Izumi Ohike, 52 years old, is a psychotherapist.

Assembly was the hair salon which she found through internet in her neighborhood where she moved 4 years ago.

“My hairsylist changed my view towards fashion. My priolities for fashion used to be clothes, make-up, and then hair style, however, he made me realized that I needed to have a neat hairstyle to look lively and beautiful with my age . I was as impressed as I imagined with the hairstyle he created.” Izumi said.

Since then, Izumi has been going to her hairstylist, Mr. Nakama, every 20 days.

Izumi’s concern is her thick hair volume.

“Usually women in their 40 – 50s have concern about loosing their hair volume. For Izumi, I suggested long hairstyle which her thick hair volume can be seen as a style.” Mr. Nakama said.

Mr. Nakama cut the outline of hair with gradual rise on front, used layers at the top center, bang, and around the face to create a natural flows.

Izumi prefers to have brighter color not to give a dark impression.

“While dying firmly gray hair at root, I applied brighter color including the gray hair part. I added different color on the hair end to give a slightly gradation look.” Mr. Nakama explained.

For the hair styling, he curled the hair end with 32 mm hair iron, flow out bang and hair around her face, applied hair polish spray and oil to give a good texture and glossy impression.

“Mr. Nakama’s hair cut looks great when the styling is well done.  I asked him to teach me how to do hair styling by myself.” Izumi said.

Izumi has introduced her husband and friends to Mr. Nakama and his hair salon.

“Not only his proven technique as hairstylist, but a friendly and relaxing atmosphere of the salon makes me happy to go there.”

Women in UNIQUE PIECE generation has various concerns about their hair. It is great to have a professional hairstylist who can take care of those concerns and give a sense of originality.

Hair salon: assembly

Hairstylist: Takahiro Nakama

Official website:

Photo by Akio Nakamura

Text by Hanako Maruyama