Seiko-chan cut (聖子ちゃんカット) is a popular name for a kind of feathered hairstyle, named after and popularized by

Japanese pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

idol Idol or Idols may refer to: Religion and philosophy * Cult image, a neutral term for a man-made object that is worshipped or venerated for the deity, spirit or demon that it embodies or represents * Murti, a point of focus for devotion or medit ...

Seiko Matsuda , known professionally as , is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter, known for being one of the most popular Japanese idols of the 1980s. Since then, she is still actively releasing new singles and albums, doing annual summer concert tours, win ...

, although the hairstyle itself predated Matsuda's debut. The hairstyle was popular among young Japanese women in the 80s. It is a layered haircut that hides the eyebrows with bangs, and the sides are blown outwards and the back is curled inwards.

History

The feathered hairstyle became internationally popular with

Farrah Fawcett Farrah Leni Fawcett (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett; February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she playe ...

, whose hairstyle was referred as the "Farrah-do", "Farrah-flip", or simply "Farrah hair". Some Japanese singers and idols in the late 1970s such as Sakiko Ito had similar hairstyles to the Seiko-chan cut. Seiko Matsuda wore this hairstyle even before her debut; she is seen with the hairstyle in the drama ''Odaiji ni'' and on the cover of the first single "Hadashi no Kisetsu". The hairstyle was established with the release of the second single "Aoi Sangoshou" and became Matsuda's trademark. It is thought that Matsuda was imitating

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

who at the time had feathered hair. Matsuda kept this hairstyle until the end of 1981. With the release of her single “Red Sweet Pea” in January of the following year, Matsuda bore shorter hair with a perm, which surprised fans and the public in Japan. According to Matsuda, she wanted to cut her hair, which had a lot of volume since the time of the single “Kaze Tachinu”.

Trend in Japan

When Matsuda debuted in 1980, she became popular among ordinary girls and high school students. From this time on, the names “Seiko cut” and “Seiko-chan cut” were established. Popular ''

kayōkyoku is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. ''The Japan Times'' described ''kayōkyoku'' as "standard Japanese pop" or " Shōwa-era pop". ''Kayōkyoku'' represents a blend of Western and Japanese musical scales. Music i ...

'' idols such as Kyoko Koizumi,

Iyo Matsumoto , married name , was a pop idol in the early '80s. She is now a Japanese TV personality, singer and actress, and is currently signed to Production No Title. Early life Matsumoto was born in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan. She attended from kindergarten ...

Chiemi Hori , better known as , is a Japanese singer, actress, and entertainer represented by Horipro, and later Shochiku Geino is a Japanese talent agency headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka. It was founded in 1958 under the conglomerate Shochiku Co., Ltd a ...

and Yu Hayami debuted with the Seiko-chan cut in 1982.

Akina Nakamori is a Japanese Singing, singer and Actor, actress. She is one of the most popular and best-selling artists in Japan. Akina achieved national recognition after winning the 1981 season of the talent show ''Star Tanjō!''. Her debut single "Slow M ...

made her debut with a longer Seiko-chan cut before changing it into a ponytail. Later in 1984, idols

Momoko Kikuchi is a Japanese actress, entertainer, singer, and scholar who was formerly represented by the talent agency, Parfit Production. On June 22, 2020, Kikuchi announced that she has left Parfit Production and gone independent. Her ex-husband is profes ...

and

Yukiko Okada was a Japanese singer and actress, active in the mid-1980s. After winning a nationwide television show at age 15 in 1983, she debuted as an Japanese idol, idol in 1984. Her death by suicide two years later led to a number of copycat suicides, a ...

, the latter a junior of Matsuda, debuted with the Seiko-chan cut. Other idols who debuted with the Seiko-chan cut include

Miho Nakayama is a Japanese singer and actress. She is affiliated with Big Apple Co., Ltd. Nakayama is nicknamed , and sometimes uses the pseudonyms or when she writes the lyrics. Biography History Nakayama was born in Saku, Nagano, Japan. Following her ...

Yui Asaka is a Japanese actress, a J-Pop singer, and an idol who came to fame in the 1980s. Biography Yui was born in Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan, and later attended Nakano High School. In 1984, she was the Grand Prix Winner for a Young Girls Comics Maga ...

Hiroko Moriguchi (born June 13, 1968 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan), better known by her stage name is a female Japanese singer and tarento. Moriguchi is affiliated with the talent agency NoReason Inc., where she also serves as Second Production Departme ...

, and Tomomi Nishimura. The trend began to wane in the late 1980s, but pianists such as Ikuyo Nakamichi kept this style until the 1990s. In the 2013 continuous TV novel ''Amachan'', Haruko Amano ( Kyoko Koizumi), who played the youth, appeared with a Seiko-chan cut as an aspect of the time. In 2016, when Fumi Nikaido appeared in ''Gochi 17'',

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Kiriko Takemura (Japanese: 竹村桐子, born January 29, 1993), known professionally as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (Hiragana: きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ), is a Japanese tarento, singer, and model. Her public image is associated with Japan's ''kawai ...

also showed this hairstyle on her Instagram.

References

* {{Citation, last= jp:中川右介, title=松田聖子と中森明菜［増補版］一九八〇年代の革命, date=December 2014, publisher= jp:朝日文庫, isbn=978-4022618146, ref={{Harvid, 中川, 2014 1980s in Japan Japanese fashion Hairstyles