Japanese Hair Straightening/ Thermal Reconditoning

Overall wouldn't recommend it as its a pricey temporary fix to a significant underlying issue.

For my young 11 year old self, relaxing my hair seemed like the perfect solution to the pelo malo growing from my scalp. It seemed totally natural to perm my hair straight like all the other white girls so I'd be acceptable and not a 'lion', 'sex head', 'unruly' or 'metalhead' (due to all the clips I'd use to hold my hair down and straight).

The process itself took 9 hours of applying and straightening over and over and my scalp (which is by no means tenderheaded, was aching so much the next day i didn't want to move my hair at all). I didn't wash my hair for a week after as I wanted it to hold for certain and that was interesting to sleep with. Just sleep with your hair parted on both sides of your shoulders and on your back.

Again, it was perfect, everything I wanted, wake up flawless pin straight shiny hair, shower and it dries the same. My hair parted in even lines just like all the other girls and it was amazing not to take 3 hours every day to straighten my hair which would only get to a flat boof anyhow. It was a miracle.

And then the regrowth occurs. Anyone who's done relaxers knows its that ticking time bomb to when your regrowth comes through and you have to start hiding it until its long enough to relax again. Of course, everytime you relax your hair it gets damaged more and progresses to being more and more lifeless and eventually shorter and shorter.

By the time I decided I wanted to go natural with my hair I had two totally different textures, majority high porosity relaxed straight and damaged hair and then my new growth (that unrecognizable and feared enemy of my wallet) healthy, curly and asking for acceptance. Much like I had been previously.

Fast forward to today, I won't deny that at the time it was the best thing I did and had done in my life. However, now I realise that the real issue was that I didn't love my hair, my heritage and my own being and that relaxers were a cover-all fix that like a bandaid on wet skin, never quite stuck.

My hair is very thick, curly and unruly. I would spend over an hour straightening it every time, and it gets ruined very fast by humidity. I paid $440 for this treatment (for a double layer), out of desperation – I am so tired of putting up my hair, or it looking crazy, after I spent over an hour of straightening it, when I just want to wear it down without it poofing up my face.

The treatment does indeed flatten out the hair (so I would only recommend it for women with thick hair), and it looks great when there is little or no humidity. However, despite all the assurances that it works 100%, I still have to spend 5-10 minutes flat-ironing it, which is fine. The thing that sucks is that medium and high humidity STILL RUIN MY HAIR, which makes me spending $440 pointless. It does seem to give some protection against humidity, and, if ruined by humidity, my hair will become fairly straight after 24 hours without any intervention on my side, which is interesting. I don’t think I will get it again though.

I had the worst thing i have ever done i did japanese straightner last december in canada i have super thick hair and littel wavy it takes along time to dry my hair so i decided to do this treatment at the begining it will look good after 1 month my hair start falling out like crazy with very bad smell when i take shower when i brush my hair when touch my hair and until now still falling i cried alot i feel down when i see my hair at the mirror i lost 50% of my hair i have empty spot i called my hairdresser i told her what hapend she said no problem dear u have alot of hair she was rude 6 month passed and my hair still falling plz help me what i should do .. My hair will grow back ? Or my scalp damaged i feel worry my hair changed my life

After all the reviews i read I got the Japanese hair straightening done last week, thinking that majority of the people had a good experience so what can possibly go wrong.. but for the past two days i have been noticing strands and strands of hair falling out =( my carpet is full of hair, i cant put my fingers through my hair afraid i will pull out another strand =( this is just horrible.. I for one will never get this done again, thats for sure. Everyone always commented on how much volume i had in my hair and how thick it was but not its all falling off. It will take me years to reverse this damage and get the lengh and volume back. If anyone can provide some suggestions or advice on how i can fix this or improve my hair again please let me know. I am getting married in 3 months and I hope this shedding stops.

