A Deep Dive into Gyaru Trends from 2019-2022

 Hey Y’all, it's Kirarin! ✨

In my previous post, I talked about the revival of Egg magazine in 2019, which sparked a revival of Gyaru style’s overall popularity in Japan & world-wide! :D

Today's post is a deeper dive into the first few years of Gyaru’s Reiwa Era revival! 

I'll talk about the characteristics of Gyaru fashion, makeup, & culture during the years of 2019 to 2022!✨

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The 2020s Definition of Reiwa Gal

With the turn of the era from Heisei (1989-2019) to Reiwa (2019-present), Gyaru style has evolved to include many different characteristics & values that differ from the past. 

The Japanese news program “ZIP!” Cover the topic of Reiwa gals in 2020, and they included a "definition of Reiwa gals"!

According to Galture, their definition includes the following:

✨Hair dye

✨Colored Contact Lenses

✨Nose Bridge Makeup

…Yeah that's it LOL

During the years of 2020 and 2021, the dominating trend within gal was to appear “pure and sweet”. There was a big emphasis on "looking good in a natural way." (Galture, 2021)

Also in contrast with the popular tanning culture with gals from the Heisei era, the trend in 2020 to 2021 was fair skin. Some would even lighten their skin. These types of gals were called  “shiro-gyaru”.
(more on Shiro Gyaru)

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Makeup, hair, & overall appearance

-Hair

In the early 2020s, many gals would dye and bleach their hair to create a more “sophisticated and mature” look. These girls put an emphasis on taking proper care of their hair so that it looked healthy and shiny while still being bleached. (Galture, 2021)

There are also many more black-haired gals.

Hairstyles took a more simple turn, with more gals opting for straight hair, as well as simpler wavy and curled styles. ~

Lizzie Bee Mentions in her review of Egg’s revival issue that this helps with accessibility, especially with those who wouldn't consider themselves very good at styling their hair. 

-Circle Lenses

Color contacts and circle lenses are still a staple of Gal makeup regardless of how natural of a look they're going for. A focal point of Gyaru makeup is big Dolly eyes and that still remains true!

Apparently the types of color contact lenses that were popular in 2010 were still popular in 2020! (Galture, 2021)

-Nose contour

Applying Shadow and highlight to the nose bridge is also a big part of gal make. 

For Reiwa gals, this makeup is used to create a subtle three-dimensional look.

Fashion Trends

Gyaru fashion trends of the 2020s place less importance on specific brands or substyles. 

The general trend is to wear clothes that make you look mature, hip, and stylish.

The key point is not so much the clothing items that are worn, but HOW those items are styled. ✨

Gals buy their clothes from a variety of different places, but some places that are popular with the Gyaru models of today are: SheIn, GYDA, EGOIST, EMODA, SPIRALGIRL, Avail, GRL, etc ~

Styles are much more diverse, featuring a variety of genres. Gals today can be casual, refined, sexy, sweet, or even sporty! (Galture, 2021)

An example of this is the revival issue of egg magazine.

You'll see that the models are wearing normal clothes but styling them to make them look very gal.✨ 

Here is a list of some of the popular outfit combos at the time, as provided by Galture (example illustrations are provided on the site: 

-Oversized hoodies w/ striped leggings & platform sneakers

-Choker tops w/ hip-slit skinny jeans

-Denim jumpsuits w/ platform sandals

-White T-shirts w/ flared pants that include python pattern (or other animal print) 

-Oversized hoodies w/ loose socks

-Voluminous frilled blouse w/ form-fitting skirts

Popular individual clothing items (also from Galture)

-Oversized hoodies

-Striped leggings

-Denim jumpsuits and overalls

-Flared pants / bellbottoms (especially high-waisted)

-Platform sneakers and sandals (sometimes w glitter / bedazzling)

-Bucket hats

-Loose socks

Misc. Characteristics / traits

-Good impression and friendly:

There's a difference in the overall perception and impression of gals today then there was in the Heisei era.

