Let me start off by saying that the overall quality and experience you get in a Japanese hair salon is probably one of the best you can have in the world. Men in particular are treated to much more care than they'd ever get in a barber shop back home. That being said, for foreigners, especially women, unless they can find the right stylist, there can be problems. One of the problems is that Japanese hair is generally different enough from the hair of many Western folks that some stylists can't work well with it. Since there are so few occidental foreigners relative to the population at large, that means any given stylist is unlikely to get lots of experience with foreign hair unless located in one of the gaijin ghetto areas like Azabu. There's also the fact that hair styling in Tokyo for women can be very expensive.
I won't miss having to concern myself with whether or not a particular stylist knows how to handle my hair.
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