Could a Japanese-style hair washing routine be the secret to healthier hair growth? When it comes to beauty, time and time again, Japanese beauty brands, researchers, and creators remain one step ahead. A simple example of that? Consider the hair brush. While many people in the west who following western beauty routines are brushing their hair once (maybe twice) a day, in Japan, it’s at least twice as much—nd for good reason.
Hairstylist Maria Roberts, founder of the Madart x Studio 25 hair salon, spent a stretch of time training in Japan before opening her own salon and spa in Quijorna, Madrid. There, she discovered, among other things, that hair washing is super focused on scalp care. Finally, scalp care has made its way to the United States beauty world. Scalp products are the fastest growing beauty category according to research data, with ingredients like AHAs, BHAs, and exosomes being some of the buzziest ingredients.
Roberts walks us through what she learned during her time in Japan—and how you can implement it at home, too.
Super Brushing
Running your paddle brush through you hair a few times in the morning isn’t going to cut it. Roberts says many hairstylists use at least two silicone massaging brushes, one on each side of the head, to create a massage routine that helps deep clean the head and activate blood circulation.
“The best way to do a scalp massage is to start at the back of the head, going upwards and always focusing on the crown of the head, where there are more nerve endings,” Roberts explains. By applying the technique with two brushes, and adding in shampoo, the effect is potent. According to Roberts, it not only stimulates growth, but also relieves tension on the scalp—try massaging your own scalp when you’re nervous or anxious, it works too—and the hair is much cleaner.
By now we know that, if we want our hair to thrive, we have to know how to care for our scalps and keep that dryness at bay. “The scalp to the hair is the soil for flowers,” Morgan Rabach, board certified dermatologist and cofounder of LM medical, previously told Vogue. “The healthier the scalp, the better the chance your hair has of being healthy.”
Tangle Teezer
