Yoshiko – Japanese Hair Stylist in Northbridge

*** Yoshiko has moved to another salon since Jan 9, 2017.  Details below. ***

It’d been a while since my last visit to a hair salon – my hair needed a rescue!

I brought lots of hair-colouring boxes from Japan to dye my hair by myself, but after few boxes I realised I really needed to have my hair colour fixed by a professional.  Sadly I started to have few white hair (by having two boys at home..) and I found it’s difficult to dye these white hair!  And the colour of my hair was really light brown and I knew they’re all damaged.

I was going to go to HairPlus in West Perth, but then I heard about this Japanese hair stylist Yoshiko from my friend so I made a booking for haircut & colouring with her.

She used to cut people’s hair at home, but now you can see her in Northbridge.  She rents a chair at Eternity Hair Design hair salon on William street just for her customer.  The place is conveniently located in heart of Northbridge.

I think it’s a good idea to rent a chair – she doesn’t work at this hair salon but she just uses a corner of this shop.  Customers need to make bookings in order to meet her as she doesn’t stay at the shop when there’s no booking customer.

Some Japanese magazines to read + nice tea.

She’d been a hair stylist in Japan for 9 years, and has been in Perth for 7 years now.  All the products she uses at the salon are from Japan.

Hair Cut for Men $25 (inc shampoo)
Hair Cut for Women $25 (shampoo +$10) (for people who has super long hair +$5)

Colour $60~$75

Hair Bonding Perm $150~ $170 (cut +$20)

Treatment $20

Booking essential to 0423288620 (Yoshiko)
Mon ~ Sat 9:30 ~ 18:00

I coloured my hair darker, and trimmed the length….

I really love itttttttt!  My hair was really damaged but now it’s much easier to style.  Thanks Yoshiko san, I will definitely be back!

***

Yoshiko now locates in Lathlain.  Same as before, she only takes her customers and booking is essential.

0431 421 322 (Yoshiko)

Hair Rebonding

I’d been wanting to do something with my hair …. again!  It really started to annoy me 🙁  My hair was curly (but not in cute ways), dry, and so difficult to set every morning.  Besides, I don’t have time to do it every day, so I just lived looking like this ↓↓↓

But I couldn’t stand it anymore – I see my friends’ photos from Japan and they look so pretty and well-maintained.  I wanted to colour my hair back to black as it’s much easier to maintain.  So I decided to go back to Nao’s place to have my hair a make-over.  (previous post)

I wanted to do rebonding (a process which permanently (and checmically) straightens your hair) – I started to rebond my hair when I was at high school, and have been doing it many times since then.  It makes my hair so easy to maintain.  I asked Nao if she can do rebonding, and she said yes!

You can’t do rebonding and color at the same time as it will damage your hair, so you’d better leave it about 1 week between each treatment.  Having your hair coloured first then do rebonding is recommended as the chemical used for rebonding may fade the colour  – although Nao said it shouldn’t be a problem if you leave enough time (1 week ~) between the treatments.

Here I come….!  On the way to Nao’s place.

Hair rebonding takes several hours to get done.  First chemical brakes your hair structure, then hot iron to straighten your hair, and the final chemical to seal the hair structure.  It sounds bad to the hair, but no, it is not harmful at all.  It even repairs hair issues like split ends and dandruff, and you only have to have re-touched your hair after new growth.
Hair rebonding straightens your hair and makes it sleek, shiny and fabulously straight. 🙂

Done!

I will colour my hair 1 week later. Now arranging my hair is so much easier!  I don’t mind strong wind blowing to me anymore as my hair will always stay calm and straight 🙂

I didn’t know about this but Nao told me that you can have hair rebonding in salons in Perth too – I thought it’s available in Japan only :p  But here it costs around $400!!!!  Wowwww so expensive.  I usually pay around $100 ~ $200 for hair rebonding + hair cut in Japan.
At Nao, it costs just $150 for short hair.  I think it’s very reasonable compared to other places.

As you can see on the photo, Nao will close her shop from 26th Dec till 16th Jan 2013. She is going back to Japan to spend New Year with her family 🙂  So envy her!

I’m loving it!

Nao in Canning Vale : 0430 927 880

naomizuno0502<at>yahoo.co.jp

Had My Hair Cut

I had hair cut!!

I went to Nao’s place again.  (previous post)

I wanted to cut my hair short (my hair was below my shoulder and sooo damaged!), and I did.  Well, it turned out not as short as I was thinking, but I like my hairstyle now.

I did cut, colour and 4 foils (we call it “highlight” in Japan).  Because my hair tends to go reddy colour, I chose ash brown to dye my whole hair + golden brown for the highlights.

One thing I like about going to a home-based salon is that I feel more relaxed going there.  Price is often cheaper too. Nao has done a great job on renovating the room – automatic shampoo chair is one of them.  I’ve been to some home-based salons (Japanese) before, and they usually don’t have this type of shampoo chair.  You’ll have to do it either at the laundry sink or use their shower room to wash your hair by yourself.

