Gyaru hot takes

 

Hey, welcome back,

Today I feel like talking about some of my gal hot takes... or maybe lukewarm takes? anyway deffo just takes, I will take questions, so let's get into it:

If you're new to makeup, don't jump straight to Gal.

Ok, I don't know how hot this one is, but I will fight for this one till the day I die. I love that you want to try gal, but in no way is it a beginner-friendly makeup style, at least in my humble onion yk. Like this shit requires at least a good knowledge of how to apply products to your face and deffo when using tuts, especially of people with asian features, how to translate that to none asian fetures, which is not as easy as people think it is. Please, before you start, learn how to do a basic make, learn your basics; it will help you so much. 

JP Gals aren't the Gospel, listen to gaijin Vets.

Jp gals are the og and we should always listen to them, but that doesn't mean any jp gal is correct on all things gal. The gaijin vets know their shit, I promise, especially the older vets from the 2000s and 2010s, from before all the resources we newer gals rely on existed. 

On that note, don't stop fetishising gal.

And I don't mean in a sexual way, btw. I feel like, especially among younger gals (age-wise), there's a massive problem with fetishising SE Asia in general. Gal wasn't always glamorous. Japan isn't some amazing place, and nor is South Korea or China. There's a difference between fetishisation and appreciation of a place, I think some of y'all need to learn that.

Big influencers aren't shit, listen and follow people for what they say/ that inspire you, not just coz they have a following

This is self-explanatory, really, but a big following means fuck all when it comes to the accuracy of info or skill in make, what it means is 1. They have time to post a lot and 2. They know how to work an algorithm. Now it's more them ok to follow all the gals you see (I do that), but I'd also somehow narrow down the ones you really like for inspo or info, as that's how you get inspired and informed.

Gal is mind has done too much damage. Can we stop, please.

Loalo's xoxo was always better anyway. But honestly, the idea of gal is mind has done too much damage to the comm, like no your not gal just coz you're sociable. Gal mind is something to complete the look, you're not gal if all you have is mind, but to be truly gal, the make has to be accompanied by the mind yk.

Stop looking for validation and live your life; being a stereotype won't make you more gal.

This is a big one to me at the moment. I feel like a lot of younger gals and baby gals look for validation or the whole "do I read gal" or, in general look for validation from others for everything they do to a point where everyone is striving to be the same stereotypical gal look and this all leads back into only 3 styles of gal being accepted as gal and everyone trying to fall into said 3 styles. Like, have some originality, people, live your life, take concrit but live your life.

If you can't do your own research, get out of gal.

I'm being fully serious btw. Speaking from experience, I only got good at gal when I deep dived on my own, I stopped asking for everything and just did stuff. If you can't research simple questions like "where can I get good lenses" or "where to get clothes," please either learn to think or just get out. This is my "me being mean" one, yes, but also I don't see anyone who can't do their own research ever staying in gal. Now, mind feel free to double confirm your research or ask people's opinions on something, but the constant "can I be gyaru if" posts are tiering.

I asked some Readers and friends, here are some of their and my opinions:

And for a little key, R in this context for the reader, aka the sender, and T stands... well, for Toxicc, aka me.

Fast fashion brands aren’t terrible if you aren’t regularly consuming

T: The statement is complete at that lol. And I have to agree if I'm honest, you can consume fast fashion in a sustainable way, buying a haul one or two times a year and wearing those clothes till they fall apart (and fixing them along the way) is not bad, massive hauls weekly/monthly are. This can go for slow fashion too, if you're constantly trend-hopping and buying clothes (even from "sustainable" brands), that's bad. This issue isn't black and white. Please stop treating it so.

