{"id":121489,"date":"2019-06-05T14:56:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T05:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?p=121489&lang=en"},"modified":"2019-06-07T10:11:55","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T01:11:55","slug":"shiki-hair-salon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/shiki-hair-salon\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiki Hair Salon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After spending more than ten years working in London and Tokyo, Fukuoka local Hiro Nagaoka has returned to his roots and recently opened Shiki Hair Salon in Kiyokawa, a rather quiet neighborhood just off of Watanabe-dori in south Tenjin and just minutes on foot from Watanabe-dori Subway Sta. The area is best known amongst locals for its bars and restaurants, so one might be surprised to find a hair salon on the second floor of the Lassic building, a former apartment building and now home to small creative offices. The entrance is tucked away off the back of a parking lot but easily recognizable by a huge, colorful mural.<\/p>\n

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Once inside the salon, customers are greeted by a warmly lit interior, thanks to the low-hanging incandescent light bulbs that complement the chic industrial interior. White walls are offset with partitions of concrete, and colorful art pieces – created by a friend of Hiro\u2019s – add a modern and personalized touch. In stark contrast to the urban salon, a sliding shutter that encompasses the back wall of the small space opens up to reveal a gorgeous view of the Naka River, giving a peaceful, sanctuary-like atmosphere to the place. <\/p>\n

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Hiro Nagaoka, the owner of Shiki Hair Salon, wants everyone to feel welcome here, and thanks to his easy-going personality, you\u2019ll feel immediately at ease. His philosophy is simple: hair is an expression of the self – much like clothes are a form of showing one\u2019s personality, your hair should do the same. Thus, the name Shiki came about, as the word can mean both ‘color’ or ‘four seasons’ in Japanese, this duality reflecting his ideology perfectly. Seasons have their colors, much like people are all unique and characters come in all shades and nuances. Hiro values a personal approach, taking care to get to know his clients to give them the best possible consultation and service and to help let their colors shine. <\/p>\n

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Years of experience at various salons in both Japan and London have brought him to this point. Having honed his craft at the famed Vidal Sassoon Academy<\/a> in London, he continued to expand his knowledge and techniques at other well-known salons such as Radio<\/a>, as well as gigs at London Fashion Week<\/a> and working on photo shoots – it\u2019s safe to say that Hiro can handle any hair type. Whether Asian, Western, African, straight, curly, smooth, or coarse, he is able to offer advice (in fluent English) on care, styling, and of course, give suitable cuts and treatments. He also offers a variety of perms, straightening, color and color placement such as Balayage, a special technique for highlighting hair to make it look multidimensional and naturally sunkissed – it\u2019s not easy to find this service in Japan, but it\u2019s a favorite among Western celebrities. When it comes to color, Hiro relies on Olaplex<\/a>, a hair protecting product which Western professionals swear has revolutionized hair dyeing, but most Japanese salons still don\u2019t know about. <\/p>\n

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Hiro employs both Japanese and western techniques, depending on customers\u2019 wants and needs. Japanese hairdressers tend to have a very laissez-faire approach to cutting hair, which is why styles are often a little messy and feathery in appearance, while the European technique is much more clean, prioritizing lines and layers, regardless of whether the cut is modern or classic. Hiro relies on mainly imported products to achieve the perfect hairstyle, such as products from Italian company Organic Way<\/a>, or O-Way. As the name indicates, the products are all organic, using a high concentration of botanical ingredients grown at the company\u2019s farm estate of Ortofficina in Bologna. This results in biodynamically grown, fair-trade, and low-waste products that are not only effective but also smell absolutely divine. <\/p>\n

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I can happily attest to this as my hair felt silky smooth after my cut and hours later at dinner, two women I had never met before complimented my haircut and proceeded to smell my hair for a good five minutes! I went in for a simple cut, but what I got out of the experience was so much more. After offering me a selection of drinks such as tea, coffee, cappuccino (from his Italian DeLonghi machine), we talked about the look I wanted to achieve. It was nice to be able to communicate with Hiro in pera-pera<\/em> English, and he quickly understood the aesthetic I was going for. I hadn\u2019t come in with an idea of what I wanted, but he soon discovered what suits me. <\/p>\n

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As he washed and cut my hair, we bonded over stories of travels, fashion, art, music, and food, exchanging tips and anecdotes. Despite his impressive resum\u00e9, he doesn\u2019t put on airs, and he is warm, engaging, and interested; I felt immediately comfortable like I was already a regular customer. When it came to styling, I realized not just the haircare products at Shiki are top-notch, so are the styling tools. Hiro uses the Dyson Supersonic hairdryer and GHD heat stylers – basically the Ferraris of hair appliances. After drying and styling, Hiro made his final touches, trimming and adding any last touches where necessary – truly a perfectionist in the best sense. <\/p>\n

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I fully appreciate the careful and considerate service, and this, according to Hiro, is all the validation he needs. \u201cHelping people to express their personality through hair and walking out of Shiki Hair Salon feeling relaxed and happy is the best feeling; that\u2019s what makes me happy,\u201d he said in his soft, sincere voice.<\/p>\n

Oh, and yes, he does gents hair too!<\/p>\n

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Shiki Hair Salon<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Mon. ~ Wed.: 10:00~21:00, Fri. & Sat.: 10:00~22:00, Sun.: 10:00~20:00
\n\u2022 Closed: Thu. & 3rd Tue.
\n\u2022 2-A Lassic, 2-1-21 Kiyokawa, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka<\/a>
\n\u2022 Access: 10 min. on foot from Watanabe-dori Subway Sta., 12 min. on foot from Nishitetsu Yakuin Sta., 4 min. on foot from Nishitetsu Yanagibashi bus stop, 4 min. on foot from Nishitetsu Watanabe-dori 1-chome FM Fukuoka bus stop. Public parking is available nearby.
\n\u2022 092-791-1611<\/a>
\n\u2022 info@shikihairsalon.com
\n\u2022 https:\/\/shikihairsalon.com\/<\/a> <\/p>\n

Report by Julie Scheurl for Fukuoka Now<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After spending more than ten years working in London and Tokyo, Fukuoka local Hiro Nagaoka has returned to his roots and recently opened Shiki Hair Salon in Kiyokawa, a rather quiet neighborhood just off of Watanabe-dori in south Tenjin and just minutes on foot from Yakuin Subway Station. The area is best known amongst locals for its bars and restaurants, so one might be surprised to find…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27918,"featured_media":121552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"121489","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4910],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty-health","location-chuo-ku","en-US"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/shiki-salon-fukuoka-WEB-001.jpg?fit=1400%2C933&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121713,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121489\/revisions\/121713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}