable age wore their hair in the shimada. Some old pictures show a more bouffant loop – perhaps this was a more formal variation. The ponytail was divided in two and each section was formed into a rounded loop lying sideways against the head. Young girls wore their hair in the ichou-gaeshi (literally “butterfly loop”) style. However, other accounts (such as of geisha-in-training putting dry rice grains around their little headrest/pillows as incentive to sleep perfectly still) seem to indicate that it remained slightly sticky even once set. It seems to have gone on wet and then dried stiff, sort of like modern super-hold hair gel. The ponytail was then styled differently depending on its owner’s age and marital status.Īs far as I have been able to determine, bintsuke oil was the hairstyling product of choice for both men and women. Once the front sections were formed, the excess hair was swept back to join the ponytail. The hair behind the part, meanwhile, was drawn back tightly into a thick ponytail. Each section was puffed out, resulting in a small pouf above the forehead and two larger (hollow!) side wings extending over the ears. The hair in front of the part was divided into 3 sections. A part was drawn across the top of the head from ear to ear. WomenĪll women’s hairstyles were formed from the same base. Babies of both genders had their hair cropped short, with decorative patterns shaved onto their heads. Men also had distinctive coiffures, but with less variation. Contemporary writers insist that it was possible to determine a Japanese woman’s approximate age, marital status, and social class based primarily upon her hairstyle.

Tonsured queue hair