I think people under 14/15 shouldn’t be gal

R: I just think that so many substyles are based around being sexy, so kids shouldn’t do it, but substyles such as amekaji and hime or himekaji, I think, would be fine now that I think about it. High schoolers, I feel, are different. Once you're about 16 or 17, you understand more and have more personal style. It is very complicated because at the same time, no one should police style

T: I would say under 16 if I'm honest. But I agree it is a complicated issue, I think it's OK for younger people to be gal-inspired without being fully gal too. Kinda like the stereotypical image of kogyaru (See street snap below), I think I would be fine with it for younger people, but all the heavy makeup of the other styles, outside of just strong makeup stuff, is also just so bad for your skin at the time, among other issues, I think, can happen to a young person mentally. 

credit to Tokyofashion.com

Egg is cute, but also terrible

R: My hot take is how egg is cute but at the same time is terrible and lowk the main source of gal being watered down and enforcing one main gal look that makes the masses say you're not gyaru without lashes, lenses, etc. Like, egg single-handedly took young girls fighting beauty standards and went yeah, we should sexualise this.

T: I honestly agree, egg was never a bastion of morals imo (see the whole egg used to be a porn magazine thing), but especially with new egg and its myriad controversies, I think it is time we ditch them and simply support the models on their own pages.

You don't always need a droop, or at least not a prominent one

R: You don't need a droop, and it's way better to start with a droop made of eyeshadow, so babygals don't go through the awkward phase I did, lit like the gals who say you either NEED lashes OR a tan and if you don't do either, you're half assing and not gyaru (lowk they only think banba and ott hime and agejo are the only styles of make). Yeah, like if you got the lashes or tan, it's super common in heisei gal mags to go just thick liner and mascara in banba, and shadow droops are really common in both hime, himekaji and onee

T: Now, mind I am a big lover of the droop, but this is also such a true statement, like not every gal needs a super prominent droop, the sweet styles exist, and they still have the look without massive droops, I agree that peeps need to stop putting (ya)manba like make on everything, and this kinda links back to my stereotype take. 

Some new people don't like gyaru

R: "How can I be gyaru? btw I despise the feeling of makeup and don't want to wear anything that'd attract attention, and I don't really like any of these other features and-" like I think you just don't like gyaru and that's fine, but like idk I don't understand some of the threads lol.

T: This is so real if Im honest, to steal a quote from my friend, "Some people are just normal, and that's fine". Like in the age of aesthetics and labels, everyone wants to be something unique, and I think that's wrong, like some people just aren't all, and that's fine.

 I just think gal as it is, is too stagnant

R: A lot of vet gals believe in this preservation of the heisei era without any room for change & it becomes too much of an obsession with policing every single little detail with just regular gals (I saw someone say that not all piercings are gal for each substyle when ganguros / kurogals used to sometimes wear hime so it doesn’t rlly matter tbf) & I think a lot of baby gals legit refuse to listen & are too stubborn to improve bc they’re so young & uninformed & think that gal is just like a huge white droop & that’s it, I think that’s the main issue between vets & babygals it creates this cycle of like ‘oh I’m too stubborn to change’ vs ‘I’m too stubborn to accept any change.

T: Now I must admit that I've not seen what this person is referring to myself, especially when it comes to the behaviour of vets, but overall I agree that gal feels very stagnant atm, but I think that's more down to us as a whole not innovating or in general trending towards more toned down makes. Reiwa era gal is not helping either, as I do take inspo from many reiwa gals. I think if gal makes a prober come back and we get more magazines back, this will mostly go away as we see people in said magazines experiment more and as more trends get absorbed into gal again.

We need to normalise not buying old brands, especially if it's scalped, and if it doesn't fit.

R: I've seen too many gals of all shapes and heights buying stuff they will never wear at outrageous prices. We need to start giving our money to seamstresses who can make us custom clothes that fit us comfortably, have better quality, and cost less than most of these brand pieces at resale price.

T: I agree with this, and it's why I have always wished any gal starting a brand all the luck and success with their brands. I think we as a whole need to stop paying scalpers and let the market fall, like I don't think wanting vintage pieces is bad (hell, I would kill for an Alba coat in one of my 2 dream colourways in all its stinking of piss and fags glory), but thinking you need all this falling apart polyester vintage clothing to be gal is also so wrong. D.i.a coming back gave me hope (pls dont ask me my thoughts on the d.i.a revival, I will cry) and with Mars trying to come back to gal too.... maybe there's hope, but for now i beg everyone to use your imagination and buy new cloths that arent falling apart, buy from small brands or wherever else you can it really isnt worth getting all this hyper inflated falling apart old fast fashion.

