“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.
A Korean hair care routine contains a scalp treatment that helps revitalise your scalp and gets rid of dandruff and moisturises a dry scalp. This often comes in the form of a mask, cleanser, or a scrub. You need to use a scalp mask once a week after you shampoo –– leave it on for a couple of minutes and rinse off.
Korean hair products are filled with moisturizing and soothing ingredients like argan oil, goat milk, shea butter and more. You can smooth on a scalp scaler or pop on a self-heating sheet mask (yes, there are even sheet masks for hair!) for silky, smooth strands in no time.
“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.
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.
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.
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 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.
This is why Korean women live by the rule of double cleansing, double eye mask and double hydration in their skincare regimen. The step cleansing method includes a foaming face wash followed by an oil-based cleanser. This clears the skin of every last bit of makeup and dirt from face.
It's because Koreans tend to view caring for their complexion as the ultimate investment, worthy of not only their money, even more so their time. In fact, most perform an intricate 10-step cleansing and moisturizing routine—every single night.
Why do Koreans sometimes skip a shower and only wash their hair? How often is hair washed in Korea? Among old Korean movies, there are often scenes where women only wash their hair in winter scenes. Korea has a very cold and dry climate in winter, so there is not much body odor.
3. Try Korean diets that have Kimchi, made of fermented veggies and seasonings packed with the right nutrients for hair growth. Also, Koreans include Cheonggukjang (fermented soybean paste) regularly in their diet, which contributes phenomenally to their healthy and thicker hair growth.
What is the most common hair color in Korea? Korean's like most Asians have naturally black hair. So darker shades of colors or various tones of brown are most preferred as a hair color in Korea.
“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.
Washing your hair only 1-2 times a week
This one is an absolute must for idols, and it is for you too! If you wash your hair on a daily basis, you may think this is crazy, but it actually makes a lot of sense.
Do you find any of them quirky or interesting? Koreans brush their teeth 3 times a day. From a young age, Koreans are taught to brush their teeth at least three times a day. They were advised to brush their teeth after every meal for 3 minutes.
Double cleansing is important. For Koreans, it's considered so necessary that no one ever washes their face just once. You must remove your make-up first and then wash your face again with a second product to get your skin deeply cleansed.
If you treasure K-Dramas as much as we, you might notice that it seems people wash their hair every day in Korea. The truth is that in Korea, it's common for people to wash their hair daily because they're concerned about pollution and dirt. Conversely, people in Australia wash their hair two or three times per week.
It has been reported that Asian hair is generally straight and is the thickest, while its cross-section is the most round-shaped among these three. Caucasian hair is generally straight or wavy and is the thinnest, while its cross-section is relatively elliptic.
In ancient China and Korea, hair was regarded as a precious legacy from parents. Most people would never cut their hair after they became adults, and cutting off one's hair was a penalty for minor crimes. Both men and women would coil up their hair and many hair-coiling styles were developed.
Most people of East Asian descent have thick, straight hair. This corresponds with a SNP (rs3827760) in the EDAR gene which is involved in hair follicle development. The ancestral allele of this SNP is the A-allele. The G-allele is the newly derived allele that leads to the thick, straight hair.