Are you someone that frequently colors your hair? Do you perm your hair often? Is your hair dry and brittle? Are you tired of moisturizing shampoos that make your hair and scalp feel greasy and gross even though you just washed your hair? Japanese damage-care shampoos can help repair your dry and damaged hair while also ensuring your hair and scalp are thoroughly cleaned without making them feel too oily.
Hair can easily get damaged with coloring, perming, heat styling, and simply just by daily blow-drying. Looking for a shampoo that can help with damage care would be the easiest way to manage and treat our hair, but with so many brands, features, and formulas on the market, it can be hard to find one that's the most suitable for your hair needs.
To help you find which products are the best Japanese shampoos for damaged hair, we gathered the 28 best-selling products from e-commerce sites popular in Japan (such as @cosme, Amazon, Rakuten, and Yahoo! Shopping) and tested them all.
We then ranked the 10 best products based on our test results and put what we learned into a buying guide to help you choose the best Japanese shampoos for damaged hair in 2022.
In 1994, while head of R&D for hair care products, Inoue established the International Research Institute for Hair and Skin Science. Their main research themes are shampooing and hair restoration. Mr. Inoue gives lectures at cancer treatment wards all over Japan and at over 7,000 salons as well as other medical treatment seminars. Recently he has appeared on TV and in magazines.
mybest US' editing team consists of experienced members who have backgrounds in writing, editing, translation, and more. We are dedicated to researching what makes a product or service the best to users in the US in order to create top-quality articles. From skincare, to kitchen appliances, and to DIY supplies, our mission is to find the best ones for you.
The expert oversees the Buying Guide only, and does not determine the products and services featured.
Damage care shampoos are formulated with superior repairing ingredients and tend to provide a moist glossy-looking finish. Essentially, hair damage is simply dryness, whether it be caused by coloring or perming, which can damage your hair cuticles, therefore making it easier for the moisture in your hair to evaporate.
Japanese damage care shampoos use mild, non-irritating cleansing ingredients (ampholytic soap agents) to avoid drying out your hair even more. Additionally, while many shampoos sold in the market are formulated with various moisturizing ingredients, like argan oil, for example, some of these products can make your hair feel greasy, especially if you have dry hair but an oily scalp. Japanese shampoos for damaged hair also take the scalp into consideration, providing just enough moisture for your hair and scalp without feeling your hair or scalp either too dry or too greasy.
Ultimately, in addition to using damage care shampoos, you can repair stubbornly damaged hair by also incorporating treatments, conditioners, and hair oils into your haircare routine!
Here are three essential points to keep in mind when choosing a shampoo for damaged hair.
For our buying guide, we consulted IRIHASS head Tetsuo Inoue for his expertise.
There are many different causes of hair damage! Damage care shampoos often contain repair ingredients specific to each problem, so choose a product that contains the ingredients that match your hair type.
Cationic surfactants are also used in conditioners and treatments, which coat the surface of each strand of hair to prevent static electricity. It makes hair smooth and soft and tames frizz.
The effect remains even after the hair is rinsed, so it is recommended for people whose hair often gets wrinkled and is difficult to comb.
Ingredients to look for:
When you touch a doorknob and get hit by static electricity, it hurts right?
Just like how the sensation can hurt your hand, static electricity can also damage your hair, and this damage can also accumulate. Because of this, it's crucial to moisturize dry and brittle hair.
If you frequently color or perm your hair, consider using a shampoo containing hydrolyzed keratin (lecithin).
Keratin (lecithin) is a material used to make cell membranes. Through the process of hydrolysis, it is easily absorbed into the hair and is very effective in repairing hair damaged by coloring or perms.
Ingredients to look for:
For dry hair that looks dry and unruly, we recommend a product containing ceramides, which provides moisture without causing hair to be sticky.
Ceramides are a natural moisturizer found in the skin, so it blends in easily and is gentle on the hair and scalp.
Ingredients to look for:
Even if you choose a shampoo with damage-repairing ingredients, using harsh cleansing ingredients can potentially accelerate damage. Choosing a shampoo with gentle cleansing ingredients that provide a mild wash while thoroughly cleansing is essential.
Amino acid-based cleansing ingredients are gentle to both scalp and hair. However, the disadvantage is that they have lower cleaning power and weak foaming in exchange for gentleness.
Before applying it to your hair, lather well with your hands or a foaming net. Then wash every inch of your hair and rinse it out thoroughly for roughly 5 minutes to ensure that no shampoo residue is left behind. Leaving in any shampoo residue can adhere to your scalp and may cause irritation.
