“Men and women in South Korea are meticulous when it comes to maintaining healthy hair with a three-step process. After washing the hair with shampoo and conditioner, they often apply a hair essence or hair oil to achieve a shiny head of hair. Hair masks, serums, milks and hair mists are all must-haves,” explains Cho.
Just like our skin, our hair needs pampering, and masking is what it needs. If you're wondering how K-pop idols maintain their hair, hear it from CL. This Korean celebrity maintains a strict routine where she leaves her hair in a hair mask at least once a week to maintain its shine and health.
Korean haircare promotes the use of carbonated water to wash your scalp. This helps remove dirt, balance the pH levels of the scalp and unclog pores effectively. It is a great way to keep your hair health in check. Kimchi is a big part of Korean cuisine, and this garlic rich food item is excellent for your mane.
In Korea, people like to wash their hair every day because of environmental pollution (fine dust, gas emissions, etc). Whereas people in America generally tend to wash hair every 2-3 days due to the common perception that it's much healthier for your hair.
“Men and women in South Korea are meticulous when it comes to maintaining healthy hair with a three-step process. After washing the hair with shampoo and conditioner, they often apply a hair essence or hair oil to achieve a shiny head of hair. Hair masks, serums, milks and hair mists are all must-haves,” explains Cho.
The reason Asian hair tends to be thicker is that it has around 10 layers of cuticles. Cuticles are the small areas around the inner protein structure of your hair–they are there to protect those proteins.
Since ancient times, Koreans have only used natural, harsh-free ingredients for their skincare routines: green tea, “snail slime”, bamboo extracts, propolis, and honey are just some examples of the elements they used and have passed through generations.
The cuticle is the outer layer that protects the individual hair. The many layers on an Asian hair are also more dense and wider and thicker than on Caucasian hair. That gives the hair an illusion of being really shiny and silky.
Koreans use a scalp scaler to remove the dead skin, oil, and accumulated pollutants from their scalp. The scalp scaler is nothing but a shampoo that is meant for cleansing your scalp. It is typically made up of salicylate [1] and does not lather when you apply it to your scalp.
Korean Messy Volume Hair
The cut has to leave a lot of hair all around or at least at the top to give it a messy appearance. A texturizing spray or hair wax is typically applied to the longer hair strands. Brushing it in all directions as it is blow-dried makes the hair appear even more voluminous.
Caucasians have the highest hair density among the ethnicities studied. Black people have the lowest. Asian people have hair density that falls somewhere in between.
“According to my hair stylist, Korean women use a hair essence or oil every single day, which is why they have such silky, soft, and shiny strands.” A personal favorite for Cho is British M's Organics Annatto Hair Oil, while Lee is a fan of the Mise en Scene Pearl Shining Hair Essence.
Genetic studies found that hair thickness in Asian populations is linked to genetic variations. Fujimoto et al observed a correlation between a nonsynonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in ectodysplasin A receptor (EDAR) gene and hair thickness in Asians in a genome-wide analysis.
Korean beauty advocates double dose of skincare products to seal the benefits and preserve the skin's health. This is why Korean women live by the rule of double cleansing, double eye mask and double hydration in their skincare regimen.
Frequency of shaving or beard grooming among men South Korea 2022. According to a survey conducted among South Korean men in 2022, around 51.8 percent of respondents stated that they were shaving or taking care of their beard once a day. On average, South Korean men shaved around 5 times per months.
Korean diet essentials
Traditional Korean foods focus heavily on fruit, soy, steamed vegetables, rice, fish and fermented foods such as kimchi, a cabbage-based dish thought to be a centerpiece of the Korean diet. The K-pop diet is also one that is characterized as minimally processed, as well as low in sugar and fat.
To do so, a person should shampoo their hair and then thoroughly rinse it with distilled water. Then pour rice water on their hair and massage it into their scalp and hair. After that, leave it on for 15 - 20 minutes and then properly rinse the hair with mild water from the tap.
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