Palty Hair Dye

So... One of my big concerns with moving to Japan was how I was going to dye my hair!? (I know... Such a big problem). I have been dying my hair pretty much none stop since I was 10 so I didn't really feel like stopping now! Plus my hair is pretty long and I haaaaate regrowth! 

I was using Lush henna for a little while a kinder alternative (which is also available in Japan, although crazy expensive!) but the colour wasn't vibrant enough and I was all mismatched thanks to the mix of henna and old chemical dye!

I was fed up.

So I went to my local drug store and picked up a couple of boxes of Japanese home dye!

I read lots and lots of reviews on Japanese hair dyes before going into this. I also wasn't expecting much. I'd heard that it fades quickly and doesn't work well in western hair, not getting the right colour/ drying it out/etc. But I thought I'd give it a go!

Here is my review.

 

So I went for Palty and a foam dye because it's meant to be easy (which it was!) The shade was  きいちごジャム (raspberry jam) and looked super cute on the box.

In the box you get...

 

 

                                 A mixing cup.                                      Developer.

                                                     and a tube of colour.

                                        Also gloves, instructions and conditioner! 

Note that the instructions are all in Japanese. I found some English ones on the internet, but the pictures kind of give you the general idea! (I also bought two boxes because I have pretty long hair!)

(Basically throw it all in the cup, mix and when it's all mixed together in a foam slap it in your hair for a bit! haha)

The smell was okay and the process was pretty simple but the results were rubbish!!!! It barely changed my hair at all! and didn't make it anything like the colour on the box *la sigh*

Below are the results. In different light.

There was a slight colour change at the roots but it was barely noticeable.

So overall! It sucked haha. 

I will say that the conditioner was lovely!

(After all this I just gave in and went to a hair salon! It was suuuuper pricey but totally worth it. I'll blog about that later...)

Kawaii! Japan's Culture of Cute

 

I entered a competition on www.supercutekawaii.com to win a book and I won!!! Woo!

I looooove books and this looked amazingly adorable! I have a few books on Japanese culture, mostly fashion books like Fruits, and thought this would make an excellent addition to my collection!

The selfie of myself with the book was requested by the publishing company, there is also an image of the book alone below! I believe the book is £16.99 to purchase and is available at all good book retailers! (currently £10.87 at Amazon! Bargain!)

 

I haven't had the chance to read it all thoroughly but I have had a good flick through and it looks amazing! The images used are perfect examples of kawaii Japan. They even have an image of the Hello Kitty suite from the Lotte Hotel in Jeju South Korea! I want to stay there so badly!! D;

It covers all aspects of kawaii from fashion to art to air planes! And the book itself is so cute. It is all colour coded with great pastel and bright shades. Really captures kawaii!

I'd highly recommend this to any lovers of kawaii!

I may post a more detailed review once I actually get to read it properly! But so far LOVE IT!

Hair Dye Stress!

So I've been dying my hair on and off (mostly on) since I was about 12 years old. Mostly shades of red in semi and then permanent dyes. For the last 3 ish years I've dyed it the same mahogany/ deep red colour. Now comes the panic. I use a professional dye which my mother's ex-hair dresser friend applies for me. Thus it will not be purchasable in Japan and if it was I'd make a right muck up of mixing and applying it alone!

D:

So now comes the obsessive researching into Japanese brand hair dye. *cry*

The results are that Japanese hair dye seems to be terrible for caucasian hair as they pretty much all contain bleach. Japanese people tend to have thick black hair, so their hair dye products are designed for such hair. My hair is medium, thin, easily damaged caucasian hair! ARGH! It seems they aren't great for your hair and they can fade too. Especially the reds. Stupid red.

So yesterday I tried using Lush henna on my hair! Lush is present in Japan so it would be easy to buy, it's natural and therefore okay on your hair and while insanely mess does not contain potentially damaging chemicals which I can accidentally mix wrong and turn my hair green! :D

The results are mixed... I tried CaCa Maron because I didn't want to go crazy first time with rouge. I got my mother's hair dresser type friend to apply it (CRAZY messy) and slept in it (around 14 hours). Overall it doesn't seem to have done much.... My dyed hair (most of my hair) seems slightly more brown, kind of a conker colour. My roots are a lighter, slightly reddier, colour than my natural medium ash. The roots do now blend in more naturally to the rest of my hair but it's still kind of obvious (maybe I'm just crazy?!). I suppose I'll see it is lightens more...
(I would provide photos but you can't really see....)

The absolute final straw will be to go get my hair stripped *cry* I really don't want to because my hair damages easily and it WILL KILL MY HAIR. And it's just gotten to my ideal length! And even then I'd want to re-dye/ henna it as my natural colour SUCKS and my greys keep multiplying despite only being 22 *cry* So hopefully it won't come to this.

Letting it grow out is not an option.

First world problems, eh?