
The Geisha Stylist Who Let His Hair DownBy Anthony Faiola / Washington Post Foreign Service / Tuesday, August 17, 2004; Page C01
KYOTO, Japan -- Here in the Gion geisha district of Japan's ancient capital, even one bad hair day can cost a girl her career. So it is no wonder that Tetsuo Ishihara is the man with the most popular hands in town.
The only man among Kyoto's last five keppatsu-shi, or hairdressers to the geisha, Ishihara is the coiffeur king of the most celebrated of the pleasure quarters surviving from old Japan. But his willingness to blab the secrets of his trade, as he has done in four TV documentaries, three books and his own DVD, has not sat well with many of the people who practice the ancient art of crafting hairstyles that to many Japanese are loaded with sexual suggestion.