Glossary entry

Japanese term or phrase:

くしゅくしゅ

English translation:

Silky/frothy (foam)

Added to glossary by Shannon Morales
Sep 10, 2008 03:18
15 yrs ago
Japanese term

くしゅくしゅ

Japanese to English Marketing Cosmetics, Beauty Haircolor
This term (kushu-kushu) is used to describe a foam-type haircolor (with what looks like a mousse-like texture). The term appears in the main product description, so I need something catchy. It also appears as onomatopoeia beside an illustration of someone working the foam into a lather in their hair. Yoroshiku!!

Proposed translations

15 hrs
Selected

Silky foam or froth up your hair with silky foam

くしゅくしゅ is an onomatopoeia word for states in which a thing is rumpled, creased, randomly folded, or the very act of creating such states. A good example is a rumpled paper (rumple up a piece of paper). The sound that is generated when you rumple up a piece of paper/aluminum foil/plastic bags is described as くしゅくしゅ, or くしゃくしゃ (which is much the same and most likely the origin of くしゅくしゅ) . While くしゃくしゃ can be used in any situation, くしゅくしゅ is used to describe something feminine (e.g. fashion, beauty) and thus popular among young girls today. As I remember, the first time we started to used this word (over 20 years ago) was to describe a hair accessory, named くしゅくしゅ or しゅしゅ. Nowadays it seems that くしゅくしゅ is heavily used in fashion. Further, girls are now using くしゅくしゅ in place of くしゃくしゃin non-fashion situations. (e.g. 顔をくしゅくしゅにするhave a big smile)This word makes everything soft, romantic, cute, cuddly, or anything girly and girls love, i.e. feminine.

In this particular case, the manufacture obviously employed this word to attract girls. A very simple translation would be “soft/air-ly/silkly foam”. However I suspect that the word is actually used as a verb here, in stead of an adjective for the foam. This is why I think that way:… I found blogs and reviews of similar products. There, almost all girls say “泡でくしゅくしゅする” and one even shows the picture of “a midst ofくしゅくしゅ(くしゅくしゅちゅー)” . See the picture at:
http://mi-www.at.webry.info/200805/article_15.html
So, it is used as a verb: “rumple up” your hair with the foam. I am not a native English speaker, so my suggestion might not sound right, but the best I can come up with would be: “froth up your hair with silky foam”. I don’t know if this phrase is attractive to girls in English-speaking cultures though…
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks to all for the help! I had not thought of "silky." I like that! Where it's clearly used as sound, I guess "squish, squish" might work, but it seems so corny from a native Eng. speaker's pt. of view. I may suggest "soft and silky" instead ... ?? Anyway, thanks to all!"
3 hrs

bountifully foamy...

Well, from what I can gather, くしゅくしゅ is often used to describe loose-hanging clothing, such as "loose socks" or legwarmers and the like. They way the roll and bunch up towards the bottom. So if this is a foamy product, maybe "foamy" alone may be sufficient. Or to get more creative "bountifully foamy", "overflowing with foam", "bountiful", etc. This is completely a guess, and just a suggestion. I couldn't really think of anything great either. Tough one!
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14 hrs

(a soft, squishing sound of the foam, see explanation)

I believe it's related to the action of "rubbing in" the foam to hair/root after application, but it implies (maybe!) you do it sofly and gently, more like massaging in, as if you "hug" a squishy pillow or cuddly bear, instead fo crushing the foam into and messing up your hair (that's くしゃくしゃ). The translation will depend on what comes after "くしゅくしゅ", but I'm sure you get the idea now.
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20 hrs

squishy squashy

英語ではありきたりですが。こんな感じでしょうか?
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Reference comments

36 mins
Reference:

全く思いつきませんので参考サイトです。
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/common-japanese-onomatopoeia...
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