When Nao washed my hair she did little massage with hot towel, and it was great.  I really needed it!

Now my hair is all new and I just love easy shampoo!

Fix My Appearance

I’ve always thought I’m not really a girly person.  I prefer playing with dogs and cats rather than polishing my nails, and prefer going for a drive rather than going for shopping.  I like being alone sometimes, and do things at my own pace.  I don’t really like being in a group and do things together.

Some of my friends are really women-like.  Shopping for clothes and handbags, getting manicure and pedicure, going to a hair salon every 3 months…  One of them bought some expensive facial and skincare equipments from Japan to keep herself beautiful : minus-iron face steamer, face roller, face lift machine, even an IPL machine to do at home.  Seeing them sometimes makes me think that I should be more “girly” at least a little bit more.  Yes, I admire them keeping themselves look tidy and beautiful.  I’d love to have good-looking hairstyle and fingernails all the time too.  I do want to, but I’m not sure if I can do it.  I mean, I can’t continue doing things sometimes.  Few days later I may forget about my manicure set and few weeks later it will be missing from my view.  I don’t know if I can change this personality now :p

When I realize I need to fix my appearance, however, I can’t wait any longer to get started.  When I’m in mood for it, I want to do it right now. (Yes I am blood type AB, my star sign is Pisces, and I’m Year of the Pig. These 3 things compose my character.)  Now is the time.  I really really really want to do something about my HAIR.  I also feel I need to do something about my face too.  My face looks so tired and unhealthy in the mirror.  Yes I’m 10 years older than 10 years ago, but I still want to look like me when I was 10 years younger.  (Haha :p ) But, this time, I’m keeping myself stay calm.  Because I want to get my hair done in Japan.

I’ve been to several hair salons in Perth, but I must admit that I still prefer salons in Japan.  Price-wise and technique-wise.  Over the last 8 years, I’ve had only one good experience here – it was from Hair Plus in Perth, and I actually liked the hairstyle I got.  Even a stranger told me “wow, how do you maintain your hairstyle so good without being in Japan?”.  My hair was just below my ears (so it was pretty short), and the colour was very light brown.  (I had it when I was writing my old blog)  At other salons, people are great and friendly, but I just wasn’t very happy with the outcome.

My current hairstyle is the worst, I think (*_*).  Before, my hair was always longer than my shoulders so I could at least tie my hair up.  But now, my hair is pretty short and I feel like I’m having a bad hair day everyday.  I don’t like how my hair is cut – the angle, length… everything.  It looks like I cut my hair myself.  I don’t want to say where I got my hair done (it might be just because of my poor explanation of how I want my hairstyle to be to the hairstylist) but I wasn’t happy with the hairstyle and hair colour I got…

It seems that my hair grows very slowly now.  Is it because of breastfeeding?  My hair should be longer than this… It’s been few months since I got haircut already!

I hopt it grows long enough to have new haircut in Japan.  Or I can get hair extensions, I guess…  I want to take photos of before/after and hopefully post them on Umeboss to show. :-p

Nao Hair Salon

I had hair cut!  Yey♪( ´▽｀).

I’d been wanting to have hair cut and color for the past couple of months, and I finally made a booking at Nao’s salon in Canning Vale.  This is a home-based salon.

She recently moved into this house and renovated one room to make into a salon.  The room is fitted with a large mirror and reclining shampoo-chair which she bought from a hair salon in Perth.

As the tip of my hair was really damaged and Hiro started to grab my hair, I wanted to cut my hair short.  Short enough to not being able to be reached by Hiro’s hands, but long enough so that I can play around with wax and mousse.  I also wanted to color my hair to light brown for a change.

It took around 2 hours, and my head is much much lighter now!  My hair on the floor looked like a head of human. I was wearing that amount of hair…

Here is a brief price list :

– Cut (trim) $20

– Cut (without shampoo) $30

– Cut (with shampoo & blow dry) $35

– Colour (includes shampoo & blow dry)

• Short Hair $55
• Medium $60
• Long $70

– Perm(includes shampoo & blow dry)

• Short Hair $80
• Medium $100
• Long $120

– Bridal Set $60

etc…

When Nao was styling my hair at the end I thought the silhouette of my head looked little too round in the mirror, but it felt fine when I touched it. I can probably play with my hair a lot – with hair pins, wax/mousse, and hair accessories. 🙂

Nao had worked in Japan as a hair stylist for years before migrating to Perth, and at her salon she’s only uses Japanese products which she directly imports from Japan.  She contacts her friends regularly who are also hair stylists in Japan to update the news and knowledge, she said.

She told me the customer before me was Umeboss reader :). Glad to know someone read my blog and actually tries the place!

