Review: Ichikami Care & Style hair water

Item Reviewed: Ichikami Care & Style hair water

Price/pack size: S$

Available at: exclusively at Watsons

Description: Ichikami hair care series is formulated with Rice Premium EX (Yusuru essence, oil and protein originated from rice bran), plus six kinds of pure Japanese Herbal Essences (Belanmcanda, Camellia, Soapberry, Walnut, Sasanqua, Sakura) to nourish, repair and moisturize your hair.

Usage: Spray hair water 5-10cm away onto hair. Apply styling products if desired. Can be used on wet & dry hair.

Review: I received this product in my Ichikami product hamper last year end, and only remembered to use it recently after I permed my hair and it was getting dry like the Sahara desert. Remind me to treat my hair properly before I do any other chemical treatments in future please. Le sigh. Anyway, I was deciding between Lucido-L treatment water (with Hyaluronic Acid!) and Liese Raspberry hair mist in Watsons, when I saw the top shelf display for Ichikami. I suddenly recalled I have this at home, and decided to save some bucks and not buy anything. Hehe.

Ichikami Care & Style hair water promises to treat and repair hair, as well as style hair at the same time! Talk about multi-purpose! I usually use this during the day, while in office, to add some much required moisture to my hair, as well as, restyle and revive the curls. It smells really sweet, and makes my hair smell nice too (an added plus especially when we lunch at the smoky hawker centre!) However, I think my hair is way too parched for the hair water to have any effect on it. Like, I reckon I need a serum or oil more than water. Y’know what I mean? So sadly, this hair water was used a couple of times and I sent it to dear Kimoko (Queen of BB creams) who absolutely loves it.

Rating: -/5 (not suitable for my current hair state)

Would I buy again: Don’t think so… I’ve already found my HG hair serum (Kerastase Oleo Relax!)

Review: Ichikami hair oil

Item Reviewed: Ichikami hair oil

Price/pack size:

Available at: exclusively at Watsons

Description: Ichikami hair care series is formulated with Rice Premium EX (Yusuru essence, oil and protein originated from rice bran), plus six kinds of pure Japanese Herbal Essences (Belanmcanda, Camellia, Soapberry, Walnut, Sasanqua, Sakura) to nourish, repair and moisturize your hair.

Non-greasy hair treatment oil repairs severe damages, leaving hair shinny & healthy. It contains Rice Squalene to smoothen cuticles & it reduces UV-ray exposure. No rinsing necessary.

Usage: Take an appropriate amount (about 3-4 pushes) and rub on palms. Apply to your whole hair. Take a small amount at a time and apply to tips of hair where damage and dryness is concerned. You can apply on wet (towel-dried) hair or dry hair. Recommended to use with along with other ICHIKAMI series like Shampoo and Conditioner.

Review: Leave-on hair essences are an essential step in my haircare regime to getting soft, smooth hair. I can skip the hair conditioner and treatment, but I will never forsake my leave-on essence! I was glad that Ichikami hair oil comes in a tiny bottle of 50ml as I already have my Kerastase Oleo-Relax (100ml) and small sizes are always handy to have around, especially when you travel. The hair oil comes simply in a translucent bottle (yay! no need to guess if I’m running out soon) and a pump with a sweet, pearly pink cap. The only complain I have about the packaging is that the cap is a little loose, and tends to come off easily if I throw it around my luggage (the cap did come off in my check-in luggage during my Korea trip! Luckily no hair oil was spilled).

The hair oil was very light, and I needed abt 2-3 pumps for my shoulder length hair. I did use up to 4 pumps when I was in bone-dry Korea though. Despite using that much of hair oil, my hair absorbed all of it quickly, and did not turn limp. In fact, my hair was very soft, smooth and had no static reaction! I’d like to think that it was Ichikami that ‘saved’ my hair from becoming frizzy and dry in that weather.

Rating: 4/5

Would I buy again: Yes! Now I must quickly finish up my Kerastase!

