I’ve heard that seeing old women with purple hair in Japan is surprising for foreigners.
Some old people like changing their hair to bright color and it’s not so unusual to see those people in Japan.
I think it’s because Japanese (Asian) hair is very black and it’s difficult to change the color when we are young.
So, when we get old and have white hair, it’s a good chance to enjoy changing hair color.
By the way, knowing the idea of color is quite different depends on the language.
Do you know what the following expressions describe?
① 肌が黒い (hada ga kuroi) “the skin is black”
② 目が黒い (me ga kuroi) “the eyes are black”
③ 金髪 (kinpatsu) “gold hair”
④ 赤道 (sekidoo) “red road”
① 肌が黒い (hada ga kuroi) means “sunburned, tan”.
In Japan most of women try NOT to get suntan.
This expression doesn’t have bad nuance, but be careful with using it!
② 目が黒い (me ga kuroi) means “alive”.
Because, when people die, their eyes are not black anymore…??
③ 金髪 (kinpatsu) means “blond hair”.
To be accurate, Japanese 金髪 (kinpatsu) is a little different from blond.
When Japanese people try to change the hair color to blond, eventually it becomes gold.
But we call Westerners’ blond 金髪 (kinpatsu), too.
④ 赤道 (sekidoo) means “equator”.
I guess it’s because red color is used in a map, maybe??
Again, about hair color, recently, some dogs have strange “hair color” in Japan.
The hair salon where I usually go has a “hair color course for pets”, too.
What poor dogs! (>_<)