Heisei era gals were often characterized by negative stereotypes such as defiant, irresponsible, unclean, and bratty, etc. :/

Unfortunately a lot of this was because of the overall appearance of gals. :/

However, because of the Trends in the early 2020s of wanting to appear sweet, clean, mature, and approachable, the overall impression of gals has changed a little bit. (Galture, 2021)

This new pure impression has made gals more popular w/ both men and women! (onecosme)

-Freedom of style 

As previously mentioned, Reiwa gals have a variety of different styles when it comes to fashion.

There's also a huge variety with makeup, as it's okay to go either flashy or modest. 

Hair color ranges from bleached blonde to even black. Some girls even dye their hair in different colors. (Galture, 2021)

-There isn't as much focus on gathering in Shibuya

During the Heisei era, Shibuya was considered THE popular spot to hang out for gals!

It was common for these gals to spend all night hanging out in Shibuya with their friends, shopping and doing other various activities. Shibuya 109 was the popular shopping center among gals. ✨

HOWEVER, nowadays with more of an emphasis on online shopping and less emphasis on brands from specific stores, it's become less common for girls to hang out there. 

Also, with social media making it easier to communicate with friends, there's less of a need for daily in-person hangouts. (Galture, 2021)

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Gal Mind

The gal mindset has become a very important part of Gyaru! 💪🏾

As gal style becomes more flexible with a wide range of fashion styles & the makeup ranging from flashy to modest, it’s said to have become more difficult to pinpoint whether or not someone is gal based on just their appearance.

According to Galture, what separates a gal from any other random person on the street is if they have a gal mind in addition to their gal-like appearance.

So what exactly is a Gal Mind? 🤔 

Here are some quotes from Galture that illustrates it pretty well:

“The gal mindset is about not being influenced by others and enjoying what you think is cool and fashion that you think is good”

“someone who has the strength of mind to stick to their favorite fashion and style without worrying about what others think”

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Popular activities

-Tiktok has become an explosive hit among Reiwa gals

-parapara, which was a dance that was incredibly popular among Heisei gals (with many nightclubs in Tokyo purely dedicated to parapara) has become popular again w Reiwa gals. A lot of parapara’s popularity with Reiwa gals and gen Z is because of social media like tiktok, and even YouTube!✨

Many Reiwa gals (including myself!) will upload tiktoks of them dancing to parapara!

Parapara dance routines become TikTok trends within the community, much like other TikTok dance trends!🎶

The Revival of Kurogal

In the beginning of the Reiwa era (2019-2022), the most popular trend was to be a “pure gal”, but there are a lot of popular gal models such as Momoa from Egg, and models from LOALO magazine who are helping to re-popularize the tanning culture that was popular with gals in the Heisei era, as well as more flashy makeup and clothing.✨

For a more detailed deep dive into the revival of kurogal and more of the trends that were popular back in the Heisei era, check out my previous post about the overall evolution of gal trends from 2019 to present day!

BTW! I'm including this post is part of an ongoing project I'm working on to build an interactive database about the latest Gyaru trends! Eventually I'd like to be able to fill it up only w/ articles I wrote myself, so please cheer me on as I write more of these. :D So far 4/6 of the sources are written by me, and the other 2 are Wiki pages.

Thanks for reading and look forward to more! :D

A New Era of Gyaru is Born! ✨ The Revival of Egg Magazine

Hey Y’all! ✨
In my previous post, I briefly talked about how Gyaru style evolved in the Reiwa Era (2019-present)!

For the next few posts, I wanna spend more time diving a bit deeper in detail, breaking down the trends and the evolution of gal in the 2020s!

Let's take a look at how it started with the revival of popular gyaru magazines like Egg, Nuts, & Ageha, the current characteristics of the fashion, makeup, & culture, and Gyaru style’s popularity with Japan’s Gen Z!

Today's post is about the revival of Egg Magazine! ✨

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About Egg
Egg (エッグ) is THE popular Japanese fashion magazine for everything Gyaru style!

It's known for featuring photos & street snaps of ganguro girls, with advice on the newest fashion, trends, clothes, hairstyles, & makeup!

It even includes bits about lifestyle & health!

Egg magazine was incredibly influential in gyaru spaces, with many people, (including Bunny Crafty Dream) calling it “The Gyaru Bible”. ✨

Egg magazine was at the HEART of gal culture in Shibuya! :D 

According to PRTIMES, During the magazine’s peak popularity, it had a circulation of about 500,000 copies! 