Review: Ichikami shampoo

Item Reviewed: Ichikami shampoo

Price/pack size: S$7.90 for 200ml bottle, $16.90 for 550ml pump bottle

Available at: exclusively at Watsons

Description: Ichikami hair care series is formulated with Rice Premium EX (Yusuru essence, oil and protein originated from rice bran), plus six kinds of pure Japanese Herbal Essences (Belanmcanda, Camellia, Soapberry, Walnut, Sasanqua, Sakura) to nourish, repair and moisturize your hair.

Ichikami shampoo does not contain Silicon, a chemical ingredient that gives an instant result of silky smooth hair, which may also result in hair fall in the long run. Instead, Ichikami makes use of herbal essences to achieve smooth, beautiful and most importantly, healthy hair. Enjoy the refreshing and fruity fragrance of Sakura!

Usage: Wet your hair well and apply proper quantity on your hair. Lather up and massage scalp well. Rinse thoroughly. Apply Ichikami conditioner and/or treatment for better results.

Review: I was excited to use the Ichikami haircare range as I really liked the scent and finally got down to using the shampoo, 1 out of many products I received in the product hamper. However, I was a little disappointed with the packaging. Now, I don’t know if I got a reject bottle but the hinge of the bottle cap broke the first time I opened the bottle. It says a lot to me, and definitely affects my decision to repurchase. Product packaging is important to me as I like my products to be functional and not just look pretty. Having the hinges broken made me wonder if it’s a design fault, or I just happened to get a defect bottle. As mentioned previously, the shampoo lathered up really well despite not having silicons in its formulation. I did, however, notice that I drop a lot more hair than usual while using Ichikami. My hair also felt a little straw-like if I skimped or skipped conditioner. But I persevered and continued using it and slightly 2 weeks later, it was all good. I guess it was the natural process of purging out the silicones in my hair.

It is a must to use the hair conditioner or hair treatment while using the shampoo, as the conditioner & treatment definitely smoothed out the tangles and straw-like feeling. A little lasts a long way with Ichikami as well, I only require one pump of conditioner (whereas I’d usually require 2 pumps for my shoulder length hair). My hair was a lot smoother and softer when I allowed it to dry naturally.

Rating: 3.5/5

Would I buy again: Not sure.. while I like the way it makes my hair feel, I’m divided on the silicon-free stand ( I really don’t care if my hair products are loaded with silicones). Having said that, Ichikami is a good and affordable way to start caring for your hair. If I had to choose, I’d probably repurchase the conditioner & hair treatment pack, but not the shampoo.

DIY: Olive oil hair treatment

I was bored at home on an off day, so I decided to give my hair a treat. It has been a little dry lately, especially at the ends, so I wanted to do a hot oil hair treatment. It was really simple, but could get a little messy rinsing out. This is what I did:

• Just pour out some olive oil (I used EVOO as that was what I had at home) into a small cup.
• Apply the oil to your dry hair (oil and water do not mix, so it wouldn’t make sense to apply oil to damp hair – my sis had oil dripping all over herself cos her hair was wet).
• The oil should ‘cling’ onto your dry hair without dripping all over, creating a mess.
• When you think you have applied the oil evenly to your hair (concentrate more on the ends!!), wrap up in a shower cap.
• It would be good to use a disposable one as it is quite a hassle to wash the oil off your favourite shower cap – don’t ask how I know.
• Leave the oil on for at least an hour for it to work its magic.
• Rinse out the oil and shampoo your hair, concentrating on your scalp in case the oil remains on your scalp and makes your hair limp and greasy. I shampooed thrice, just to be on the safe side.

Results:

• My hair was soft and smooth after drying naturally, especially the ends.
• My hair felt thicker and had more volume.

Side notes:

• I didn’t use a conditioner after shampoo cos I wanted to see if the oil treatment made a difference.

My verdict: while the treatment made my hair soft and bouncy, effects of the hair treatment only lasted 3 washes. I wash my hair daily, so that’s only 3 days before my hair was back to normal. Don’t think I will go through the hassle of doing it again for such results… I think my Shiseido Aquair treatment pack is more convenient and gives me same results, without the mess.