This seems to be one of those most difficult questions that gaijin gals (gyaru) face; how can we still be gal if we go to school/college/uni/work? It is extremely high maintenance, and in some places it’s not acceptable to be caked up in makeup.
Life as a student is… Difficult. I’ve had months where I just slipped on my glasses and grabbed a t-shirt and jeans before heading out of the door. Sometimes I didn’t even bother getting dressed and worked in front of my computer at home with a cup of (relatively strong) coffee next to me. I’m amazed how some people manage to party all night and drink their money away with all the stuff they have to do but I guess they have the time and money for it.
How does gal fit into this busy schedule of mine? I’m not going to lie but I’ve had a lot of difficulty with it and yet I managed to pull through. It’s been two years since I’ve started uni so I decided to write up a little “how-to” post for those going into uni/college/work! Please note that I’m only going to underline the basics, it’s up to you to adapt these to your gal style.
Table of Contents
01. Save up
Save up as much as you can, especially now that you’re going to uni. Most of you are probably in a completely new area and have to pay bills that you never had to pay at home (rent, food, petrol, uni supplies etc) so the best thing is to cut down the amount you spend on gal. Do you really need that new MA*RS set? Or new lashes even though you’ve already got hundreds of them already?
For the first year at uni I really was a budget gal (I only recently started buying MA*RS now that I have a job on the side). If you want to know more about being gal on a budget then please click here to be redirected to my other post.
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| The “Points System”; An effective way to save up! Go onto my Gyaru On A Budget blog post to find out more |
02. Plan ahead
Planning ahead saves up a lot of time and effort getting ready for uni, especially if it’s going to be a rainy/snowy /generally horrible day! I normally look up the weather report for the next few days so that I could plan my outfit that will then help me decide what I want for my hair and makeup.
It also helps out when you know what’s in and what’s out of the wash, because what’s the point of planning an outfit right before you have to go out of the door if an item is in the wash? Then you’ll just have to figure it out again which means you’ll be late for uni.
With all of your hair accessories, makeup tools and outfit ready for you in the morning then helps cut down time, and soon enough you’ll get used to this routine and can probably be ready within the hour.
03. Do “simple” makeup & hair styles
I know I sound like a granny when saying this but doing easy hair and makeup really does help when going to uni. I mean, who really wants to get up at the crack of dawn just to spend a two hours in uni looking good? That’s valuable sleeping time!
I can just hear you say, “Well how am I supposed to look gal with as little hair styling/makeup as possible?” That, ladies, can be easily solved by taking examples from Jelly* and Happie NUTS*. Onee gyaru and other gyaru kei styles are perfect for those gaijin gals who don’t have as much time as they want to to get ready (in my opinion) so it’s great for uni. I’ve created a blog post where I’ve collected all of those “simple” gyaru makeup and hair styles.
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| Click here for easy gyaru tutorials! |
03. It’s all about the fluffy lashes
Most gyaru brands nowadays feature very toned down lashes so it wouldn’t be difficult to find some, and here are my favourite places to buy gyaru lashes. The fluffier the lashes, the easier they would be to work with little to no eye shadow.
Obviously you don’t have to get fluffy, un-dramatic lashes (I tend to wear dramatic lashes when I can be bothered) but in my opinion, these type of lashes are great for everyday wear where you don’t want to go full-on with makeup but still look good.
04. Tone down on the clothes
Luckily at university you can be quite flexible with what you wear, but with school… Not so much. I’d say stick to your uniform if you do have one and just do really simple hair and makeup (mentioned above), and save your flashier, more beautiful clothes for special occassions and gyaru meets! I made the mistake of wearing all of my really pretty clothes at the beginning of my university year as I was so excited to be out of a uniform, and so they no longer were “special enough” for going out.
05. Look at as many mags as poss
I know I’m not really supposed to say this but… Downloading gal magazines helped me a lot, both for uni and for gal in general. I normally get my scans from Zasshiko but another way to get your hands on them if you don’t want to download them is to hop onto Tumblr! There are quite a few users who would post gal mag scans (like me, for example) so there’s an endless amount of inspiration on there! I do try to get my hands on the physical copy wherever possible, and I usually get them secondhand from Gyaru Sales on Facebook.
I guess that’s all I have on my “guide”. These were all of the pointers that I stuck to whilst at uni and have carried onto my work place, so hopefully they’ll be useful to you as well! I know that it’s not a dreadfully detailed post but gal just has so many sub-styles that it was impossible to cover absolutely everything.
Useful Bits & Pieces
- Gyaru On A Budget
- Back To School Kogyaru Makeup Tutorial
- Easy Gyaru Hair + Makeup Tutorials
- Gyaru Lashes + Where To Buy Them
If you got any more questions about this then please don’t hesitate to comment below! I’m more than happy to help, especially if you’re going onto your first year at uni 😀
Lizzie Bee xx / facebook /twitter / instagram / bloglovin’
*Although these magazines were at the prime at the time of this post, most of them have ceased to exist but you can still find old scans via Google/Tumblr/Zasshiko.
What do you think?