Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 14 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 23 years, 5 months ago by
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Why do young Asian men always have their hair up in spikey, gelled hairstyles? Also, why does their hair gray so prematurely? I have met several Asian men who were developing gray hair in their 20s or 30s. Even my boyfriend, who is Korean, has this problem.
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Name : Kristina, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 20, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Transcriber, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,That is a good question. Many Asian males do style their hair that way. It’s funny because the Japanimation characters even wear their hair that way.
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Name : Geneva-G, Gender : F, City : Porterville, State : CA, Country : United States,I’ve heard that although most Asian hair is very straight, it’s somewhat coarser than Caucasian hair, with thicker strands on average. Therefore, it probably doesn’t lie flat quite as easily as Caucasian hair when worn short. If your hair has the tendancy to stick up, I guess you’d make the best of it, style-wise. As far as Asian hair graying prematurely: I was surprised to read this observation on your part, as I’d thought I’d noticed more of a tendency for elderly Asians to maintain their dark hair for a long time. Maybe the gray shows up more easily because their hair is so dark, making the graying only seem premature.
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Name : Jennifer31031, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 31, City : St. Paul, State : MN, Country : United States, Occupation : Non-profit, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Actually we don’t use gel. Our hair is naturally spikey. It grays so early because we don’t use gel like other people, which contains anti-graying agents.
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Name : Ricki, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Buddhist, Age : 19, City : na, State : TN, Country : United States, Occupation : hairdresser, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I think for a lot of guys this is the obvious choice for a hairstyle because their hair just grows that way. Rather than fight to make the hair lay down, they opt to play it up.
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Name : CSG, Gender : F, Race : Asian/Caucasian, Age : 33, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College,Our hair looks better when we spike it. It’s a good look for Asians.
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Name : Andrew19448, Gender : M, Race : Asian, City : Jacksonville, State : FL, Country : United States,As an Asian male, I hated the fact that Asian guys always wore their hair the same way: short and spiked, longer bowl cut parted down the middle, or chin-lengthed bleached hair. But the truth is, we can’t really wear it any other way, because Asian hair tends to be very coarse, so we can’t style it like Europeans without using lots and lots of chemicals and devoting hours of maintenance to it.
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Name : John29240, Gender : M, Race : Asian, Age : 23, City : San Francisco, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : web architect, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I have to agree with you. They do seem to style their hair an awful lot with the spiked, gel look. I always wondered what was up with that. Also, my fiance is only 25 and already forming gray hair, so I understand your question. I’ll be glad to ask him your questions and get back to you on this subject.
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Name : Crystal, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States,It’s simple why young Asian men wear spikey hair (and so do men of other races): Because it is in style. It’s done for the same reason you may perm your hair and wear stretch jeans. And not all Asian men do this, just as I don’t wear stretch jeans or perm my hair.
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Name : Nicole20043, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 19, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower class,I have no answer to your question, but would like to point out that gray hair is not a ‘problem.’ Nor is there really such a thing as ‘prematurely’ gray. Different people go gray at different times. And no, I do not have gray hair.
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Name : Rick29832, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, City : Springfield, State : OH, Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,I can only guess that the reason my teenage son (half Korean) spikes his hair is that that’s about the only hairstyle he feels comfortable with. His hair has (since birth) been coarse and straight. A friend nicknamed him Curious George because of the wild look. My mother-in-law is a hair stylist and has tried perms, waves and a variety of cuts, but after a week goes by he invariably ends up looking like a ‘boat child’ with thick, straight hair shooting out in all directions. The close-cropped sides and gel-spiked top make him feel good about the way he looks, and it’s easy for him to maintain. He would rather have corn rows like some of his black friends, but it would be impossible to braid his stalks! I’m not sure about the gray being an Asian trait. I’ve seen elderly Asian gentlemen with jet-black hair.
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Name : Steve, Gender : M, Race : American Indian, Age : 44, City : Austin, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : Public Relations, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,As a 35-year-old Asian male without spikey gray hair, maybe I’m not the best person to answer this question, but my experience living in the United States for 25 years was that most of my white friends grayed or became ‘hair challenged’ far earlier than Asians. It seems to be a matter of your experiences. The spikey gelled hair issue is consistent with what I saw in the early ’90s, when many blacks began shaving their heads (a la Michael Jordan). Without the diversity in hair colors of whites, it’s more difficult to express oneself physically for African Americans and Asians. Here in Korea (and Japan), no one these days has black hair, as everyone under the age of 30 is into the bleaching and highlighting craze. Red, yellow, green and blue – hairstyles and colors are even more diverse here than in the West.
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Name : Ken, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 35, City : Seoul, State : NA, Country : Korea, Occupation : Public relations, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Asian hair is finer than hair of other ethnicities, plus it is almost always dead-straight. The spikeyness, I reckon, is an attempt to add more volume or body to the hair; without the gel, it would otherwise fall flat. I’m Asian, but this is just a guess. I’ve noticed the early graying in many Asians, too (I’ve had one or two pop up, and I’m only in my mid-teens), but I have no clue why it happens.
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Name : Stephanie27781, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Asian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 16, City : Toronto, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Student, Education level : Less than High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,our hair is REALLY coarse. as in it’s painful when we cut it and the short hairs stay on the skin. it really sucks. i’d have to agree with the comment that there not a heckuva lotta options available for this type of hair. greying i’ve had a few asian friends grey earlier than usual. could be 1) school stress 2) white shows up REALLY well against black 3) school stress 🙂
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Name : Jay, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Eurasian, Age : 27, City : other, State : NA, Country : Canada, Occupation : Programmer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,It is interesting how people with straight hair desire to put it into curly or more diverse looks. As an African American with ‘kinky’ hair, I always thought people with straighter hair had an easier time managing it. I guess I was wrong.
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Name : Kristina, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 20, City : Washington, State : DC, Country : United States, Occupation : Transcriber, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,
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