Use the following ingredients as a guide and look for "cocoyl~" and "lauroyl~."
Ingredients to look for:
-Comparatively easier to lather
Also, be very careful about using shampoos with extremely high cleansing abilities. Based on our tests, we determined that folks with highly damaged hair should pick a product with slightly less cleansing power that's gentle on the scalp.
Shampoos that have a faint color often have "caramel" written on the ingredients list. This "caramel" coloring is created from cooked sugar, so it's a natural ingredient that is gentle to your hair.
The soft and fluffy foam, unique to betaine-based products, envelops the entire scalp, making it extremely pleasant and easy to use.
Our staff who used the product also endorsed its smoothness, saying, "There were no tangles at all, and I can run my fingers through my hair so easily that I don't even need to use conditioner!"
While many gentle shampoos tend to have weaker cleansing strength, this was rated highly in our cleansing test. This gave a refreshingly clean wash while moisturizing both scalp and hair.
Another great thing about this product was that it was relatively cheaper than other shampoos, making this a highly affordable shampoo great for daily use.
Japan Gateway's Reveur Fraicheur Repair Non-Silicone Shampoo is packaged and sold in a vacuum dispenser pack to keep it as fresh as long as possible. Ingredients such as plant oils, vitamins, and amino acids, which easily oxidize when exposed to air, are securely locked in, keeping them fresh even to the last push.
A small amount of shampoo was enough to create a dense and thick lather, which makes it extremely cost-effective, even for those with longer hair.
Even though it is non-silicone, this gave us an extremely smooth finish, and our staff members were also impressed at how there were no tangles in hair when fingers were run through.
Napla's Caretect HB Repair Shampoo is said to be able to revitalize hair that has been damaged from coloring and perms into moist and manageable hair.
Despite the formula being non-silicone, the multiple moisturizing ingredients, such as meadow-foam oil, helped this shampoo get a full score on our smoothing and detangling test. This shampoo was able to deliver exactly what it claimed to!
The unisex fragrance was also refreshing, so we would recommend this to those who prefer fresh scents over overly sweet scents.
HANOHICO's Colla Silk 18 Shampoo is an unique shampoo that uses collagen as its main cleansing ingredient. This shampoo was quick to foam but the foam also dissipated easily, which lessened the shampooing experience.
In addition to collagen, the shampoo contains amino acids and betaine-based cleansing ingredients, leading to a strong cleansing power.
This shampoo was rated highly for its gentleness, making this shampoo best for anyone with dry or sensitive scalp.
The black color of this shampoo may surprise you, but the La Sana Seaweed Sea Mud Shampoo by Yamasaki is actually made with French sea mud.
In addition to amino acid-based cleansing ingredients, the fine, sea mud particles help to gently remove dirt and grime while thoroughly cleansing the scalp.
The amazing balance between the strong cleansing power and gentleness to the scalp makes this a great shampoo to cleanse your scalp without irritating it. The detangling effect also received a high score in our evaluation!
The amino acid and betaine-based cleansing ingredients in the enu Shampoo SL by Nakano Seiyaku give it gentle and moderate cleansing, making this a shampoo suitable for daily use.
Unfortunately, this did not have the best foaming power. The quality of the lather was great, but the foam dissipated quickly and did not give the desired refreshing feeling after shampooing.
Members of our editorial staff who tried this shampoo said that it had made their hair feel soft and smooth, from the roots all the way to the ends!
The main cleansing ingredient is betaine, which is gentle on the scalp, but the cleaning power is moderate at best. We would recommend thoroughly pre-washing your hair or shampooing twice with this product.
Nature Lab's Diane Bonheur Organic Damage Repair Shampoo is a product that meets overseas organic certification standards, and despite being non-silicone and using 98% natural ingredients, this shampoo left our hair smooth to the touch.
We found the cleansing power to be moderate, while being very gentle on the scalp. Like other betaine-based products, we would recommend thoroughly pre-washing your hair or shampooing twice.
The rose note in the shampoos fragrance was subtle when compared to the neroli, so we would recommend this if you like the refreshing scent of neroli.
We gathered the 28 best-selling Japanese shampoos for damaged hair from e-commerce sites popular in Japan (such as @cosme, Amazon, Rakuten, and Yahoo! Shopping) and tested them all.
