Things really began about four months ago as of writing this up (early December of 2024)!! Even before discovering the gyaru subculture, I had always been enthralled by Japanese fashion! My interest at the time moreso pertained to the casual, everyday wear. I just couldn’t get enough of how well put together they seemed in the videos and images I’ve stumbled across and I wanted to look just like them! This desire lead me to draw inspiration from anything from your average Japanese person on the streets of Tokyo to promotional Dear My Love shoots from the 2010s.
While I had always been aware of gyaru, I never took much of an interest in it. Up until the very beginning of my journey, I had always assumed that gals were only the “super tanned women” (such as kuro and manba gals). That wasn’t something that appealed to me… yet. Very heavy emphasis on the “yet”.
Once I decided to take a closer look, though, I realized that the Dear My Love shoots I used for inspo were actually a type of gyaru fashion! Almost as if a little lightbulb went off in my head, I instantly fell in love with the himekaji, hime, roma, and onee gal styles! As I dove a little deeper into informational gyaru videos and blog posts, I also adored onee and hime! With eyes wide and hopeful, I just knew I had to be a gal! It was so perfect for me after all. I’d spoken about my love for Japanese fashion with my peers at college so much to the point that I’d become kind of known as the school’s Jfashion girlie. So the style just made perfect sense for me to become a gal, right??
I instantly began throwing makeup into my cart (don’t follow my example) and ordered some clothes online. A week or two passed by before I developed the courage to try my hand at gyaru makeup for the very first time. As you could imagine, my first attempt seriously wasn’t great. It was about what you’d expect for a beginner; shape of the droop was off, lines way too thin, oddly placed white eyeliner touches… so on and so forth. But I was determined. I knew that confidence, determination, and courage were all part of the mindset needed to be a gal. I had no choice but to proceed and keep on practicing.
To my utter surprise, I improved at lightning speed! All I really did in order to achieve this rapid improvement was take inspiration from different tutorials and take a closer look at “good” hime galmake. I played with thicker lines, bought myself some cute bottom lashes, and much more accurately placed the white eyeliner!
… However, even then, something didn’t feel quite right. I thought to myself, is that really all there is to it? Just some light makeup and that’s it?
I have nothing but love and respect for hime, himekaji, and other “toned down” styles. If you’re a gal who wears any of those styles, I love you! But, to me, something just felt missing. I felt like I wasn’t making enough of a statement… and I had always been taught that gyaru was supposed to make a statement. I just wanted something more.
I took to the internet and surfed through various substyles; everything from kogal to ishoku hada. That was when I found it; romanba (romantic manba)! I had seen the iconic images of our lord and savior Japanese model Ka-Tan in her “romanba” style and I immediately fell in love. It was perfect. I couldn’t get enough of the harsh, heavy makeup mixed in with the cutesy and beautiful clothes associated with the hime substyle! Combining the beauty of hime and unapologetic-ness manba was just something I couldn’t ignore. It felt so perfect. It felt so me!
Since then, I have latched not only onto romantic manba, but also onto classic manba (like with the leis and Hawaiian themed clothing), and kuro gal! I have been tanning several times a week because I know I have to be dark to pull it off! :P Overall, I’m very satisfied with where I’m at now. Sure, I’ve had several instances where people have mocked me or were otherwise mean, but it was like water off a duck’s back! I know it’s all part of expressing myself authentically and truthfully.
Thank you so much for reading down to here if you have! I hope you enjoyed learning about my sneaky, ultra-evil villain origin story… muahaha. >:)