Why being a gyaru is worth it ♥

Trying gyaru fashion was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made. It made me grow as a person, helped me embrace my femininity and was the key to meeting some of my dearest friends. After looking back at my gyaru journey I noticed that there’s so much I can be thankful for. Which is why I decided to dedicate my first blog post to:

“Why being a gyaru is worth it!”

Gyaru is empowering!

Generally speaking, gyaru made me live my life at its fullest. D.I.A, one of my favorite gyaru brands, had the sentence “Live everyday like it’s your birthday” printed on their labels for a while. That pretty much sums up what gyaru (lifestyle) means to me. I enjoy myself and I’m proud of how I look and what I do. Everyone can “get wild, be sexy” and just enjoy life. Gyaru is about doing whatever makes you happy regardless of what others say!

Wear three pairs of false lashes on top of each other if you want to. Slap on your brightest blush. Say yes to extremely frilly clothes. Dance with your shoes off in a club! There are no limits to what makes you feel powerful and your true self.

Gyaru showed me how strong femininity can be.

Before I started wearing Gyaru I never thought I could embrace the femininity within me the way I do now. Misogyny and its poisonous seeds got planted into my heart at a very early age and spread out its roots within me. Gyaru helped me overcome it.

Back in primary school I overheard one of my closer friends say that the color pink was “girly”, “bitchy” and therefor weak. I wore a light pink jacket regularly back then and was very embarrassed for it afterwards. It just got worse after that. Pink was systematically banned from my wardrobe. I grew up to be a tomboy in my early teenage years (which I don’t consider a bad thing!) and never even dared to wear a skirt or a dress. The social environment around me pushed its misogynic ideas into my head so badly that I thought I would stop being respected if I wore or did something “girly”.

Even as I was introduced to gyaru first I chose to wear gyaru-o as I never thought I could pull of a feminine style or would ever fit in. If you don’t know, Gyaru-o is the masculine equivalent to gyaru.

I always felt cool and strong in masculine clothes, but never 100% complete. In 2013 I finally had the courage to put on false lashes. And that just changed everything, haha! With gyaru makeup I felt beautiful for the first time in which felt like forever back then.

Gyaru was a big part of me finding myself. And although I still wear both masculine and feminine styles I definitely learned to love the femininity within me and that “girly” things aren’t flawed or weak. It’s quite the opposite really. I never felt so strong before. I was able to combine being cool and cute. I found my authentic self. And I never wanted to go back.

Gender stereotypes are nothing but a social construct. I have pink hair and I’m powerful. When I walk through the city on my heels with my gals, I feel like I’m on top of the world. No one can ever take that away from me again. 

Gyaru helped me learn amazing new skills.

It is probably obvious that my makeup skills improved drastically with gyaru, haha! But there are lots of new things I learned regardless of makeup thanks to gyaru. One of those things is the improvement of my sense of rhythm thanks to parapara.

If you’re not familiar with parapara (パラパラ), it’s a dance style typically danced to Eurobeat, hyper techno or trance music. It belongs to gyaru lifestyle and Japanese culture and was a popular activity mainly during the 90s and early 2000s. I’ve been dancing pararapa since I’ve become a gyaru-o in 2011.

I can dance perfectly synchronized to other gyaru on my high heels. If that’s not a skill I don’t know what is, haha!

Another skill I improved is hairstyling. After years of practice and the help of my gyaru friends I learned how to curl my hair, do sujimori and so much more! Have you ever tried to put clip-in extensions into your hair? If yes you know how hard it is to blend the individual pieces together with your natural hair nicely. Especially when you’re trying to do a high ponytail! But at the end of the day, it’s absolutely worth the struggle. Hair can change one’s appearance dramatically and it always boosts my confidence whenever it is nicely done.

With gyaru I also learned how to put in contact lenses and how to wear super long nails! Combined those certain skills are even more challenging. I dare you, try to take out contact lenses with 4 cm long press on nails in a club bathroom.

To be honest this skill list could fill a blog post on its own. To name a few more things, I learned about skincare, room décor, the Japanese language and putting together decent outfits thanks to gyaru. With this beautiful fashion style my life got a wide variety of practical additions that came with it.

Gyaru showed me what it’s like being in a circle of close friends.

Finally, the main reason of why it’s worth being a gyaru are the wonderful people I found within the community. With gyaru I got to know Barbara, Ramona and Yaya. They were my closest gyaru friends for many, many years and showed me what it truly feels like to belong somewhere.

From 2014 to 2021 we formed PLUTONIUM gyaru-sa and shared a strong bond that connected us through gyaru. I never really clicked with mainstream girls in school so belonging to a circle of gal friends really meant a lot to me. Meeting them really was a dream come true. Together we went shopping, did our makeup, danced, had sleepovers, chatted, read gyaru magazines, visited nice restaurants and partied all night long. I’ve got to experience so many wonderful things together with them and always felt like I could openly be the person I want to be. I love you with all my heart, gals! Forever!

Even now in 2021 gyaru gives me hope and happiness during these difficult times. With gyaru there will always be a sprinkle of glitter in my life. Hold on strong to your very own sparkles!

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post. See you soon!

Peg