More gals need to focus on doing more diy

R: More gals need to focus on doing more diy and accessorising not only their outfits but their possessions as well. Diying adds a lot of personalisation you can get without things getting lost in translation and understanding, and it gives items in your daily life a lot more character.

T: This is also very true imo. I don't have much to add to this, but I love seeing people ask where gals got something, and the answer is just "oh, I diyed it". Get to doing some crafts (fun fact I originally spelt this as cruffts... like the UK dog show.. someone please send help, the autism it has taken over lol) and diy everyone likes rn.

Question for next post: What's your gal hot take?

Polish word of the day: Opinia

Meaning opinion, coz like assholes we all have one.

 Do zobaczenja <3

With thanks to TokyoFashion.com for the snap and Amyh for Blog Deco

Hey so Internet died again huh aka Gyaru fatigue

 

Hey, welcome back,

So I died on the internet again, aka gyaru fatigue. Now let me start this off by saying I love gal I'm still gal and that this will be mostly a quick type out my feelings check for anything that pops up marked as a mistake by gramerly and post kinda post so dont expect anything too coheasive or amazing... basically what im trying to say is this is kind of like a vent post and an update and a topic I wanna talk about all in one. Basically know my mood writing this is a bit:

So wait... Gyaru fatigue?

Yep, gyaru fatigue. Well, also online fatigued, but most deffo gyaru fatigue. Something I don't think I've actually seen anyone publicly talk about, but feel free to prove me wrong. I do, however, think it's something most of us have experienced, especially if you've been doing gyaru for years (I can only imagine how bad the older vets get it). I have kinda been dead on all platforms coz idk life or something, but I do check in, and I see it with people trying out gal too in a different way too (yes, this is yet another rant inspired by something on reddit), and I guess I just wanna talk about it from my, I guess technically almost vet (scaryyyy) perspective I guess.

Baby gyaru fatigue?

Yes. This is the one I think is going to be most complicated, I think, coz it's a bit of a double-edged sword, on one side there's genuine fatigue of learning something, on the other side there's the people who crash tf out over minor concrit. Now, this is the part which was inspired by Reddit once more, so let me get started with that first and the paragraph that made me think about this:

"I understand that this community can sound harsh but it is a reflection on people's willingness to offer detailed advice only for it to be repeatedly ignored and dismissed by OP."

Obviously, this is out of context, but I hope you can pick up the context needed for this, coz I have spoken on this before. This was my reply to it on the original post:

"...that last paragraph is so true. People need to start remembering that part of gal has always been the girls rebaling and that included against the Japanese societal expectation of having no opinion on anything or being overly polite to a point of nothing ever being said. Gals are blunt not out of being mean (which is a stereotype that also needs to die) but out of care.

I speak for myself as someone's who's been here for what almost 4 years now (I've lost track lol) but the comms willingness to give anyone and everyone concrit at the drop of a hat is admirable, I genuinely don't know any other comm like this and part of why I honestly left is the same reasons many og vets did too and that's all the effort we put into trying to bring people like op up and to help them be the best version of themselves be thrown back in our face, not even by people not following our advice but by ops attitude and pretending were putting them down. Like we all have bad days hell I've crashed tf out out of frustration coz of a wall I just couldn't break through for a while and getting the same concrit it happens but you also then can't be shocked when it backfires really."

 And I think for the most part that really does sum up my feelings on at least this part of baby gal fatigue. I know how it feels to be bombarded by concrit, and I know it can get overwhelming, but if I learned anything from when I first started gal in 2022, it's that even if it gets rough, just 1. say no concrit pls and 2. just log off. I know it's the most overused basic advice, but it's true, like don't crash out over makeup, take a day offline, and when you calm down, come back and read what was said again, and even if you don't agree, try to appreciate that the comm cares enough about wanting everyone, including you to succeed to go out their way to help. Every gal you've ever seen will have been given concrit, it's how we go from looking like this:

Me circa 2022

To this:

Me circa. 2026

We do not go from one to the second with no concrit, tho reaserch is also important. Even when we hit that one wall of being stagnant before it all finally hits, and the make massivley improves, all we can do is just keep at it. Speaking of...

