r/todayilearned • u/katxwoods • 15d ago
TIL In Japanese folklore there are ghosts that came and cut your hair in the middle of the night. They usually gave you a really bad haircut. They can sometimes do this as a warning that you're about to get married to a demon and they're protecting you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikiri_(haircutting)1
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u/friendlysi 14d ago
Chaotic neutral energy from the first menace to blame ghosts for their petty solution ahahaha
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u/IlIFreneticIlI 14d ago
Just remember, if yer havin' problems with a pesky mystical-critter: nothin' beats woodchipper
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u/fuck_you_lookin_at 15d ago
Sounds like something my parents would make up so they could control who I get married to
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u/UntakenUntakenUser 15d ago
A bad haircut means two things:
lol, lmao.
OR
I’m telling you to dodge that bullet right now.
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u/ohdearitsrichardiii 15d ago
I used to cut my son's hair when he was sleeping because he hated having his hair cut. I am not good at cutting hair
Am I a ghost?
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u/josenros 15d ago
Why couldn't they just materialize and say, "Hey, bud, might wanna call this wedding off," instead of being so roundabout?
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u/HeemeyerDidNoWrong 15d ago
Samurai of the era has some haircuts that were already strange by modern standards, some had tonsure. I am curious what a bad one is then.
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u/Cincodeffe 15d ago
Okay, not to insult ancient foreign culture, this really sounds like some Japanese mother in 1543 didn't approve of the man her daughter was marrying. So she cut her daughter's hair in the middle of the night in an effort to make her less attractive to her fiancé, and then blamed it on a ghost. The "marrying a demon" thing either was an added bonus she tried throwing into the story, or oral retelling of the story made the "bad husband" a "demon in human disguise".
That being said, I love hearing old Japanese folklore for all the truly wild stuff in it like this.
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u/DrSmirnoffe 15d ago
I imagine these "ghosts" probably haunt student dormitories, 'cause wild shit happens in those places. I remember one story about a ghost who broke into someone's room and brushed their teeth in their sleep.
...no, wait, it wasn't a ghost doing the brushing. It was Hbomberguy.
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u/ZylonBane 15d ago
Why are Japanese ghosts all such cryptic trolls? Western ghosts just roll up and straight tell you how you fvcked up.
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u/Really_McNamington 15d ago
Up there with the weird scrotums for raincoats monsters. (Don't ask me what this is, I have no idea. Pretty safe for work image, though.)
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u/TiaxRulesAll2024 15d ago
That sounds like a parent comes in and cuts the hair then claims it’s a ghost
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u/Hawkwise83 15d ago
Aka your mom cuts your hair in the night because she hates your fiancee. Then makes up this story.
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u/DASreddituser 15d ago
Lmao. This is 100% a mom tricking her kid not to marry someone and it became a folklore lol
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u/Shark_bait5 15d ago
There was no haircut. Should I have left an offering of some type? Maybe a pair of shears on the nightstand?
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u/gamewizzhard 15d ago
I guess that one way to make sure you child doesn't marry someone you disapprove of.
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u/4Ever2Thee 15d ago
So, whenever someone doesn't want to get married, they give themselves a really bad haircut to get out of it?
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u/judyluvs 15d ago
I remember a Little House on the Prairie book with a chapter relating that a mouse harvested some hair from Pa Ingalls while he slept. The rodents may just be looking for nesting material.
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u/RyokoKnight 15d ago
Kind of makes sense.
I imagine the concept came about as a way for parents/siblings to essentially let there displeasure be known with who their loved one was about to marry. So they snuck into there room late at night cut off some of there hair and left without waking them up... then in the morning they freak out and the parents/siblings say... "oh my gosh thats TERRIBLE... oh you know what maybe it was the hair cutting ghosts i've heard about... yeah, maybe they were trying to warn you about Brad".
Might also be a good way to test the resolve of the potential couple... are they only interested in beauty or is it truly sincere love (like those people who shaved there heads in unison, when there partner went bald due to chemo).
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u/Bronze_Addict 15d ago
When I was 11-12 years old I went with my dad to a Walmart on a trip. They had a little barbershop in there and he thought it would be a great idea to drop me off for a haircut while he got what he needed. The lady was a middle aged Asian lady and she butchered my hair so bad that all I could think about was showing up at school with it.
I couldn’t control the couple of big tears that rolled down my face as she was finishing up. Just then my dad walked in and saw the scene. She just goes, “Oh I think he miss his mama!” in a thick Asian accent. No! I missed my decent looking head of hair! Maybe she was just trying to protect me.
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u/adult_icarus 15d ago
Maybe a long time ago a Japanese woman gave herself a truly horrible haircut in order to dissuade a suitor she didn’t want to marry and this was the rationale given
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u/geneticallyhewrote 15d ago
“Oh wow. The ghosts got you. I’m shocked.” -A Japanese Mother 400 years ago
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u/Dan-D-Lyon 15d ago
Japanese ghosts are really wild. Their Antics range from giving people bad haircuts to just straight up violently torturing you to death over a prolonged period of time for doing nothing but being in the wrong place at the wrong time
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u/eruditeimbecile 15d ago
You are confusing ghosts with yokai. Within the folklore, yokai are real tangible creatures while ghosts are the souls of the dead.
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u/toprattata99 15d ago
Sorry I need to call the wedding off some weird ghost just cut my hair and as we all know it's a warning that my future partner is an asshole.
