Chapatsu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Literally "brown hair", chapatsu (チャパツ, chapatsu^?) is the once-rebellious, once-trendy style of bleaching (and occasionally dyeing) hair, found among Japanese teens.

While the style itself began to show up in Tokyo streets mid- to early-1990s, the word did not appear in Kojien (one of Japan's authoritative dictionaries) until 1998. The style first gained popularity among adolescent girls, seeking to accentuate their tanned skin (rebelling against more traditional definitions of beauty), but quickly grew into the mainstream.

The latest trends seem to indicate that the "chapatsu" style is on its way out. [1]

See also Ganguro.

[edit] External Links

• Trends in Japan
• Tokyo Metroblog
• Transcript of Speech by Nomura Masaichi of the National Museum of Ethnology on Chapatsu and Ganguro fashions