We tested each product for the following:
First, we tested each product on how it felt to use it. As an essential item in our day-to-day lives, it is crucial to find a product that is comfortable and easy to use.
We distributed the products to our Japanese editorial staff to test them out. We transferred the products into separate containers to ensure that the product labels did not bias our staff's evaluation.
We rated each product based on its scent, lathering, ease in rinsing, and how smooth it made our hair feel on a scale of 0.1~5.0. Then, we calculated the average scores for each product to determine the overall score.
We also checked the quality of the fragrance and whether it matched the manufacturer's description.
Some of the highest-scoring shampoos we tested were formulated with silicones and betaines. These ingredients help provide a thorough cleansing and create a smooth and creamy lather which was easy to use.
For those looking for a shampoo that feels good to use, we recommend looking for a product that fits your budget and has both silicones and betaines in the ingredients list.
Next, we tested how gentle the shampoos were on the scalp. To do so, we conducted a protein denaturation test using egg whites.
We diluted each shampoo and mixed it gently with egg whites to prevent foaming. After leaving it for a certain amount of time, we checked how cloudy the mixture became against a black background.
The harsher the product was, the cloudier the egg whites would be. We rated each product on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0, based on how cloudy it turned.
In addition, we also checked the ingredients used in the formulation. We deducted 0.5 points for every non-cleansing ingredient that was highly irritating to the skin.
The products that performed best in our gentleness test were botanical shampoos rich in botanical extracts and oils. Among these, those that met international organic certification standards tended to be gentlest.
We recommend using shampoos containing many botanical ingredients for a mild and gentle cleanse, especially for sensitive skin or those who want to emphasize scalp care.
Next, we tested each product's foaming power, which is crucial when cleaning dirt and sebum off the scalp.
First, we diluted each shampoo equally into large plastic cups.
We then set a hand mixer at a standard speed and lathered each product for a set time. Shampoos that lathered and foamed easily and quickly were highly rated.
To measure the amount of foam produced in a short time, we measured the height of the foam with a ruler and gave each product a score between 1.0 to 5.0.
3-in-1 shampoos that provided shampoo, conditioner, and treatment didn't lather up very well. Lathering shampoo into foam isn't necessary for a good cleansing, but some people prefer a foamy wash. Choose based on your preferences.
Next, we tested how smooth it felt to run our fingers through the hair after using each shampoo to see if there was any tangled hair.
First, we prepared multiple bundles of long, tangle-prone hair. We washed and dried the bundles of hair using each shampoo and repeated this ten times.
To fully reproduce the friction that comes with lathering shampoo, we used a comb to lather the shampoo while adding friction evenly. We didn't use a comb while drying and instead left them to air dry at a constant temperature and wind speed.
After ten washes, we combed through the wet bundles of hair with a comb, checking to see if there were any tangles. Using a machine to measure the pressure when the comb got stuck on a tangle, we rated each on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0.
Almost all of the shampoos we tested detangled and smoothed hair well. This may be due to their conditioning ingredients reducing damage caused by friction.
One disadvantage with shampoos that leave a smooth feel is that it is easy to leave an oily residue behind, so make sure to rinse thoroughly after shampooing.
Lastly, we tested the cleansing power of each shampoo.
For our tests, first, we diluted each shampoo equally. Then we prepared artificial sebum, colored with a mixture of stearic and oleic acid, and spread it onto a glass plate.
The glass plate coated with the artificial sebum was gently dipped and gently shook in the diluted shampoo solution, and we scored each product from 5 to 1 based on how effectively sebum was removed.
Shampoos with betaine-based cleaning ingredients did not perform well in our tests, failing to remove much artificial sebum, and tended to be very weak in terms of cleansing power.
Betaine-based shampoos are great for being gentle on the scalp, but due to lack of cleansing power, we recommend pre-washing thoroughly and washing twice on days when you feel like your hair is particularly dirty.
Now that you know about Japanese shampoos for damaged hair, we’ve got even more hair-care-related recommendations for you!
The products listed do not guarantee any effects, efficacy, or results as described in the buying guide. All products listed in this article have been tested in-house by mybest’s Japan team, with the cooperation of Japanese testers, unless specified otherwise.
None of the content on this website is intended to act as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a licensed medical practitioner or other qualified healthcare provider for healthcare concerns.
When you purchase products mentioned in the article, part of the sales may be returned to mybest.
The descriptions of each product is referenced from the content available from the manufacturer, e-commerce sites etc.
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