Egg’s original run went from September 1995 to May 2014. (The Gyaru Wikia)

Though because of increased interest in Gyaru style, Egg started a new venture in 2017 to make its comeback (The Gyaru Wikia), and in March 2018, egg resumed its activity online and started to optimize its approach more for social media!

 

With enough fan support, including a crowdfunding initiative, Egg was able to resume physical media under a different publisher! (PRTIMES)

The first physical release was the June 2019 issue!✨ This was a “mook” / magazine book.

Reception

The June 2019 issue of egg was incredibly popular! Apparently it was super hard to get your hands on one because they were selling out like hotcakes! lol

Many fans really enjoyed this issue. :D 

There are some online reviews of this issue written by Lizzie Bee and Bunny Crafty Dream, saying that the magazine stayed true to its roots and kept the spirit of old school gal. 

According to these reviews, this revival issue stuck to the formula of old-school Egg, keeping its overall values of looking stylish and having fun! ✨

Both reviews even mentioned that it features a really great blend of both old-school and newer gal styles!

Lizzie Bee even states that this issue shows “a nice balance between flashy and toned-down makeup” ! ^o^

According to Galture, Egg magazine’s revival was also positively received in Japan, and as a result, a renewed interest among gals and Gen Z in Japan was born!

Their official YouTube channel uploads daily videos that include a variety of content centered around their models. This content includes things like OOTD videos, videos of the girls doing their daily makeup, fun challenges & pranks, events held by Egg, as well as model announcements and other announcements related to the magazine! Egg also has an Instagram account where they post updates about the magazine, and other variety style content in the form of IG reels! Here's a link to their official tiktok as well! The models also have their own social media accounts on places like tiktok, Instagram, and YouTube! ✨

Following the success of Egg’s revival, other popular Gyaru magazines also followed suit!

✨Happie Nuts re-released in 2020 (wikipedia)

✨Koakuma Ageha re-released in 2021 (wikipedia)

If you wanna read more about how the revival of Gyaru was received by gen Z, I'll be writing a future article about that, so definitely check it out!

BTW! I'm including this post is part of an ongoing project I'm working on to build an interactive database about the latest Gyaru trends! Eventually I'd like to be able to fill it up only w/ articles I wrote myself, so please cheer me on as I write more of these. :D
So far 4/6 of the sources are written by me, and the other 2 are Wiki pages.

Thank you for reading and please look forward to more! ^^

 

Reiwa Gyaru: How It Started VS How It's Going ✨

When most ppl hear "Gyaru", they think of the loud, bold, and flashy girls of the Heisei era (1989-2019). But what are Gyaru like today in the Reiwa Era (2019 onward)?

Is it SUPER drab & toned down now? Or is the bold flashy Heisei Era swag making a comeback?

Read more to find out!

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Egg magazine was the popular Gyaru fashion magazine. Its original run was from 1995-2014,

but in May 2019, we saw its revival which has since been very successful & they’ve been pumping out issues every season!

This caused a renewed interest in Gyaru in Japan. Plus, with the rise of social media, Gyaru style has become very popular, even in different countries all over the world!

At least right now it seems that with many peoples’ nostalgia for Y2k & the Heisei era, we've landed at a nice intersection where the past & future can harmoniously coexist lol

But it wasn’t always this way. (⸝⸝⸝O﹏ O⸝⸝⸝)

I give you…

The 2020 Definitions of Reiwa Gal:

According to Galture, The beginning of the Reiwa Era was about "pure & sweet gals". There was an emphasis on "looking good in a natural way". 

When 100 ppl were asked what Reiwa Gals are like, the number one answer is “not too flashy”. It’s consensus that reiwa gals aren't known for wearing tons of makeup like their heisei era counterparts.

