Teenager says multiple applications of dye to her naturally brown hair have caused rashes on her scalp
A teenager in Japan has taken local authorities to court after her school told her to dye her hair black or face exclusion.
The 18-year-old, who has naturally brown hair, is seeking 2.2m yen (£14,700) in damages from the Osaka prefectural government in western Japan due to anguish caused by repeated commands to colour her hair black.
The student, who has not been named because she is considered a minor, says multiple applications of dye have damaged her hair and caused rashes on her scalp.
Her mother told teachers before she started attending Kaifukan high school that her daughter had been born with naturally brown hair and so was not breaking a school rule requiring all students to have black hair.
However, teachers instructed the student to dye her hair black or face expulsion, and made her colour it again when it still contained brown tinges, according to Japanese media reports.
School staff told her mother they would even ask foreign exchange students with blond hair to comply, according to Kyodo News.
The student has not attended classes since September last year and says she is suffering from pain and irritation caused by the hair dye.
The prefectural government has asked the court to reject the claim.
The case has drawn attention to the strict dress codes imposed by many schools in Japan, from directions on hair colour to bans on makeup and jewellery and the requirement that students’ skirts be of a certain length.
This year a survey of high schools in Tokyo found that almost 60% asked students with lighter hair for proof that it was naturally that colour. Ninety of the 170 schools surveyed by the Asahi newspaper said they asked students to provide photographs of themselves taken when they were infants or attending junior school to prove they had not coloured their hair.
Masahiko Takahashi, Kaifukan’s headteacher, declined to comment on the case but acknowledged that the school also prohibited students from colouring or bleaching their hair. He did not say whether dyeing brown hair black was a breach of that rule.
dusmeyedin on March 13rd, 2019 at 00:41 UTC »
In China, 99% of the population has the same hair color and eye color. So a non-Chinese person tends to stand out.
In the big metropolitan cities this is no big deal nowadays. Although I've had white friends say that everywhere they go, they're aware of increased attention, including outright staring.
In the less cosmopolitan cities and rural areas, this can lead to interesting reactions. One of my Turkish friends, who is so hairy that when he takes off his shirt, it looks like he has not actually taken off his shirt, said that one time he was jogging shirtless in one of the far flung areas and a little Chinese kid was taking a walk with granny. The kid saw the hairy foreigner and started crying in fear.
Edit: unrelated, but I had a few Venezuelan friends visit a medium sized city and they were jogging around a lake. They're both handsome dark Latino men, so the local women immediately asked for photos. They bragged to me about the new female fans they met, and showed me a few photos.
All the women were like sixty, seventy years old. And very cheerful to be photographed with interesting foreigners.
Ezizual on March 13rd, 2019 at 00:14 UTC »
I'm a British guy working in a public high school in Japan, and seeing teachers spray (temporary black hair spray) a students hair is a bi-weekly occurrence at my school.
My hair is naturally brown, but when I was younger it was bright blonde. Like, super saiyan fluorescent yellow.
At the end of the year after their exams, I throw one of my baby pictures in to a PowerPoint slide just to fuck with them. The look of confusion on their face when I tell them it's me is hilarious. They ask questions like "is your hair dyed now?!" followed by "you dyed you hair when you were a child?!?!" before I explain that they're both my natural hair colour, which further adds to their confusion.
Edit: At my school, teachers are okay with parents confirming natural hair colours besides black. Not so strict that they demand photo evidence.
scarabic on March 12nd, 2019 at 23:26 UTC »
Apparently hairstyle-friendly workplaces are a big thing in Japan, too. It’s so popular for young people to have elaborate, wild hairdos and they are so taboo to the older generation that job listings will sometimes say “hairstyles not allowed” if the workplace is very conservative or “hairstyles friendly” if they are more causal and eager to recruit young people.
I guess when you’ve had to conform your entire youth, you want to rebel a bit when you grow up.