Oh, I loved the reaction of D when he saw my new hair style.  “Is this for real?!”

Nao’s Hair Salon in Canning Vale

→ Read my newer post about Nao’s Hair Salon

* The price list shown above is old, and it may be now different.

Massage and Hair Cut

My craving for this week is laksa noodle!  I had laksa last week, and I just can’t stop thinking about the creamy spicy soup…  I think I will get takeaway tonight.

Most people (especially women) love getting massage, I think.  I actually got two vouchers (one for me, one for husband) from my friend for a massage few months ago.  Around that time I already knew I was pregnant, and I also knew I should avoid getting massage during the first trimester (just to be extra careful).  So, I kept the vouchers until today.

Now, although I can’t lie face down on the massage table anymore, I can still get massage on my neck, shoulders and legs, I think.  My body is really stiff now.  I really need a massage.

I was about to make a booking for the massage.  The massooth is Japanese who does mobile massage in Perth.  When I was about to phone her, my friend told me that she is actually pregnant now!  Oh no… then she can’t do the massage anymore?

I also recently had hair cut by a Japanese lady.  She does mobile hair services in Perth, so I asked her to come over to my house to cut & color my hair.  I could go to her house instead, but I thought it’s better to do it at my house so that I could do all the housework and start roasting the chicken in the oven before she comes.  Then, the chicken would be done when my hair is done!

I cut my hair to medium length, and colored to light brownish color (not too light).

If you are interested in having hair cut by this lady ↓↓

Name: Nao san

Mobile: 0430 927 880

<Price List>

St James Hair Studio

I was very excited to try this hair salon in Northbridge.  One reason is that I was dying to get hair cut, and another is that I wanted to meet this stylist “Kazu”.  I made a booking with Kazu and had a chance to chat with him on Sunday.

Kazu has been working at this St James Hair Studio for 10 years now. He was also a hair stylist in Japan, worked in Tokyo for 9 years, then moved to Perth.  Along with his job at this salon, he goes back to Japan annually to update his skill and knowledge by attending on seminars and catching up with his friends who are also hair stylists.

At the salon, I showed Kazu a sample photo of a hair style and told him how I want my hair to look like, then moved to another chair to get shampoo.  He put a steamed towel on my neck and massaged my head, it was so good.  He told me my muscle is tense – I didn’t know that there’s muscle on the head!  And, he could tell right after touching my head that my body is tired.  He is a pro!

He gave me lots of tips as well.  I asked him how I should dry my hair, naturally or by drier?  How to use hair iron and curler?  He gave me an advice on all the questions I asked, by demonstrating!  He showed me how to dry my hair: wear heat-proof conditioner on the hair first then blow dry completely with strong hair drier.  Then straighten up my fringe with iron, and curl the bottom of my hair with curler.  Wow my hair looks so different…

If you are seeking some tips or answers regards to hair, he is the one 🙂  He has many patrons here, including Japanese, Malaysian, Singapore, Australian etc.  I recommend you to book him at least 1 week in advance…  oh and he is going on holiday from 04/Jan till 24/Jan next year.

St James Hair Studio

Shop 2/218 James St, Northbridge WA 6003

Tel: 08 9228 3339

Yuko Home-Based Hair Salon

I had my hair cut and colored in Perth few weeks ago. The lady who did my hair is Japanese. I knew about her from Perth News – a Japanese website in Perth. She currently uses her house as a salon. 🙂

As I hadn’t had my hair cut for awhile, my hair was a mess! She showed me few Japanese hair catalogs, and I decided to go with light marron color hair. I asked her to make a fringe too, just for a change. My hair is around 10cm below shoulders, and it was $120.00 including cut, color, shampoo and dry. I think it’s pretty cheap.

She said that she’s been working as a hair stylist in Tokyo since she graduated her school in Japan. She also has experiences working in a hair salon in Perth, and last year went back to Japan for 3 months as holiday. As soon as her old colleagues knew she was in Japan, they called her up and asked her to work in the hair salon that she used to work before. According to this story, she must have been a good worker!

When I told her that I was getting married in few weeks, she offered me to get aqua-gel nails. She’s into nails (manicure, pedicure) too and brought a machine from Japan.

This machine produces UV -Ultraviolet light. Aqua -gel become solid under UV, so what she does is brush aqua-gel on nails and put the fingers inside of this machine. After 30 seconds the gel becomes solid (but not too hard). I decided to have this aqua-gel nails done, I knew I had to do something with my nails before the wedding anyway…

I got graduated pink color with silver stones.

Her price list:

☆CUT　Mens $20 / Ladies $30

☆Colour $100～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

☆Perm $100～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

☆super straight perm $200～（include cut&shampoo&pretreatment&browdry）

She uses Japanese products such as Shiseido、Milbon.

8am～3pm
YUKO san
0450 32 4916
happy_kappy [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] jp