Womp womp. (,,>﹏<,,)

Here are some of the common characteristics of Reiwa Gyaru from the early 2020s:

🩵 Shiro Gyaru. Instead of skin tanning which had been synonymous with Gyaru in the Heisei Era, early 2020s Reiwa Gals opted for fair skin, and with some even participating in skin whitening)

🩵 Early 2020s Reiwa Gals bleached their hair to give off a “sophisticated” look, but they put heavy emphasis on taking proper care of their hair while bleaching it. However, there were lots of black-haired gals (& this is still true) 

🩵 Color contacts,  big eye makeup, & nose bridge makeup are still defining traits, regardless of the substyle.

🩵 A generally “pure and sweet” vibe, as opposed to bodacious and flashy.

🩵 There was big emphasis on "gal mind", but according to Galture, that was more so because Reiwa gal makeup had become so natural-looking that apparently it was hard to tell the difference between a Reiwa Gal & a normal person (like for example, it was hard to tell a Gyaru from someone w blond hair & no makeup, or someone without nose bridge makeup, etc)

So gal mind was originated to be used *in addition* to the appearance to help tell gals apart from the crowd lol

However, According to Sorena, in 2022 it's become popular to be a "Mind Gal", which means to be gal not in appearance, but in mind. 

Obviously this is pretty controversial, because that blurs the lines a little too much for what is and isn’t considered “Gal”.

Mmkay, so then what exactly is “Gal Mind”?

Here are a few examples from different sources

🖤There’s a strong emphasis on celebrating uniqueness & individuality. It’s about doing what you like, having your own beliefs, and going your own way at your own pace. (Oggi)

🩵"The gal mindset is about not being influenced by others, and enjoying what you think is cool and passion that you think is good."  (Galture)

🩵"The definition of of a Reiwa gal is someone who has the strength of mind to stick to their favorite fashion and style without worrying about what others think" (Galture)

So now we know how we started... So how is it going?

In the early 2020s, "Pure gals" were the trend, but inevitably with the growing nostalgia for the Heisei era, Kurogals &  Heisei gals started becoming more popular. 

This was noticeable with Egg models & other magazines.

Momoa, Erika, Ran, and Kaecha are major examples of gals who are re-popularizing theHeisei vibe

(Erika, Kaecha, Momoa, & Ran)

A GREAT example of the Kurogal / Heisei Gal revival is LOALO magazine.

LOALO, with its slogan literally being “no tanning, no life” was started in June 2022.

A few members from the massively popular Kurogal unit Black Diamond like Maachirin and Harutam were also LOALO models! (Harutam has graduated to pursue her businesses --hell yeah we love to see a Gyaru businesswoman! – while Maachirin is still active as a LOALO model)

(Harutam then & now)

Some of the most popular models from LOALO are Fukitisu, Rebra-chan, and Fychan.

They share a lot of characteristics with Tsuyome Gals of the Heisei Era.

(Fukitisu, Fyy-chan, Rebra-chan)

But there are also other models like Mechoro who mix in their own personal vibes with Gyaru pretty well. For example, Mechoro has more of an alt/anime otaku vibe (while still keeping the overall look of a Kurogal with bold makeup and tanning}.

(Mechoro)

There are also some Gyaru YouTubers like Yuchopa & Dededo who have a very Heisei Tsuyome / OTT Gal vibe:

(Yuchopa & Dededo)

I remember when it used to be SO hard to find Gyaru content online, but now there’s so much and it’s easy to stay updated on the ever-evolving trends. I enjoy staying up to date on Gyaru-related content from gals in Japan! Everyday I watch new YouTube videos, Tiktoks, and other social media posts from personal gal accounts as well as official accounts. 

Here are just a few of the YouTube channels I follow: 

Official Channels:

-Loalo Channel

-Egg Channel

-nuts (i need to watch more of them, but they seem to have a darker more mature vibe)

Personal Channels:

-Mochizuki Miki

-YuChopa

-harutam TV 

-usatani paisen

-Rumiringo 

Variety Show Channels: 

-Gyaru Mon no Susume (ft Egg models) /  ギャル問のすゝめ

-Gyaru no Majisawagi (ft LOALO models) / ギャルのまぢ騒ぎ

-Gyarugo de Bakugatari TV / ギャル語で爆語りTV

Here are some of the Tiktoks I follow: 

-Rebra (@rebra.__.chan)

-Fukitanaka (@1225fuki)

