"Gyaru's & Different types"

"Western Gyaru or Gaijin Gyaru!"

Often referred to as foreign gyaru or western gyaru and online as 外人ギャル (gaijin gyaru). Women and even men who have found gyaru fashion outside Japan and have decided to participate in said fashion subculture; western gyaru includes countries also outside of the West, such as the . With the women who have gravitated towards this fashion by going or doing gyaru and its multiple substyles. While men gravitate to . Western gyaru or gaijin gyaru created their own communities or groups and forums which they communicate amongst one another. They also had lists of tutorials or YouTube playlists to help beginners to gyaru with their application of makeup and how to create the appropriate hairstyles. Gyaru got its popularity outside of Japan due to the help of bookstores selling gyaru magazines in western countries and social media networks also helped the spread this Japanese fashion style further than its origin to other parts of the world.

That is not to say that during its popularity online in the past and even now that there is only positivity within its community.

Outside of Japan, most western participants have been subjected to websites dedicated to criticism of gyaru participants. Some of these website are currently active. These websites ridicule people's looks or appearance by giving them advice on how to better wear the style. A documentary has been made on YouTube, about three different Japanese street fashion styles and the journeys of these three participatants and how they navigated their way with these styles and the negative influences each of members of differing styles can come across online in their own style of choice. Even so, in 2011, these western or gaijin gyaru held their first event the 'Gaijin Gyaru Awards' which was created by an English gaijin gyaru with the online username Lhouraii Li. It was done to spread awareness of this style and to bring positivity back into the western gaijin gyaru community. These events lasted until 2014 with Lhouraii Li and these events were mostly done online. They were stopped in 2014 by the creator of the event, Lhouraii Li, due to online backlash against her online award show. Since 2014 there would not be another contest until 2016 where they were made into an event in the and was broadcast through a livestream. Three years would pass until this community award ceremony would be brought back in 2019 in the , just as in 2016 this was an in-person event and was only made into a live broadcast online for those not able to join the event. These contests were made so that one could vote for contestants within categories or subcategories of this fashion and gain Internet attention from peers by winning within a category.

During the early 2000s, most saw a glorification of gyaru and gaijin gyaru presence as they held gatherings, meetings or events usually organized by their gyarusā and fellow peers in these conventions in their country of residence or where the actual gathering would be held in. International and national meetings among members of the gaijin gyaru community were held on an almost annual basis.

As of late 2018, early 2019 there was a big boom in activity for the gaijin gyaru community caused by the comeback of egg magazine as well as a resurgence of gyaru in Japan. This has affected the gaijin gyaru community as well, as a new gaijin gyaru magazine had gotten published named Papillon in October 2019. The foreign magazine Gyaru-go also made a comeback.

In 2021, the gaijin gyaru magazine 'GAL VIP' had gotten an article written about their magazines from Japanese website; it is the oldest gaijin gyaru magazines addressed and not the latest. Also in August 2021 a six-minute on western gyaru or gaijin gyaru has been made discussing the substyle of manba and had been made viewable to the public through YouTube.

Gaijin gyaru magazines[]

As stated before, the gaijin gyaru magazine Papillon was published in 2019, but there were two predecessors of magazines for gaijin gyaru before being Gyaru-go who only published on April 12, 2016, and Gal-VIP on September 1, 2012. They are both online magazines while Papillon has online and purchasable issues.