**TL;DR: Looking for non-permanent cosmetic services in Japan for my east-asian features. Just want a hairstylist and makeup artist that can speak a bit of English that can make me look like my reference image.**
I’m planning to go to Japan in a couple of days, and I’m wondering if I can get any gender affirming care while I’m there (going to both Osaka and Tokyo, including some of their respective nearby cities).
For this trip, I just want to just get a haircut and have my makeup done by a professional so that I can learn how to recreate it at home.
I’ve heard many horror stories from trans-masc friends getting their haircut and makeup done by people who didn’t understand that they wanted to look masculine and ended up getting a clearly feminine bob cut as well as clearly feminine makeup. This is the one thing that I want to avoid.
I also speak a very small amount of Japanese, but mainly English. Is there any places that offer the services I’m looking for?
Also, I know Ni-chome is the LGBTQ city of Japan and I am planning to stop by for a while, but unfortunately I don’t think they have what I’m looking for.
**EDIT: I realized I was being extremely vague with my post, so here’s some clarification:**
1. What type of gender affirming care am I looking for?
I just want to look for non-permanent cosmetic changes in Japan first. Medical care is something that I have yet worked up the courage to commit to, so I am just seeing how much I like the non-permanent change. If I do end up getting medical surgery, I would have it done in my hometown, not Japan.
2. Why Japan?
I am Japanese (both parents are Japanese) but I was born in Canada and neither of my parents speak Japanese well as they were also born in Canada with no real intent to learn the language beyond a very basic level. I have very dominant east-asian features that would suit best with Japanese-style makeup and popular eastern haircuts, which is why I wanted to see if there was a makeup artist and hairstylist there that could speak a bit of English and help me explore that kind of style (since I have long discovered that most makeup styles popular in the west do not suit my face and enhances the wrong features). I do have references for everything, but like every other professional in existence, everyone specializes in different things within their respective fields, which is why I haven’t gone to a salon to ask for a east-asian style haircut because they have no experience with it.
3. Have you tried consulting the internet?
Yes, I have tried following many online makeup tutorials at home, and I do think they look nice. I just wanted to see if I could get a professional’s opinion. For the haircut part, I’m a little traumatized from messing up my own haircut once as a kid so I don’t really want to try it again
4. What do you mean “clearly feminine makeup?”
What I mean by “clearly feminine makeup” is that the makeup was done to enhance more feminine features. I know that makeup is a rather taboo thing for men and most commonly associated with women, but if you look at cosplayers that cross-dress, they wear makeup that heavily emphasizes more masculine features (ex. contouring a more defined cheekbone, drawing straighter eyebrows, etc) and would end up looking as if they had been cis-male their entire life. There are tutorials of how these cosplayers do their makeup, but those tutorials are oriented towards their specific features and also towards the character they are cosplaying, so I just haven’t been able to find good tutorials that I could use.
5. What do you mean “clearly feminine haircut?”
As for what I mean by “clearly feminine haircut” is kind of harder to explain. Referring to what I said earlier, I have east-asian features living in a very western area, so the haircuts that I typically can get here cater more towards individuals with those western traits, which is why I even wanted to get a haircut in Japan. Haircuts and hairstyles are extremely gender-neutral and the way that a haircut can be gendered is typically with the face that’s attached to it. You can see this with guys with long hair and girls with short hair. Even though short hair is typically associated with guys, the girls still appear feminine, and the same in reverse. Because my friends and I have a more traditional feminine face, we need all the help we can get with the haircut. The right framing, the right length, and the right style. My friend would show the stylist a photo of a guy’s haircut and the stylist would still give them a slightly longer haircut (which by itself is enough to completely change the impression) with slightly different framing of the head shape which made them look more feminine, the opposite of what they wanted. Basically, I just want a hairstylist that wont alter the reference picture’s hairstyle just because I look more feminine to them. No, I’m not going to be so picky that one hair out of place is going to make me cry or whatever, I just wanted to know if there are good places that people recommend for haircuts, just to reduce the chances that I won’t like the end product. If I end up not liking it, at least I tried lol.
9 comments
**Just a reminder that our FAQ is being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4)
Thank you!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
> Also, I know Ni-chome is the LGBTQ city of Japan and I am planning to stop by for a while, but unfortunately I don’t think they have what I’m looking for
I don’t understand what you ARE looking for. A makeup tutorial? Wouldn’t that be easier at home where you speak the language? I have trouble understanding what makeup that isn’t “clearly feminine” even is, let alone describing it in my first language, so I think you might be asking for a lot of a make up artist who doesn’t speak your language, unless I am misunderstanding that part of your request. You might get better advice if you clarify what you are looking for.
Are you looking for gender affirming medical care or surgery or medicine? Or just makeup services?
The haircut might be one thing if you show them a picture and say you want exactly that. The makeup will likely be more challenging as most artists are going to naturally associate makeup with a feminine look.
To make a person look masculine requires specific knowledge of technique (such as contouring to mimic a masculine bone structure, shading brows to appear more full and unkempt, using makeup to look like no makeup, etc.). These are likely not in an average artist’s repertoire. On top of that, you’re dealing with foreign standards of beauty that tend to gravitate towards fuller, softer, youthful and more feminine looks to begin with.
I’m a bit confused as to why you are planning to do it over there rather than finding somewhere at home or trying to teach the makeup to yourself using the internet. The language barrier is going to be an issue since this is a complex thing to explain and the individual might not even grasp what you’re going for in their OWN language, let alone broken Japanese.
no, you shouldn’t go to Japan for a haircut do that at home
If you’re so afraid of people messing up with you, it really escapes me why do you want to do that in Japan, if you don’t even speak Japanese. They might even think you’re transitioning the opposite way, which I think it’s what you describe you’ve heard.
Japanese society avoids conflicts first and foremost, eg they might tell you a restaurant is fully booked even if it’s not, just because they don’t have an English menu or they understand zero English and don’t wanna deal with a misunderstanding.
I just hope you don’t come back with a moaning post about how they messed up.
Transdude here. Just don’t. Don’t expect Japan to do anything useful to you in terms of gender-affirming care. Don’t go there for anything trans, you’re literally barking up the wrong tree.
Travel to Japan to experience Japan. Don’t bother looking for care, they’re not there to care for tourists. If you pass already you may be capable of navigating public baths without issue but do not distinctly go TO Japan to find anything alike to “care” as the west calls it. You can take your medication/injections in without having to jump through hoops, and you may even get lucky that some ryokan or bath gives you the men’s yukata insead of women’s, but don’t expect anything more amazing than that. For a tourist visit, keep your head down and be polite. If you’re moving there and need long-term care, that’s different and not the scope of this sub. For a short tourist visit? Don’t bother. Don’t make waves. Just get by with your meds.
The nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
What is masculine makeup? As someone who knows nothing about this stuff