Kaori Yamanashi, 40 years old, has a good posture as she has been doing ballet since she was 3 years old. She used to have long hair for ballet.

“I used to do ponytail for such a long time, so I started to worried about my receding hairline. I decided to have hairstyle with easy styling rather than just having long hair.” Kaori said.

Then, Kaori found a hairstylist called “JUN” in a haircare book. Kaori was impressed by JUN’s hairstyle and she thought he would be able to take care of her hair.

Kaori tried short hair before, but the result was not satisfying because of her curly hair.

“I gave up having short hair until I met JUN. He created a unique style for me using my curly hair in a nice way to be part of the style. It was really impressive!” Kaori said.

“Kaori has cool and stylish character. I specially designed cutting edge hair style for her to match her character.” JUN explained. He applied high layer cut, a technique called chop cut, and cut with thinning scissors to create natural movement with her curly hair.

For color, he applied level 4 natural black color all over the hair, and partly ash color to give an accent. The black based color looks cool on Kaori.

“I used to have a conventional idea on my hairstyle. I thought I needed to do ponytail hair to make it tidy for ballet lesson. I have lesson three times a week, and I just need to use some pin to set my hair. I was occupied with how to control my curly hair, but thanks to JUN I have now a fabulous hairstyle. I am not stressed any more with my curly hair.” Kaori smiled.

Kaori used to live abroad, and she describes that Japanese hair salons are advanced and matured. Japanese hairdressers are skillful and they have their own specialties. If you really look for, you will be able to find a hairdresser just for you, like Kaori found JUN.

Hair salon: Bivo PHASE

Hair stylist: JUN

Official website:

Photo by Akio Nakamura

Text by Hanako Maruyama