She vows to work until she is at least 110.
A 108-year-old Japanese woman has been named the world's oldest female barber, Guinness World Records has announced. She vows to work until at least 110.
Shitsui Hakoishi, born in 1916, decided to become a barber at the age of 14 when a friend's mother invited her to apprentice at a Tokyo hairdressing salon. She still holds her own scissors and this week participated in a celebratory ceremony attended by her two children, an 85-year-old daughter and an 81-year-old son.
"I am very happy. My heart is full," Hakoishi said at the ceremony in Nakagawa, a town in the eastern Tochigi region.
Guinness World Records told AFP that the category for the oldest barber was divided into male and female, but the oldest male barber - Anthony Mancinelli, who worked in New York until he was at least 107 - had died.
Hakoishi married after the age of 20 and opened a salon with her husband, but he was sent to the front during World War II and died in combat. The saloon that served as her family's home was reduced to ashes during the bombing of Tokyo by the U.S. Army. Hakoishi and her children survived, however, as they were evacuated to her hometown of Nakagawa. A few years after the war, Hakoishi opened a new salon in Nakagawa, where she still works today. Her oldest clients still call to book a haircut appointment.
Although she now lives in a nursing home, Hakoishi can still take care of herself. In 2021, she was one of the torchbearers at the Tokyo Olympics, having walked about 200 meters, according to Tochigi Regional TV.
Asked about her future goals, she said she turns 109 this year but wants to "work hard until 110." | BGNES, AFP