Word of The Day – Chapatsu

This literally translates to “brown hair”.

Chapatsu (チャパツ) is the once-rebellious, once-trendy style of bleaching and occasionally dyeing hair, found among Japanese teens.

While the style itself began to show up in Tokyo streets during the early to mid-1990s, the word did not appear in Kōjien (one of Japans authoritative dictionaries) until 1998.

The style first gained popularity among adolescent girls, seeking to accentuate their tanned skin rebelling against more traditional definitions of beauty, but quickly grew into the mainstream.

Lately, it appears that the “chapatsu” style is on its way out.

From Chapatsu – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.