Anime Themed Hair Salon Kyara-Make Machida

Get a New “Do” at an Anime-Themed Hair Salon!

We’ve all heard of cat and maid cafes, various theme-based shops and the like, but have you ever gotten your “do” at a fully decked-out anime hair salon?

Now you can! Opening earlier in 2019 on the outskirts of Tokyo, just within the Sagamihara city limits, this salon offers a wide variety of anime books, magazines, and more for customers to peruse while they come to get their own new looks.

A short five-minute walk from Machida Station, an area well-known for its alternative, new-age culture, Kyara-Make offers a wide array of hairstyles for the modern man or woman. Want to have a NieR:Automata-based hairstyle like 2B? They can do that! All you have to do is show a photo and they can pretty much do anything! (More on this thought below!)

Photo by Terra Dragos

Once you walk into the salon, you are instantly greeted by a wave of sub-culture goodness from original character illustrations to all sorts of gaming paraphernalia. The store owner is a major fan of the series Mashin Hero Wataru, so you’ll find books, art, music and more from this series all over the place! Not only that, but there’s always some old-school anime series playing on the large TV screen in the entrance waiting area of the store. There’s also a sketch and autograph book for customers to sign if they like--there are some pretty awesome sketches from famous gaming companies such as Matsuyama Hiroshi from CyberConnect2 among many others!

Moving further into the store and you’ll be greeted by a whole wall full of books and other goodies from various anime and video games. You might even see some rare illustration boards called shikishi here as well, like an autograph board of the development team from NieR:Automata including Yoko Taro’s cute signature.

Just in front of this wall is the main styling chair. Aside from reading any of the available books on the shelf or the selection of current gaming magazines placed on the table in front of the chair, yet another small TV is placed here to give customers something to watch while they get their hair cut and styled.

In addition to all of this, there is also a massive playlist of music playing in the background. As a lover of music, especially classic anime and game music, it’s an added bit of fun to try and guess what songs are playing. At one point a song began to play that I recognized but couldn’t quite place what it was from, so I asked and it turned out to be one of the themes from Pokémon that I had performed at GameTakt a year or two earlier. How could I have forgotten!? But simply because I recognized the song without ever playing a single Pokémon game seemed to make quite the impression on my stylist.

Interestingly enough, I first learned of this salon through a networking party with mostly those in or hovering around the video game industry. I have always had a difficult time finding the right stylist who could handle my extremely fine, non-Japanese hair while also letting me do some fun and maybe a little crazy things with my hair. Earlier last year, I wanted to get my hair cut and colored white to resemble that of the lead character 2B from NieR:Automata just in time to perform in our fan-organized concert, “Tsuki Oke”. For such an anime-themed salon, it felt natural rather than unconventional to show a character illustration as an example of how I wanted the style to look.

It’s also this unique environment that helps to calm any nerves or stress that may have accumulated during the day. The owner of the store mentioned that many people in Japan have a difficult time expressing themselves and are often withdrawn inwardly, but by decorating the walls a variety of animation books, games, and more, it helps to calm anyone who might be a little apprehensive. Personally, I’ve never had as much fun going to get my hair cut or styled before, and I don’t need to hide my otaku side. You are among friends when you visit here.