I recently registered and had my photos taken. If I happen to feel uneasy about the photos, would it be possible to have them retaken? Would you also accommodate personal requests, such as wanting to try again with a different outfit or hairstyle? I only just registered. I would appreciate your response.

Maezawa from Shacho-shitsu here, answering as well. I understand feeling anxious about your photos even though you haven’t registered yet. Naturally, you want them to use the best possible photos. However, more often than not, the photos women think look good differ from the photos men think look good. In addition to the photos taken by staff during the interview, women can upload selfies. Right after that feature was introduced, the selfies were mostly heavily edited—like the ones on apps, with automatically enlarged eyes and other filters—and I remember thinking they were pretty awful. Women are used to those kinds of photos, so they tend to think that the most flattering, highly edited photo is the best. But from a man’s perspective, if the photo looks too different from the actual person, he won’t be able to make a proper judgment. Selfies uploaded recently tend to be less edited, so they aren’t as bad as they used to be. In fact, photos taken while traveling may even make a better impression. You should assume that a woman’s sense of what looks good and a man’s sense can be quite different. The staff take photos with those things in mind—photos that look attractive without leading to complaints from men. For now, I’d suggest saying nothing and waiting about a month to see whether you receive any offers. > Would you accommodate a personal request, such as wanting to change my outfit or hairstyle before going through with it? It probably depends on how busy the branch is, but if someone asked that before registering, I think they would reject it 99% of the time.

I’m Kazu, a male member. Generally, it seems that profile photos are retaken after about six months. If you’ve made a major change to your hairstyle or color and your overall impression has changed, the staff may be willing to arrange a reshoot. But if you ask for new photos just a few weeks later because your look has changed—even though you haven’t received any offers—I think it’s worth considering how that might come across to the staff. On the other hand, a woman I recently made an offer to hadn’t requested a reshoot, but she changed her hair color after the photos were taken. When we met, she looked noticeably different from her photos—in a disappointing way. It’s a difficult issue.