Tanabata Festival - Future Hairdressers Experience Earning Money Through Hair-Arrangement

Yurika Yamauchi (2023/7 batch)

The power of beauty, especially hair arrangement, can expand the income sources for local hairdressers and increase their income, and may increase the self-esteem of customers through hair arrangement. This is the reason that I decided to come to Timor-Leste as a community development volunteer.

Before being dispatched to Timor-Leste, I worked in the beauty industry. I felt the need for arranging hairstyle has been increasing and the hairstyles in the Japanese beauty salon industry were diversifying. Through my experience that improved self-esteem from hair arrangement, I felt that hair arrangement can make people gain confidence. I strongly believe that the hair arrangement has a great potential for improving self-esteem and increasing the income of hairdressers as well.

In Timor-Leste, about one in four people live below the absolute poverty line, which is less than $2.15 in a day^*1*2. I thought that hair arrangement could be effective not only in Japan but also in the developing countries to increase income, so I decided to work in Timor-Leste to prove it.

*1 A state in which the minimum standard of living necessary for survival is not met (World Vision)
https://www.worldvision.jp/children/poverty_18.html#d0e9d87eb78fa54e47cd213ca7606442
*2 24.4% of Timor-Leste's population is in absolute poverty (World Bank)
https://data.worldbank.org/country/timor-leste

In Timor-Leste, I was lucky to find a hair salon, focusing on women's empowerment. I am currently teaching hair styling to 12 people, including two hairdressers and 10 students attending the salon's hairdresser training course. Thanks to the close society in Dili, I was approached by the owner of an indoor playground for children at a shopping center to hold a hair styling event. When I looked at the calendar when the event was decided to be held in July, I found that this year's “Tanabata” was on Sunday. I decided to hold an event to give an opportunity for people to experience the Japanese Tanabata culture in addition to hair arrangement.

After the event was set, I started an intensive hair arranging course for hairdressers and beauty students. I prepared four hair designs for visitors to choose. The students practiced how to arrange their hair while maintaining quality within the time limit.
The students were very enthusiastic, took videos of me arranging hair as an example, and practiced at home, and even in their breaks in class to practice.

There was another big purpose for this event. I wanted the students to experience earning money with their own skills, since most beauty students have never earned money on their own. I negotiated with the shop owner to kindly pay them for their hair arrangement skills serving the customers, so that they could feel the wonderfulness of the profession of hairdresser that they wanted to be.

On July 7, 2024, the day of the Tanabata festival finally arrived. There were three booths at the event, the "Origami Booth" where visitors make origami related to Tanabata, the "Bamboo Decoration Experience Booth" where visitors write their wishes on a "Tanzaku (small pieces of colourful paper used on Tanabata celebration.)” and hang them up on bamboo leaves with decorations, and the "Hair Arrangement Booth" where the girls arrange customers’ hair. The event was a great success with about 100 people attended, meeting their own beauty through hair arrangements while feeling the Japanese Tanabata. When I looked around the venue, it was a touching moment to see both adults and children enjoying hair arrangements. I believe that this was the first time in Timor-Leste that so many people turned into gorgeous looking with their hair arrangements. This moment will never fade from my mind.

After the event, the students received their first salary in their lives and experienced "earning money with their own skills." I won't reveal the exact amount, but thanks to the kindness and generosity of the owner, they were able to receive salary equivalent to the amount of a one-day job in Timor-Leste.

I have one year left in Timor-Leste. I will continue in this way, creating new values as much as possible for these women to shine as hairdressers. Eventually, I want to help them increase their income and promote their independence so that they will be able to create the opportunity by themselves in the future. I intend to hold a hair show with these women.

Through my work in Timor-Leste, I would like to embody that "hair arranging contributes to increasing hairdressers' incomes for their independence, and also serves as empowerment".