poupee was a 2019 musumeyaku feature in GRAPH where musumeyaku did their own styling for a photoshoot, based on keywords which were assigned randomly. Senna’s was published in the February issue.
poupee – Senna Ayase
Two categories, ‘taste’ and ‘hairstyle’ were assigned randomly!
The Top Musumeyaku are challenged to use those 2 keywords to style themselves.
taste:
Classical Retro Cute Cool Pop Sweet Exotic Traditional Stylish Gorgeous
hairstyle:
Ponytail Buns Braids Half-up Down
Ayase’s selection: Cool & Braids
About the portrait theme
Braids are strongly connected to the idea of pigtails, so I thought it wouldn’t mix well with the cool aesthetic, but I thought that is what would be fun. I’ve wanted to challenge myself with a cool portrait for a while, so I used simple colors in a bold way, I just wanted to make something that looked good. For the hairstyle, I didn’t just do plain braids, but tried to arrange it in a way where it feels like “Oh, if you look closely there’s braids in there!”
About today’s hairstyle and makeup
I don’t usually do hair arrangements that use plain, neat braids: I’ll use them to hide my parting line or make the plaits relaxed and loose. Today’s hairstyle was also made with braids done randomly and then piled softly on top of my head. I also braided up my bangs a bit at a time and put them up. I think the main point of it is that I was selecting the amount of hair in each section randomly. I always pay careful attention to the balance when I’m arranging my hair, so I could never replicate this style (laughs). I also wanted to give a cool impression with the makeup, so first I used a brown liner on my upper and lower waterline, and then used a black eyeliner going up and out at the corners of my eyes. For my lips I used a bold red and tried overdrawing my natural lip shape a bit.
Advice for people who want to do braided hair arrangements
Even if you can’t do complicated woven patterns, if you can just do three-strand braids the possibilities are endless! Even when you’re just doing simple braided pigtails, you can change the impression by using cute hair elastics to fasten the ends, and even when you’re just tying your hair back if you put some little braids in there it makes it really cute. The point I think is not to pull the plaits too tight but to loosen them up a bit with your hands. That gives it a bit of a relaxed feeling which I think makes it lovely. I hope you all have fun trying different kinds of braids to go with what you’re wearing.
Tricks to making hair arrangements that won’t fall apart
Start with curling it all up with a curling iron or a wave iron! If you don’t have time even just curling the tips will help a lot. And then just gently spray hairspray over the whole thing. Even if there are a few stray hairs I just think that makes it cute.
How to know yourself well
Of course I’ve always listened to the advice different people have given me, ever since I was a junior actress. And as I gradually internalize those opinions, when I look at the ‘total’ of myself, I’ve always considered how I can have a good balance. For example, I don’t have a lot of volume at the back of my head, so when I’m arranging my hair I’ll make it fluffier there to try and give the whole a unified round impression. Even a little thing can change the balance of the whole, so I think it’s important to pay attention to those things. But there are a lot of things where you have to try lots of options or you won’t understand, so it took me a lot of time to figure out what worked for me (laughs).