I put together a review of some things I've tried, as well as some tips to help your hair out.
I figured I'd try some of the Japanese haircare sets, hoping they'd suit my hair better than the stuff I usually got at the grocery c: and for the most part they did. Your mileage may vary, though, but I hope this helps!
There's three that I've tried out so far:
1. Shiseido's TSUBAKI Shining (red bottle)
2. Kracie's Ichikami
3. Kracie's Umi no Uruoiso ("Ocean's Gift", pretty name!)
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TSUBAKI SHINING
It has camellia oil in it hence "tsubaki", and it makes your hair extremely soft. On the downside it's oilier than I like, and after a month of using it my hair got weighted down a lot (which I imagine would be worse on finer hair, mine's medium-fine), so I stopped using it. The plus is that the conditioner is probably optional for most people, since the shampoo's almost a 2-in-1 on its own.
**This is likely best for people with thicker/coarser-texture hair, or for people with dry hair or who use treatments on their hair a lot aka straighteners/curlers/blowdry/dying/bleaching. The conditioner on its own is REALLY great for split end types!
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ICHIKAMI
Extremely softening like Tsubaki, but it's a lot lighter on your hair. That being said it did make my hair a tiny bit greasy, but nothing to really complain about. (This is meant to smell of cherry blossoms, but I think it smells more like apples & flowers? I don't really like apples but it's a very light scent so I don't mind this one.) Again, for this one I only needed a tiny drop of conditioner compared to the amount of shampoo I used, because the shampoo's pretty moisturizing by itself. I used this one for a much longer time than Shining. Not sure if it was just a side-effect from being moisturized, or if the shampoo's MEANT to do this, but I think my hair got slightly darker from using it. YMMV.**This is likely best for people with medium thick/slightly coarse hair, or for people with medium dry hair / use treatments on their hair moderately.
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UMI NO URUOISO
Currently using this one since July. Definitely my favorite of the three, it smells floral and a little salty seabreeze-like. It apparently has 11 kinds of seaweed extract (I'm impressed) and deep-ocean water in it as well. This one's not weighed down my hair or caused buildup at all, and it still made my hair supersoft. Unlike the other two, my hair seems fluffier and more volumized by it. c: You do need conditioner of some sort with this, probably because of the salt content from the seawater. The matching conditioner does its job but is still really nice and light. **This is a good shampoo for people with normal or slightly dry hair. I wouldn't use this if you tend to have split ends, again because of the salt.
( the set that I got is here )
They also make various hair masks and leave-in things for each of these sets - I've never tried them but if I do I'll post a review here. c:
I live quite close to a few Asian supermarkets, and they often have sales on value sets of hair treatments. If you live near one I'd say check there first and keep tabs on their sales/specials, as ordering online can be more expensive + shipping/handling. I paid about $20 for the Ichikami and Tsubaki sets, and $15 for the UNU set.
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extra tips c:
- Using paper towels to pat dry your hair does help it from losing too much moisture. A more cost effective and planet friendly way: using a microfiber towel. Using either before blowdrying your hair (or instead of) helps keep your hair from overdrying.
- Tying your hair up (ponytail, whatever) when it's wet can loosen the roots and make it prone to falling out. Same goes for excessively towel-scrubbing your hair. Just pat or lightly squeeze most of the water out, and let it loose until it's dried.
- For blowdrying, use either cool air or warm air on MEDIUM / LOW speed. It takes a little longer, but it's not as rough on your strands.
- For people with longer hair: try putting your hair in a braid (not ponytails) before bed to help keep the hairs from tangling up at night.
- Body lotion actually works quite well as a leave-in overnight hair mask. I double up my body lotion (Nivea Smooth Sensation) for this use, I've never tried other kinds of lotion but I imagine they'd all work pretty much the same way.
- For bangs or flat hair: to regain some volume and fluff after straightening, gather hair as if you're going to make a pouf in the front (or on top of your head, if you're doing all your hair). Leave it up and blowdry lightly with first WARM (1 minute), then COOL air (1 min) - this sets the roots of your hair. I found this works best when you've just recently washed your hair.
- At the beach during summer - if your hair is the type that tends to BLEACH OR COLOR CHANGE WITH SUN EXPOSURE, get ahold of some spray-on sunscreen and give your hair a spritz. It's really great especially for dyed hair. Just make sure you shampoo it out really well later, sunscreen's pretty greasy.
- UPDATE: Washing your hair with COLD or just-barely-warm water will help prevent hair thinning. My dad swears by it (he's from the Philippines and he says they didn't use warm water to wash; he's nearly 60 and he hasn't got either white hair or baldspots). I don't know whether this works myself, but I'm planning to try it out c:
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