The Rise of Female Hairdressers:

Hairdressing Events and Restructuring of the “Female Sphere” in Late Meiji Japan

Abstract

Female hairdressers started to appear on the pages of women’s magazines in the late Meiji period. They also appeared on the stages of hairdressing events where women from the upper- and middleclasses as well as geisha came to see them. The popularity of female hairstylists among female clients came to be recognized in society at large. In this article, I argue that the popularity of female hairdressers can be read as a negative response by women of different classes to the teachings of enlightened modern family and “home” and female roles within it.

The popularity of female hairdressers in late Meiji is worth noticing since they had been attacked by enlightened intellectuals, mostly men, for exercising a bad influence on women, whose homes they visited to do their hair. Male intellectuals attacked female hairdressers through their writings, trying to discourage the practice of home visits, since they closely associated the female hairdressers with nightlife and the geisha culture.

The fact that many women came to the hairdressing events shows that women did not accept the derogatory views of female hairdressers promoted by male intellectuals. How did these women see their hairdressers, then? In their attacks, enlightened male intellectuals suggested that the position of female hairdressers was very low status. On the other hand, women referred to female hairdressers with respect and a sense of intimacy. I argue that the sense of distance thus articulated is quite similar to the kind of female lesbianism among female high school students of that time.

Hairdressing events became popular during this period of commercialization and industrialization, as women were discovered as consumers. Does this mean that the intimate relationship between female hairdressers and female clients was commercially appropriated? I argue that it was partly so, but female hairdressers could re-appropriate the opportunities for their own ends.