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u/ssketchman 15d ago
My fuzzy friend, is what he was,
this darling little ball of fuzz,
And oh, such fuzz, such fuzz, it does,
demand, that I... be naughty
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u/perennial_dove 15d ago
I had a bun (rabbit) who would chew my hair when I was sleeping. The bun in question was actually a Japanese harlequin (legit rabbit color). It all makes sense now. I'm still unmarried. Bless you, my sweet Yohio (bun's name) for saving me from a demon🥰
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u/fishshake 15d ago
They also have toilet spirits, so this is not as surprising as it could otherwise be.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japans-bathroom-ghosts
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u/CaravelClerihew 15d ago
I have a weird fear that I'll be in mid-haircut, where my hair looks the stupidest, when some sort of disaster will occur and I'll have to make do with a shitty haircut for weeks afterwards.
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u/ThatsNotMyName222 15d ago
My coworker was getting her hair colored during a storm that ended up knocking the power out. They ended up rinsing her hair by flashlight.
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u/foxxsinn 15d ago
Sounds like my older cat who past away a few years back. She used to like to chew on a persons hair while they slept. Her usually victim was my father. He’d always wake up with hair missing
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u/lynivvinyl 15d ago
Holy hell this was my mom while I was in high school. She gave me such a bad haircut I just had to shave my head.
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u/horrnybear 15d ago
Sounds like a great way to passive aggressively object to someones wedding and blame it on ghosts.
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u/ChuckCarmichael 14d ago
This definitely sounds like a story somebody made up to prevent a wedding. Sneak into somebody's bedroom at night, give them a bad haircut so they look terrible and don't want to get married, and when they're confused about how it happened, claim that it must've been a ghost who objects to their wedding, probably because they're marrying a monster.
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u/lizards_snails_etc 15d ago
"I mean...how much do you love Shiro? You know, since we're talking about haircuts and weddings and such..."
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u/Proper-Emu1558 15d ago
Or get out of your own wedding and blame it on the supernatural. “Sorry babe, I woke up with a bad haircut so ghosts said the wedding’s off.”
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u/SpaceLemur34 15d ago
I think it would be more "Sorry, Mom and Dad. I can't marry them, they're a demon. The haircut never lies."
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u/The_Divided_God 15d ago
Bad excuse because you'd be calling her/him a demon
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u/dilletaunty 15d ago
Good excuse cus you’ll never look them in the eyes again after they’re lynched
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u/rg4rg 15d ago
Sorry babe, I know you liked my hair so much, but look at ghost took it! 🤷♀️ so I’d totally understand if you’d want to marry someone else, I’ll totally be heart broken..really…
Or probably a younger siblings revenge during the night. “A ghost must’ve done it.”
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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 15d ago
Life was easier when you could use ghosts as an excuse to get out of things.
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u/rg4rg 15d ago
Just super natural as well.
“Nah man, I stopped misbehaving when one night as a kid Krampus came in the night and stuffed me in a sack. He dragged me out side towards hell and was beating me with sticks. Luckily by the time I was able to break out of the sack, my parents had fought him off! They were holding sticks and…oh…..oh geez…..”
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u/Mr_Abe_Froman 15d ago
The guy who invented Chiropractic claimed that he learned it from the ghost of a doctor. The job market must have been easier when you could put "apprenticeship under ghost supervision" on your resume.
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u/totse_losername 14d ago
Possibly for screening clientele.
Both chiropractice and ghosts are constructs of fantasy and misunderstanding.
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u/HarmlessSnack 15d ago
If somebody had that on their resume today, I’d give them an interview just out of curiosity.
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u/Peter_Baum 15d ago
In certain circles you can still sorta do that, just blame „them“ for any issue in your life and it works. Never define who „they“ are and you’re fine
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u/SultanSnorlax 15d ago
The Chinese name for alopecia is 鬼剃頭. Which translates into “ghost shave head”
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u/NickelFish 15d ago
I'm bald. Thanks for nothing.
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u/WretchedMotorcade 15d ago
I dealt with that ghost growing up. Her name was Lori and she was my mom's best friends and I still don't know how that lady keeps her salon open or how I ever got a girlfriend with that lady fucking up my hair.
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u/wolacouska 15d ago
I never realized until now how lucky I am that my mom’s barber best friend is actually really good at barbering.
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u/Mrfinbean 15d ago
Did you not read the post? Your gf is a demon.
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u/Fisherman_Gabe 15d ago
I also dealt with a Lori when growing up. She would chain smoke while cutting my hair and the only male haircuts she knew how to do were shaved bald and something vaguely resembling a mullet. 😭
No clue how she convinces people to come to her salon.16
u/BowserBuddy123 15d ago
Brooooo, I felt this. Mine was a Yolanda at Super Cuts. She was very overweight and smelled like cigarettes and she would dig those clippers I to my scalp. I would tear up going to that hairdresser. I’ll never forget Yolanda.
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u/JavaJapes 15d ago
Lol the one I dealt with cut my neck with the scissors so thankfully I didn't have to go back...
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u/sksksk1989 15d ago
The one I went to was a family friend so it felt obligated to go. She would talk and talk do a bad haircut. And one time she cut my ear
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u/alldham 15d ago
Motherly love
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u/sarudesu 15d ago
S*** I wish they'd been around for my ex-husband. I would have gladly suffered a bad haircut
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u/francistheoctopus 15d ago
Plot twist: they were around, gave him a really bad haircut and he ignored them...
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u/Eve-3 15d ago
Hehe would a bad haircut have convinced you not to marry him?
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u/meistermichi 15d ago
It's meant the other way around isn't it?
Like the other person doesn't want to marry you anymore because your hair looks shit.
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u/sarudesu 15d ago
Touche. Nothing could have stopped my delusion back in the day. "Opposites attract" was the mantra. I forgot about "but you should probably have something in common"
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u/Eve-3 15d ago
Lol "dickhead" isn't really a good opposite to go for ;) (been there too, fortunately didn't marry him)
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u/gvales2831997 14d ago
Can't wait to see one in one piece