No Makeup In Japanese School?
 

Is it true that your not allowed to wear makeup in a japanese school? I mean not even a little?

I am sure every school is different, but at the high school I worked at no makeup, jewelry, or dyed hair was allowed.

It does depend on the school. The one I attended banned makeup, jewelery, and there was a group of students (風紀員会) whose main job was to go around with a ruler and check skirt lengths. If it was too short, you were suspended. :D
If they caught you OUTSIDE of school even, you would be in deep trouble.

:eek: That sounds ridiculous!

For a Japanese school - not at all. They hand out rule books covering the expected behavior in school, and the expected behavior OUT of school. It`s normal. As the behavior of the students reflects upon the entire school - it matters. This is why you`ll see high school teachers apologizing for the actions of a graduate YEARS after they`ve graduated. It all comes back to the image of the school... And students actually care about this.

It's true at my school. No makeup, no jewelry, and no dyed hair either. Girls tend to push the limit by shortening their skirts, and boys tend to wear baggier fitting clothes as a way of "expressing themselves".

Girls tend to roll up their skirts a little bit more once they are out of sight of the school. Some schools have taken to using one-piece uniforms for girls, which makes shortening the skirt more trouble than it's worth (though some girls have figured out how to do it).

The only young people I see with makeup, dyed hair, and the like are the "yanki" kids. These are the "ghetto" folk of Japan. They are usually part of the poorer class, and many are dropouts.

It still sounds a bit ridiculous to me... Image is just as important in England for most schools (if not more for certain, lets say, upper class or religious schools), but they don't go around punishing pupils that misbehave outside of school unless it's something very bad... like a fight, or mistreating the bus driver etc!

Hah! Clearly never knew anyone at my school then. >.>; Totally been amongst the girls yelled at outside of school for 'bad image'.

Many schools in the US are beginning to have the rules banning dyed hair and jewelry. I don't think its fair because some jewelry is not simple ornamentation, such as religious medals. These are usually exempt, so those whose faith does not endorse such things are the only ones without jewelry. It has been put forth as a way to deter gang symbols, along with not allowing any apparel with writing. The enforcement is doomed to be problematic and result in court suits (already happening).

In the 1960s after the marketing of mini-skirts, it was a common for us to have to kneel on the floor to check our hem lines. If the skirt didn't brush the floor, we were sent home to change and penalized. But there were a lot of waistbands being rolled up between the random inspections.

The funniest was a school I went to in Mississippi. We were issued these hideous one-piece dark red cotton jumpsuits. The bottom half had bloomers with elastic in the hems instead of shorts. They were the worst things I have ever seen a female have to wear! One weekend we rebelled and my entire class took there suits home ("to be washed") and made alterations. All of removed the elastic in the legs and then we added decorations according to our own tastes. I simply added a white eyelet ruffle to the loosed hem of the pant legs. The school was not happy, but with all of the 8th grade girls doing it together decided against punishment and left us alone. Strength in numbers sometimes works.

The school I went to in the British Isles would issue punishments for misbehaving outside of school. It wasn't the only school to do this either. I think pretty much all local schools would do this to some level. If you were in uniform then you were representing the school and should behave accordingly. In your normal clothes though you were free to misbehave as you liked (within reason).

Wow, then what would have been allowed can still be pretty short!

I am so happy to have gone to a normal US high school. Both males and females could were a single pair of earrings. Make-up allowed in moderation (no clowns!). Skirts had to be knee length, but girls rarely wore them at my school.

I believe the matter with students reflecting on their schools, whether or not they are currently at the school, is part of the Japanese "group mentality". A very foreign concept to Americans where we have a strong individuality. Rarely would a school in the US publicly take responsibility for a shortcoming of a student, especially out of school.

Yeah, that was the same in our school too. It was a pretty rough school so kids did all sorts when they were out of uniform and classes, but if they were in their uniform at all - even at lunch hours or when school was over - then they could be punished. We didn't have the rule about skirt lengths or make-up though like other posters, but all jewellery was banned except sikh karas and studded earings. I guess it was similar to a Japanese school really, only not so strict :p

I would be happy when my school would make rules of no make-up and too much jewerly. Because it is ugly to see little girls with hideous make-up. But I wouldn´t be happy of NO dyeing! I don´t like my natural color and beside blond suits me better.

When I first started high-school, literally EVERYTHING was regulated. Hair-ties had to be black, grey or raspberry pink thin bands, and nothing else, so alice bands were banned. Same with socks, which were ankle high, and only white socks were allowed to be knee high. All girls had to wear skirts to the knee and you couldn't even buy trousers. Shoes had to be black lace ups and the heels were frequently measured to make sure you weren't cheating on the "2cm or less" rule. Juniors couldn't even walk through certain entrances as the seniors, and even the seniors were banned from the main doors, which were reserved for staff and 6th formers. Oh, and if you were caught with say, a t-shirt on under your school shirt, or a non-school sweatshirt on over it, that was against the rules too.

You could wear silver or gold stud earrings, no hoops, nothing dangly and no other jewelry unless you got a letter from your parents confirming it was for religious reasons. No makeup and no 'unnaturally dyed hair'. So you could dye your hair, provided nobody noticed you'd dyed it.

It changed a lot in the time I was there, like the hair tie thing, and we protested and were allowed trousers eventually, but I think they still use the door system, and the make-up and jewelry still seems pretty strict.

And this was all since the turn of the millenium at a non-religious middle-class school. :D Happy days!

I think I was lucky.
My highschool was pretty uncaring about these things.
We had a dress code like any other school, but the only thing they band were disrespectful cloths, and you couldn't dye your hair, say pink or something like that..

Which I think was a smart thing. When you place all these restrictions on kids, like most schools are starting to do now, It makes kids want to rebel. Makes them want to wear shorter skirts, and dye their hair. If the people running the schools didn't make such a big deal about those sorts of things, they would never have any problems with it.. people at my school rarely did things wrong, and everyone was much happier when they could choose there own clothes. It never affected out grade..Hell we were the highest ranked highschool in the state for three years in a row.

And we didn't have problems with our students outside of the school. Everyone was pretty chill. Without all the restrictions at the school kids didn't feel the need to rebel so much, so gangs/drugs/ anything like that was pretty scarce.