Baby gyaru fatigue: Hitting the wall

I think we can all remember when we hit a wall, not just in gal but in any hobby, where it seems like no matter what we do, we just can't seem to improve, and that really is a frustrating time, and I think this is when a lot of people who try gal simply quit. I do have mixed feelings on this, as on one hand I do think a lot of these people who post like 1 or 2 makes and then nothing else before after a month or two, making a huge "Im leaving gal" post, were never really Gyaru to begin with, just people chasing a trend (but that's another topic, if anyone wants that lmk), but on the other hand, there's a few people whos journy I truly have been invested in who just disapeared after obviouslly hitting that wall and that makes me sad lowkey, like again Ive been there I think we all have, its a frustraiting discouraging time and I know i wanted to quit during it too. My advice for this is don't, don't quit gal, if you do truly love it. Take a month or a few off if it's impacting you negatively in any way, and then come back bigger and better, and I genuinely think that will make you improve. It's like the idea of forgetting everything you know about xyz and starting again as if you are a beginner; it really does open you up to getting better. I know this section isn't really that long, but that's my truth, really. If you're reading this feeling like this, I just want you to know you've got this.

Gyaru fatigue

So we made it to the meat and potatoes of the post, and that's Gyaru fatigue in none baby gals, I would call it vet gal fatigue, but I don't feel like that's accurate, tho I do think this is more of a thing for vets and people close to being vets. I touched on it in that comment I quoted, but sometimes with the current state of the gal comm, it all does just become very fatiguing (is that a word?). Now I say this as a still relative newbie to the comm, I can only sympathise with the og vets who have been here for years on end, but I hope Im not speaking for them in all this. Now I do love giving people concrit, I love watching people improve, I love gal, but man, is it all tiring. It kinda lops back to the first part of this post and to the people who are just so opposed to concrit that they crash out calling us all mean and bitchy, like again I do get getting frustrated, but sometimes it does feel like we go out of our way to help you improve (which we're not obliged to do) just to have it thrown in our face.. it sucks. add to it in general seeing the same missinfo, us making recources that go unused in favour of tiktoks spouting bs, people seemingly not being willing to learn, people not wanting to reaserch their own answers (I will crash out the next time I see the same "where to get gyaru magazines", "what makeup to get for gal" or "what substyle should I be" post I swear) which are easily found. Like ik that at least r/actualgyaru has a whole QnA post with all this stuff, hell, if you search your question in the subreddit, you will probably find it, it all makes me think of this one post I commented on the other day (was I being a bit mean yea I'll admit it) where someone posted this exact image asking where they can find lenses like this:

 From PinkyParadise.com

And I think my response sums up exactly where I think I and many long-term gals are at mentally right now: 

"If you look at your own picture you posted you will see the pinkyparadise.com watermark. That may be a clue that pinkyparadise.com has those exact lenses"

 Now again, was I a bit mean? Sure, but I hope you guys can understand why.

So what now?

Honestly, I don't know.

I wish I had something else to end this with, coz I know this is probably a bit depressing of an ending for the post, but honestly, I don't think there's much we can do about any of this. I think a lot of it is us just being human, we all get tired eventually, but the one thing that I know is online validation, or even just being online, a gal doesn't make, living does. I do also think that we all need to have a bit more understanding for people in other parts of their gal journey on both ends, before you crash out about being given concrit, stop and think about why you're being given it and appreciate why it might be given, and you're a vet, well, appreciate people are trying to get into this culture that we love.

I don't even really know how to end this properly. Again, this is more a vent than anything else, but I do hope this resonates with someone and lets them know this is normal and you're not the only one feeling this. Feel free to send questions or anything else, in its always appreciated, but for now this is the end of the post, I guess... 

 Do zobaczenja <3

With thanks to Amyh for Blog Deco