Gold salon: Tokyo

I moved to Tokyo for a bit before I head back to the US and I took the opportunity to get my hair cut at Gold Salon, probably the most famous salon for foreigners in Japan.

I booked, in English, on the web. Everyone spoke fluent English to me. My stylist, Hiro, gave me an extensive consultation and cut my hair to my specifications. He wanted layers, I said no. He cut my bangs millimeter by millimeter to get them just right.

My only complaint is that there was no head spa or massage included, and it was a bit pricey at 1 man.

But, I'm getting compliments on my hair and it looks and feels healthy. This is my new salon when I'm in Tokyo!

Laggie Rich Repair treatment

The double process straight perm Watanabe gave me totally fried my hair, so I'm desperate for treatments to disguise the damage. Since Aki san didn't reply to my email request for products he recommends, I picked up the highly rated Laggie Rich Repair mask (4 treatments for about 500 yen).

It definitely helped - I can get a comb through the ends, gave it a silky texture, and it doesn't look horrible, but you can still tell the ends are frayed and dry. I'd recommend this for a normal weekly treatment, not a salon-gone-wrong-fix.

Adventures in hair: Nabige (GO HERE!)

I finally found it. A Kyoto hair salon that did what I wanted. No mistakes. No thinning shears. No too-short bangs. Nabige. And my new favorite man on earth, Akihiko IMAMURA

 

I made my appointment on hot pepper, since I prefer online booking. Straight perm and a cut. First thing in the morning. I noted that I prefer a quiet experience and that I speak Japanese.

Be forewarned, the experience was in Japanese only. But, Imamura-san spoke to me like a child, so it was easy enough to understand. He was quiet and understated with me, but laughing and joking up a storm with another client - so he can give you either experience.

He sat me down for a consultation. He confirmed the date of my last straight perm, and that I had no negative reactions. He then asked about the cut - I told him I wanted to keep the length and my bangs were still too short. He said he would just take off the damaged ends and shape up the bangs, allowing me to grow out my cut. Perfect.

Then, he gave me the best shampoo I've ever had. Really. I wanted some privacy. : )

He confirmed that I understood this would be a 3 hour extravaganza. Then, he directed my attention to the wall of fashion magazines (Japanese). When I told him I had no clue, he described them in terms of age-appropriateness and suggested I take at least two. Then, he and his assistants got down to work.

Everyone was gracious and lovely.

When he gave me my final touch-ups he also gave me some tips on how to lessen the heat damage to my hair when I blow dry and flat iron.

All around win.

My new salon! I'm so happy!

UPDATE: The straight perm didn't take. I thought it had fewer steps than the one I got at Watanabe, and obviously, it did. I won't get the perm at Nabige again.

I went back for a bang trim, but asked for tons of extra stuff if he had the time, and he did, so I also got the dead ends cut off and my neck shaved into a lovely line. All went smoothly and without disaster!

Adventures in Hair cuts: Nary

My bangs were looking haggard and my ends needed a shape up, so I made an appointment for a head spa and cut at Nary. Cutting to chase: go for the head spa, leave before the hair cut.

The salon is gorgeous. Breathtakingly beautiful.

The head spa was great. You could choose from different aromas. The heated head and neck massage was awesome and was nice and strong.

The haircut went well at first. We had a consultation. We confirmed only trimming the damaged ends, and used our fingers to confirm how much would be cut off. I described the bangs I wanted. She found a picture in a magazine to confirm she understood (she did). She cut the ends, perfect.

Then we got to the bangs. She suggested I change my part. I said no. She did something weird with my part, making it rather "S" like, and started cutting. I stopped her, corrected the part with my hands, and reconfirmed the type of bang we were going for, and that the length should be at my eyebrow (she repeated, "eyebrow").

How I got the world's shortest, bluntest bangs is beyond me. I stopped her. I fiddled with what was left of my hair. She made a suggestion. I said no, they were too short, they were an inch above my eyebrow, and "shall we finish"? She kept saying sorry. I paid and left.

I have a feeling the bangs will be great in a month...

Facials and Massages: Beauty Face

My favorite super sento closed, so I am looking for a new place to get decent spa care. I thought I would give the Beauty Face chain a try!

