So today I’m here to blog about something that has no category tags. That has no describing word. That is just, simply, the fault of bad hairdressers. It’s a frighteningly recurring phenomenon I’ve seen among Asian idols that when they pull their hair back too far…

Oku Manami, 2006

…and have a disaster on their hands.

Oku Manami from AKB48 is the first girl I saw who shoved her horrible hair so blatantly in my face. Now, I’m not about to hate on her, since she has plenty of fans and she isn’t a bad singer, but… I just cannot simply fathom how that escapes the attention of the hairdressing team. Even Morning Musume has a more diligent hairdressing team, and AKB48 is basically crushing them lately in terms of production quality (although Akimoto reportedly owes two billion yen in debts, but that’s beside the point here).

Now, I know, some arguments I could have against me go along the lines of “well, what about you, you probably have fuzz like that under your hair!”, or “if you’re so smart, why don’t you work for AKB48?”. First of all, I’ve personally checked for myself, and I have no fuzz. Second, I would if I were fluent in Japanese, could afford to fly to Japan, and were edumacated in hairdressing, I would consider that a possible career choice.

But back to Klingon-chan — I mean, Oku — let’s see if, a year later, she’s made any changes to that disaster.

As you can clearly see, no, there are no changes. It is, if anything, worse.

I don’t understand why you can’t shave the fuzz off if you have to pull your hair back that far. It doesn’t look cute, it doesn’t look sexy, it just looks atrocious. And some of you, by this point, are probably thinking about how superficial I am and how you’re going to take me off your blogroll OMGRIGHTNOW!!!. In my defense, the point of being an idol is not so much singing, but physical appeal and personality. I place importance on such matters when I contemplate idols. To be fair, however, Michishige Sayumi’s voice is one of the things that keeps me from truly liking her.

Continuing: It isn’t just Oku Manami I’ve seen this from.

PIPO☆Angel’s, early 2007

Observe the girl on the far left. It isn’t just the fuzz, though — her hair is pulled so far back, I can almost imagine her bald.

Some other instances:

Hagiwara Mai, ℃-ute

Yajima Maimi, ℃-ute

Kumai Yurina, Berryz工房

These are only some examples. But don’t take my word for it: it’s possible to pull ones hair back and not have fuzz. As you can see here:

Sudou Maasa, Berryz工房

All it takes is a smart hairdresser and a pair of garden hedge clippers. Not exactly rocket science.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be off sniffing Febreeze Air Effects. Mmm, Febreeze.