Continuing on from my post on where to buy hair dye in Japan, I thought I'd share which hair care products have been working for me to help look after my bleached hair. I'm no beauty blogger or hair stylist, but this might be useful if, like me, you arrive in Japan with no idea of which products to buy.
Bleach
I've tried two bleaches so far: one by Gatsby bleach, which was ok, but I'd recommend the other brand- Megamega bleach- over Gatsby to be honest. Both bleaches left my hair a little yellower than I was used to at home, but it's better than nothing and is way cheaper than a salon visit. (Also less scary than a salon visit tbh) One thing that swayed me towards the megamega bleach is that the hair mask that's included is so. good. It's schwarzkopf branded, and Schwarzkopf is the brand I'll pick up if I'm using packet bleach in the UK.
I have to admit to leaving it on slightly longer than the recommended time, but no don't do the same! Bleach can hurt your scalp or damage your hair, so please respect the instructions
Sometimes I'll wait a week and then bleach again, because my hair is pretty platinum at the moment.
Shampoo and conditioner
What I wouldn't recommend
Just buying the cheapest one there I panic bought the first shampoo and conditioner in a hurry when I first got here (because my luggage got lost...) and this, needless to say, did nothing for my hair.
Botanicals conditioner
this was nice and thick, and fairly nourishing with a slightly sickly but unoffensive scent... but it left such an oily feeling on my hair! It took forever to wash out compared to a normal hair mask or conditioner
Hair recipe Shampoo and conditioner
Now, I'm really sad about not being able to recommend this brand, because it smells amazing. So fruity and exotic. But, the shampoo was really drying (even on normal undamaged hair) and the conditioner was really liquid-ish and didn't do much for my hair.So what would I recommend?
So far, the brand I've had the best results with is Essential's Damage care (ダメージケア）range. It's fairly cheap and the masks I've bought from them are great. I use the 30 second treatment instead of conditioner every time I wash my hair, and it leaves my hair feeling soft but not weighed down or greasy. The actual hair pack is great too, although you're supposed to leave that one on for longer. The shampoo doesn't dry my hair out either- the first time I washed my hair with this after switching from the hair recipe one, I noticed a difference straight away. Apparently lots of shampoos in Japan are really drying, so I'd recommend this a lot. When my hair was pink,I used to mix pink dye (Directions' carnation pink) in with the white 30 second treatment to give my hair a top up of colour and a bit of TLC. The shampoo is white too, so I can some purple in there to make it into DIY silver shampoo.
Products I brought from the UK
- argan oil (I put this in my hair every day at the moment)
- Tressemé heat protectant spray- I miss having my good old tressemé shampoo and conditioners... they smell amazing, keep my hair in great condition and are really affordable. The heat protectant's spray also makes the product mist really nicely onto your hair
- Purple hair dye (with which I make my own DIY silver shampoo) Some kind of silver shampoo
- dry shampoo- helps you wash your hair less, which is definitely a plus if you have damaged hair. I can't find this in Japan
- My tangle teezer- I made a post on this a while ago, but tangle teezers are worth the hype, folks
Thanks for reading! If you're interested in having unnatural hair in Japan, check out my post on where to buy hair dye in Japan (it's expensive but you can still get hold of it) and stay tuned for my post on how Japanese people react to my hair coming up on Sunday <3
-Amy xoxo
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