With tiny shower caps to protect the ears, he colours the hair with bare hands, coating strands with electric blue from the roots that ombre into HOT pink. Music from Hiromi Iwasaki and Bo Ningen playing in the background, there is minimal talk.
Contrary to a Western trope of the chatty Hairdresser, Keisuke takes a much more silent approach. First wet and then again when dry and styled, his scissors dance down the hair lengths effortlessly, with calm and meticulous concentration. Keisuke’s day began with a cooked breakfast of fried sausage and omelette. Leading up to our conversation he has been preparing his Salon for the upcoming opening, collaborating with friends to embellish the magenta walls that mark his studio. Next to him sits friend and client Azumi Yamashita, who very kindly assisted the translation of this interview. As an accessory designer she met Keisuke while working in the fashion shop next to his old salon in London. The two got chatting and became close from there. “I was very interested in his professional attitude,” she says, “the girls that used to do my hair were very good, but when Keisuke did it, he was a different level.”
Born and raised in Japan, he trained at a local hairdressers in
Yamaguchi, from the ages of 9 to 24. He then moved to
Osaka to continue training and work at salon
LIM (‘Less Is More’). Here, he recounts a very intense and disciplined program.
For 6 days a week he’d start at 7am practising skills till the Salon opened at 10, then would work until 9pm, before practicing again until midnight. “In Japan clients often pick their hair stylist based on if they’re good-looking, or dressed trendy” he states. He describes his experience of the Japanese beauty industry being very ‘superficial’ and ‘snobbish’, particularly noting rigid perceptions of ‘female’ and ‘male’ hairstyle binaries. So in 2019 he decided to move to
LIM’s London branch, hoping to find more depth and connection.
His relationship with his clients is very personal and developing trust and understanding is important to him. When offered to work at a high-end salon he rejected it on the basis that his existing clients wouldn’t be able to afford the higher prices “I like cutting the same people’s hair”, he says.
In 2020
LIM London closed down due to Covid. Having already built up a loyal customer base, these relationships enabled him to carry-on working from outside people’s homes throughout Lockdown. “I was very grateful that – although I had to work around the limitations of not having all my salon equipment – people still invited me to their homes to style their hair.”
If anything this experience strengthened his connection with his clients, as he goes on to say, “it made me feel like we were all going through this difficult time together.” Being able to continue working with these people was one of the main reasons Keisuke wanted to stay in the UK. However getting a working Visa as a Japanese person is no easy task, “especially for Hairdressers” he says. “If you work in the fashion industry and do session work (preparing models, celebrities or actors for a catwalk, shoot or red carpet,) you can get a sponsor from agencies, but salons don’t generally give out sponsorships.”
Despite this, Keisuke met his new business partner and sponsor last year. Shiraz works in construction and owns property around London, including the shop next to
LIM, where the two met. “We are co-owners of the Salon,” says Keisuke, “he provides me with a space and takes care of management, and I do the creative side. I’m not good at calculating money and doing paperwork, so having Shiraz to do that is very good for me.” This is where we find him today. There is not yet an official name for the salon or any signage on the street; appointments are booked mainly through word-of-mouth or Instagram.
One of his favourite bands (featured heavily on his salon playlist) is
Bo Ningen, a Japanese ‘experimental psychedelic punk’ band based in London. “When I moved to London, and even a bit now, I really couldn’t speak English. When I went to their gig, they were playing with Japanese lyrics but a lot of english people watching thought they were amazing” he says. Although he states “I don’t like the Japanese beauty industry”, Japanese culture is an important influence and something he is very proud to share through his work.
Keisuke says he generally finds musicians and their artform relatable. Commercial elements can tie in with the personal and experimental, with both involving the pressures of “performing live”. Since he started working as a freelancer, he describes himself as a ‘haircraftsman,’ situating him somewhere between a commercial hairdresser and artist.