-Momoa Seto (@momoa_1130)

-Erika (@luvluvry)

-Mechoro (@metiyoro93)

-Chopa (@96chopasama)

-Dededo (@gyaru_wa_art)

Here are a few things I’ve noticed while keeping up with Gyaru content of today:

🩷 There's a split between Reiwa & Heisei Gyaru, Kuro & Shirogyaru

🩷 Among Egg, Nuts, etc Reiwa shirogal started out more popular, but lately more Kurogals (Momoa) & Heisei gals (Ran, Kaecha) have been making it more popular in recent years 2022-2025

🩷Loalo is ALL Kurogals & many of them are Tsuyome gals (rebra, fuki, fyy, ema)

🩷 Long deco nails are very popular regardless of Heisei/Reiwa. The LOALO gals are known for their super long blinged out nails. Egg models also have deco nails, but not as long.

🩷 Tail accessory/keychains are pretty popular

🩷 There isn't much of an emphasis on substyles. Or specific brands. A lot of Gyaru models get their clothes from places like SheIn, AliExpress, GYDA, EGOIST, EMODA, SPIRALGIRL, Avail, GRL, etc

Egg recently uploaded an OOTD video of their models in "Coords w/o Shein". Which is very interesting, considering a lot of Egg channel's OOTD videos primarily feature items from Shein. Lol

But on the other side of the coin they also really like luxury brands like Chanel, YSL, Louis Vuitton, & Dior (this is probably because a lot of today's gals are either models or influencers, so they can afford it or are getting gifted these items)

Reiwa Gyaru Music

There's also a heavy emphasis on Gyaru music! Egg, nuts, and LOALO all regularly release new music for gals. 

Egg releases their music under a subunit called 半熟卵っち or "softboiledegg". Their sound has been more centered around hip hop and R&B. Their recent song "SHIBUYA!" is a wonderful fusion of hip hop and Eurobeat.

The LOALO models have released music as "LOALO Models" (a select group of exclusive models who rank high enough in popularity, based on fan voting.) and they've done collabs with Hayama Junna as well as notable artists in the Eurobeat space like Dave Rodgers and Domino. Their style is a mix of R&B and Eurobeat / trance, but there's more of an emphasis on eurobeat / trance for anyone who's nostalgic for that classic sound that makes you wanna break out into parapara! My fave from them is Go Go Race Dream ft. Domino!

LOALO also releases music under a smaller subunit called "Loaloco". The member lineup changes, but the current members are Fukitisu, Fy-chan, Rebra-chan, Emu, and Serina. Their latest single is called GAL STAR.

So, what now? lol

Overall it's hard to really define what a Reiwa Gal is.

In the very beginning of the era it seemed like Reiwa Gal was just going to be an era of extremely toned down gals. It felt pretty bittersweet. 

But as things naturally grow & change, along with the nostalgia for the Heisei era, we've landed at a nice intersection where the past & future can harmoniously coexist lol 

I'm really happy that with Reiwa Gal it acted as a revival of Gyaru as a whole & it's more popular than it has been in years. I get super excited when I see more Gyaru & parapara related references in Japanese tv & commercials.

And of course with the recent Kogyaru movement, though controversial, that’s also creating a pretty massive new generation of ppl who look up to gyaru style & will become gals later on. There's no threat of the style dying out again any time soon.

I'm really excited to see how the style continues to evolve!

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I hope y’all enjoyed this post! If you found it helpful, please be sure to also watch my YouTube video on this topic.

I also made a Cobundle database on the topic of Reiwa Gals!

Cobundle is a site where you can make databases on any topic you’d like! And it also functions like a ChatGPT, so you can ask it questions about your specific topic.

The best part is that it only pulls answers from the sources that were curated and & provided by human researchers (like myself), so you know the info you get will be accurate and from trusted sources!

So if you have any questions about Reiwa Gal, go ahead and try to ask my Cobundle!

There’s also a function for editing, in case you’d like to add any helpful resources too!

I plan to make a YouTube video on this topic, but for now go ahead and check out my Daily Gyaru Makeup as inspired by Reiwa Gals!

Thanks for reading & I'll see u guys next time! ✨