Japan Culture Among Our Hairs

We visit salons almost every few months as it is a complement to our lives. From the perspective of a citizen of China, I can say that barber shops cover the streets and malls of the majority of Chinese cities. However, numerous salons do share a similar “Chinese” and “Traditional” style of hairstyle, whereas the center of attention here maintains a rather unique style of hair-creation: a cultural Japanese styled hair-salon. Maybe her roots weren’t set in China, but her love for her career is what settled Megumi Abe in China despite the numerous challenges over these years. The initial intention that led Abe into this developed city was her goal in her career.

Megumi Abe

How in the First Place?

In 2011, the woman was brought to China in response to her attempt to start a hair-making business in addition to her career in Sendai, Japan. Abe was at start piqued by the idea to bring her business and career as a hairdresser to a higher level. Under the circumstance that the Japanese culture and Chinese culture overall had a similar appreciation of beauty, Abe chose China as her focus rather than American or European countries to continue her dream of working and starting a barber shop. The determined woman hoped to bring her traditional Japanese-styled salon techniques into China, embarking on her road in giving Chinese citizens the opportunity to be exposed to a different yet unique hairdressing style. All until this day, Abe’s hair salon is what holds up her life and hopes. Meanwhile, this decision involves Abe having to adjust to a completely differing lifestyle in China, where she met some obstacles of contrast.

In the Beginning

When I asked upon her experiences at the beginning of her story in China, Abe began addressing that adjusting to the new community has been quite easy as the two cultures share many characteristics like food and cultural acts. The Chinese were also quite accepting towards the Japanese since she came to Beijing in a relatively modern time. However, two points of contrast has been an obstacle throughout her fitting in process. The first point Abe mentioned is how China is a very organized and controlled country, with government control over many aspects; thus, this decreases the convenience and freedom citizens have, whereas Japan is a relatively free country towards residents. In relation with her own status, Abe also explained that “citizens all over Japan have a stable education level and cultural background, therefore starting a business there can be easier in terms of communication. China, on the other hand, has a greater variation in everyone’s knowledge and education amount, so as the creator of a barber shop in China, challenges can be revealed through the contrasting opinions and actions of employees.” Nevertheless of all the struggles among the society that interfered with Abe’s business and life, she kept her strong will in her original goal and managed to find the highlights within the new and unfamiliar environment.

Progressing Forward

Continuing about Abe’s business as a hairdresser, she received various high remarks and success concerning her store — Queen’s berry Hair Salon. Abe herself also experienced what it was like to be employing at a hair salon, which was another reason of her arrival in China: “I used to be an employee at a beauty salon in Japan, experiencing all the duties from a massaging employee to a store manager. Even though I found success throughout my past 14 years at a salon in Japan, I wanted to challenge myself into a new level of this career.” Coming to China to embark on her own business was Abe’s plan to improve and gain new experiences as a barber, also taking the chance to reach a new section of the world with diverse people and cultures. Yet as mentioned above, a change in audience focus and community has put trouble on Abe’s business path. “Many Chinese employees are not stable when at a job, so the frequent change between barber employees has been a main challenge to my career” explained Abe. This was a major effect to maintaining a stable business around the start of her salon since the use of the Japanese styled techniques in hair in China requires much training, where that training process takes time within groups of employees. Despite the amount of effort put into training Abe stated that the individuality in the Chinese workers’ personalities—opposite from that of Japanese employees—drive them into different jobs, resulting in herself having to train a new group of workers. Thus far, the way the Chinese customs to jobs has reflected a point that Abe must adjust to behind the scenes of a typical hair salon. Despite this, time has also brought herself the chance to overcome the contrastive key point in building up a business. Although Abe’s hair salon maintained at a stable state over the past 10 years, a significant issue did hit her business as I was admirable of her decisions within.

Running into Obstacles: Career

Encountering a major difficulty in terms of her business has changed the road of Abe’s hair salon. Over the development of her hair salon, Abe then had the hope to expand her business all over the city, where she “started a separate store of the current salon in the Daxing area of Beijing but was unable to maintain the shop success to today” (Abe). Facing both financial and personal issues, a cascade of problems resulted in the closure of her second barber shop, which also affected the business of Abe’s main store. “I was at the risk of a failed business in a foreign country, potentially resulting in a complete closure,” the woman explained, feelings of misery coming up to her face when responding. Within this issue, a main factor of it was because the closure of Abe’s second store was correlated with a forced move of her main store, therefore the business owner was left with no choice but to put all the attention on the main store to rent a new location. Despite the chance of a total loss of her business, Abe still held the hope of continuing with her dream career—which led herself to my success in her hair salon today, even if it means taking on risky choices. Her courage put into her life sparked inspiration among myself.

Running into Obstacles: Social Life

Simultaneously aside challenges throughout Abe’s career, she was also set with numerous difficulties and confusions in social life. During her past 10 years in Beijing as a barber, Abe did also notice many varying points with office workers in the two countries of her relationship: “From my past experiences in Japan, a common point I’ve recognized is how passionate and dedicated Japanese citizens are when it comes to work, thus the service industry is quite varied there. On the contrary, Chinese employees are more relaxed and value the fun in work time. The differing work spirits between the two nations has risen some perplexity within me.” This custom of the Chinese has also affected Abe’s perspective on work herself and reflected a change in her own actions. Another noticing the hairdresser brought up was also in relation to the habits and customs of the Chinese around daily life: a tendency to talk in a straight-forward and loud way. Abe said of her experience, “Because I have grown in an environment opposite from this in Japan, this act of some local citizens in China has caused some discomfort in me, sometimes feeling that this kind of communication habit is disrespectful.” Overall, the Japanese do tend to care and value the feelings of others when speaking and committing actions, which is also reflected in terms of their decision making. As a result, the way of communication by the Chinese sometimes leads Abe to feel that there is a gap between herself and the current Chinese society she is around, where there may be some misunderstandings. Regardless of these obstacles standing between Abe’s chance to adjust within the community, she still gives her best shot in trying to understand those around her and create ways to put the cons aside. On top of Abe’s feelings towards the society, other supporters—her friends, colleagues, employees, and more—were who caused as a main difference to herself and her career.

Those Behind Success

Upon the interview, Abe shared the importance of those who were around her and how their existence shaped the success in her business: “All my employees and customers over these years were the greatest support to myself and my business. If my customers, no matter old or new, were not with me, my salon would not have maintained its state until today—mainly because the relationship between my customers and I have held it together.” Moreover, the thankful woman also noted that around the beginning of her business creation, a Chinese partner that started this store with her together was also a big reason why Abe managed to gain success.

Abe and the Country

In the end, when Abe was questioned about thoughts she wanted to share around her experiences and notices in China, her thought of admiration really interested me for a woman’s complement on a foreign country she originally did not have contact with. She slowly expressed with deep feelings for the country: “As a foreigner in China, the humor of the locals in the city has always brought me interest in this country. I have always really admired the living style of the Chinese, and how they seized the day and what they have now. The Chinese always knew how to cherish each day in their lives and make enjoyment out of it.”