Tomihiro Kono: The transformative powers of wigs!

Hair is an important component of a person’s personality and body image.
It wordlessly tells a lot about us.
The hair cut, its style, and the color gives clues to our culture, values, heritage, circumstances, health, and also our mood.

Usually, for people who are satisfied with telling one story over a prolonged time, one hairstyle suffices. Others want variety but want to test the waters before going for a new hairstyle.

Here comes the role of wigs. Tomihiro Kono has been making them for three years now and is thrilled with their transformative powers.

Tomihiro Kono-Wigs and its modern transformative role

Japanese hairstylist and wig maker Tomihiro Kono has a lot to say about wigs. Tomihiro said:

“There are some limits in changing (one’s) own hair because (we) have certain social roles, and it’s hard to go too crazy and adventurous sometimes,”
“A wig can be an option for changing instantly, with no risk.”

He has been styling looks for Vogue, Dazed and W, and other magazines. Additionally, he has been working with hair for two decades. He was in Japanese salons for 10 years styling hairs.

He now works in London the UK where he relocated in 2007. But only three years back in 2017, he commenced creating wigs.

More about Tomihiro’s wig-making

Tomihiro’s required a model or client in order to do the styling work. But once he was into wig-making, he let his imagination go wild.

Talking about his new art, Tomihiro said:

“Wig-making is like making an artwork as a hair stylist. I can make my imaginary characters,”

He has penned a new book called Personas 111 in which there are 111 types of different wigs. They are put as works of art and then later on a model’s head.

And also on androgynous photographer Cameron Lee Phan’s head. It is here that the transformative power of these wigs stands out.

The wigs are of various kinds such as a brown bowl cut, a blonde roller set, a crown of rainbow corkscrews, Beaded, braided pink hair in forwarding fringes, lacquered black finger waves, etc. David Bowie, Blondie, and the ’60s mod rock group Small Faces have been Tomihiro’s influences.

Tomihiro talks wigs

The hairstylist reminds the readers in the essay of the book that wigs have been for decades part of performing arts. Tomihiro states:

“Wigs help us (experience) an instant transformation and discover multiple characters existing within ourselves,”

He adds:

“My wigs are artifacts to encourage and foster continuous transformation. So, ask who you want to be, choose your wig, and step into your new life.”

Click to read The latest weird beauty fad-eyebrow wigs! Jeffree Star is happy with the results!

Tomihiro has his own website which gives an insight into his different art forms and wig types. He also has an Instagram page that is full of his varied colorful creative hair art forms. It is worth a watch. One can also shop online for the new wigs that he creates regularly.

Source: CNN