I made an appointment online through Hot Pepper (Japanese only) for a 3400 yen pore reduction facial. Most people come to Beauty Face for facial shaving, but, since that creeps me out a little bit, I went for a facial only.

The experience is Japanese only, but my facialist said that many foreigners come to the shop (I went to the one in the Aeon Kyoto mall). The site is more hospital than spa - definitely no frills.

The facial itself, while bare bones, was good. There was a cleansing, a lot of steam, some sort of lotion that helps pull the gunk out of your pores, a vacuum suction, clay mask, and final cleansing. There was a (too) brief head massage at the end. I left with very red and blotchy skin, which the facialist felt bad about, but I'm pretty sure it was because of the suction and the clay mask. The redness went away in a few hours.

My facialist did not try to sell me anything (which I like), but offered up all of the usual things to encourage a repeat appointment. She gave me an overall assessment of my skin (too dry - use more lotions and essences!) and saw me on my way!

For 3400 yen, this is something I think I will treat myself to more often!

Japanese Straight Perm: Watanabe Hair in Tokyo

When I lived in Yokohama, I would trek into Tokyo to have my hair done by the famous Aki Watanabe! It was always a pleasure (and a relief to know that my stylist really understood me and western hair)!

Aki-san repeatedly begged me to take the plunge and get the Japanese straight perm for a few reasons: 1) I like long straight hair and was damaging mine with all the blow drying and straight ironing, and 2) I otherwise had unprocessed healthy hair, which made me a good candidate.

I had heard horror stories of westerners having their hair fall out or break off due to the treatment, and the perm is not cheap, so I was wary. However, rainy season was approaching, so I decided to take the plunge!

I'm so glad I did! I received a million compliments immediately after the process, and other westerners soon flocked to have the straight perm as well! I've never had such a positive reaction to a beauty treatment. And I loved the sleek look, and the wash and go routine!

The process itself was super time consuming: a wash, setting, another wash, straightening, and a final wash and styling (if I recall correctly). It took more than 5 hours.

It's now been more than 3 months since I had the process done, and not only do I have the curl/frizz in the new growth hair, but some curl and frizz has returned to the processed hair. I'm not sure why this happened, since I thought the straightening was permanent, and not temporary like the "Brazilian blowout". So far I've not found a stylist in Kyoto that I trust to touch up the straight perm, but I'm on the hunt! (Otherwise, I'm booking Aki-san on my next trip to Tokyo!)

UPDATE: I recently went to Tokyo and booked an appointment with Aki san. I got another straight perm, which worked perfectly, but it fried the ends of my hair (which had straight perm from last year). I'm now searching for a good repair treatment, otherwise I'll have to chop off some inches!

San Ai Hair

I needed a bang trim and some dead ends cut off, so I made an appointment at San Ai hair, mostly because it seemed like they always had clients and took reservations over the internet.

While it didn't go horribly awry, it wasn't my favorite experience and I will be trying another salon for my next touch-up.

From the outside the salon looked chic, all white and glass. Inside, it was dirty. There was SO MUCH HAIR all over the floor. It looked like no one had cleaned all day. The chairs and robes were cheap - barber style.

My (male) stylist only spoke Japanese (which was fine for me, but I'm not sure if he had any English at all) and was my hair washer, head massager, hair cutter, and stylist. He was nice as could be, but definitely had his own ideas about how to cut hair and wasn't too into following my instructions. For example, I lost the "layer" battle (unbeknownst to me, until it was too late). Despite stating that I did not want to keep the current layers in my hair, and ONLY wanted the dead ends cut off, I ended up with more layers thanks to a little misunderstanding of the term "gizagiza" (ギザギザ, jagged). While I thought this meant that he would chop the ends a little so they wouldn't be so blunt, well, I was wrong. This meant taking thinning shears to the bottom half of my head. And he started in the back, so I couldn't see what he was doing until it was already done. At that point, I wouldn't let him touch my bangs again, although he wanted to ギザギザ them too... (and I thought the ends should be jagged a bit, but one fail was enough).

He blew out my hair and flat ironed it to look all nice and pretty.

The entire experience set me back about 5500 yen. They have a loyalty card if you want to make them your constant.