Learning to Style Men’s Hair

  • March 22, 2021

By Yuuki Nagata
JRN 217: Journalistic Reporting and Writing

Tori Shimotsuki has been working in the fashion industry for almost 10 years, both as a model and manager, and he knows what a difference  hair styling can make.  

“Men would have to wear plain suits when working at a company,” he said. “But just a bit of styling hair, it gives each one a difference and uniqueness, and it makes us look more fashionable.” 

The first step in having fashionable hair is having clean hair. But washing and drying hair isn’t the same for everyone.

“It’s important to wash your hair and dry it properly with a dryer switching multiple times with the hot and cool options, ” said Chirai Sato, a stylist at the LIPPS hair salon in Tokyo, Japan. He explains the two types of hair people generally have: soft hair and hard hair. Soft hair is more moisturized and elastic, so it’s easier to deal with. Hard hair is drier and more brittle, so it’s important to moisturize when washing and to dry it properly. 

To maintain a good hairstyle, it’s important to take care of your hair all the time. Because everyone has different hair conditions, it’s difficult to give general advice for everyone to follow. Sato recommended the hair wax and treatment products such as those the LIPPS salon created.

Hair wax might be seen as an easy product to use when hair styling, and that is certainly true after getting used to it.  Different kinds of hair wax are suitable for different hair conditions, and the right product can’t always  be found immediately. One tip t from stylists at the LIPPS hair salon was to not slather hair wax all over but to just use a bit in the center, applying it gently but quickly.

Hair styling with a flat iron has become very popular with young men. The flat iron can either  straighten hair or curl it, making it look like someone got a haircut when in reality the length hasn’t changed at all. But getting used to a flat iron is even harder than hair wax, and there are even high possibilities of getting burned. 

A hair model at the LIPPS salon who uses the stage name Yuzuki opened up about his experiences with the flat iron. “It’s almost impossible to learn how to use a flat iron by yourself without getting injured at all,” he said. ”There’s always a slight fear and hesitation in every movement.”

The best way to learn is by watching a professional do it in front of you and watching YouTube videos or videos on other social media networks to remember the movement of the hair stylist’s hands, he said. 

Yutaka, another model who uses a stage name, has been working as a clothing model for six months, and he explained how helpful it was knowing about hair styling before entering the modeling industry. One advice he said that left a big impression was to look in front of the mirror and just play around with your hair for even a few minutes every day. 

“It’s been a part of my lifestyle as a morning routine,” he said. “You won’t be able to get the kind of hairstyle you want immediately. It’s important to be patient every day.”