Mainichi: Middle-aged mobsters shed a tear for the punch perm, the hairdo that lost its clout
Once a symbol of Japanese virility, the "punch perm" is in danger of extinction, according to Weekly Playboy. The punch perm, a hairdo of tightly packed curls, was once de rigueur among Japanese guys, especially the yakuza in the underworld's heyday during the decade from the mid-70s on. Now, though, guys with a punch perm are rarely ever seen. "Punch perms used to be so popular guys would line up for hours to get one done. At the peak of their popularity, I was making up to 2.4 million yen a month just doing punch perms," Osaka barber and former national punch perm champion Takashi Kata tells Weekly Playboy. "Now, I get about five or six customers a month who want punch perms. One of those will be in their 30s and all the rest are in their 50s at least." While the hairstyle became synonymous with the yakuza and rode the wave of their popularity during the '70s and '80s, Osaka barbers' union boss Yuzo Matsui also blames the gangs for the punch perm's demise. "Even though a lot of ordinary men got punch perms at the height of their popularity, so did a lot of yakuza. Ironically, once the yakuza got in on the game, the hairstyle lost its mainstream appeal," Matsui says. "Because so many yakuza had punch perms, people began to associate the hairstyle with the underworld and gave it a dirty image. Some golf clubs even banned people with punch perms from playing"
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