Geisha’s, who are famous for their classic white makeup, fabulous dresses and delicate hairstyles, are traditional Japanese performance artists. Among their typical features, the various geisha hairstyles are especially popular.
It is quite common to put your hair up in a geisha hairstyle and it is also considered as a typical symbol of a geisha do. Usually, geisha hairstyles are decorated using elaborate hair accessories and are sometimes combined with hairpieces and/or wigs. To maintain the hair in the “perfect state” appearance, geisha’s themselves only sleep on small pillows using only their necks.
Geisha’s may only need to style their hair once a week. They cannot loosen or wash the hair, and only professional hairdressers can make these traditional geisha hairstyles, which, naturally, take a long time to prepare. It is said that traditional geisha hairstyling is a slowly dying art, due to the excessive pulling of the hair for long periods of time, combined with the chemicals used during the hairstyling process, side effects to the skin and even balding have been known to occur.
There are four major types of the geisha hairstyles:
Taka shimada commonly sported by Single young women, a high and volumised hairstyle.