I had the Japanese thermal straightening done in May 2013 and over 5 months have passed...my hair still looks great! Before, my hair was unruly, frizzy, damaged, broom-like, and poofy from over washing it, curling irons, and flat irons. I paid $240 to get it done which took about 3 hours total. It really has been a life changing experience since. When your hair looks nice and straight and when you dress up everything looks nice as well. My hair was so ugly before and embarrassing. Now, I can just shampoo my hair and blow dry in 5 minutes and it is straight and healthy looking. I stopped using heat styling tools all together. As someone, has mentioned before the JTS is a lot less damaging then straightening your hair everyday. Just make sure you get your hair trimmed as it can damage the ends. Highly recommended!!

This review is for the Yuko Anti-frizz treatment. I got talked into this and out of the full Yuko straightening by my hairdresser because he said it would give me a better result and it was a lot cheaper (£90 against £300). However this was £90 wasted. While my coarse, frizzy, kinky hair looked great straight after the treatment, after the first wash it just went back to normal. It possibly feels very slightly softer but it looks exactly the same with frizz and curls everywhere. The effect is supposed to last 3 months. I got 3 days out of it. The worst thing though is that this treatment has changed how my hair smells to the point where I'm scared to get within smelling distance of anyone. When it's wet, or just slightly damp from humidity in the air it smells strongly of a combination of burnt hair and vomit - really really foul. I cannot recommend this treatment to anyone.

As a matter of interest the hairdresser says that full Yuko straightening also smells terrible.

I love the Japanese thermal reconditioning treatment! My hair is coarse, frizzy and very damaged due to heat styling since that is the only way I can wear my hair down (using a curling iron or flat iron). I have tried the Keratin treatment and that only lasted about 1 month before it washed out. I think the reason why it didn't last long was because I washed my hair frequently (everyday or every other day). Now that I know not to wash my hair, I have bought dry shampoo and am only washing every three days.

So far my hair is silky smooth and I am able to just run out the door and air dry my strands. I will be doing this treatment for the rest of my life. Styling time has decreased, my hair is super shiny and bone straight! If you are on the fence about doing this treatment, stop thinking and run to the salon, you will not regret it.

I recommend going to an Asian salon since those are reasonably priced compared to American ones. I did my research and found that most Asian salons charge between $150-300.

Overall, I had a great experience and can wear my hair down everyday with no heat styling!

Been doing Yuko for 6 years. Just did my 5th treatment this weekend. (I haven't washed my hair yet). If you treat your hair well there should be no problem at all. It has made my hair look and feel healthier than it ever was. My hair used to look like a got electrocuted. Thin, frizzy and crunchy all over. I coudln't step out into the South Florida heat for 3 minutes before the hair halo appeared.It has been life changing! I know it's just a hair thing, but really. Much less time blow drying. Before it used to frizz 100%, now it's about 5% if at that on a humid day.
If you go to a trained professional (they have a list of salons on the Yuko website) your hair will look better than it ever has. Shiny and straight. If you just wash and go you will have a bit of waves, but still smooth. A large flat brush and 10 minutes of blowdrying is all it takes to keep is straight. Just upkeep with either the Yuko products or better yet, organic or sulfate free shampoos and some quality styling products and you are goooood. Also, do not scrubb hard with a towel after washing. Even if you haven't done this straightening - it's very damaging.

Great results again. Second time having the Japanese Hair Straightening/Thermal Reconditioning (JHS) done on my hair. Did it previously about two years ago at the same hair salon in Tokyo, Japan.

Why go to Japan to get this done? Well since we were going to Japan anyways, it's the best and cheapest place to have this procedure done! At least half the price! And my regular stylist told me!

My regular salon is Kozo Salon in Costa Mesa, CA and is a owned/run by a Japanese gentleman and all the stylists there are Japanese, trained in Japan and they are all very skilled and talented. My regular stylist told me that JHS done in Japan is so much cheaper because all the Japan salons do that procedure whereas its not as common here, so they charge more here.

My older teen daughter has had the JHS done a couple of times on her long hair by my US stylist with fabulous (shiny, silky, smooth) results, but it cost almost $300 which included shampoo, straightening process, styling & tip and took abour 4-5 hours. Actually, $300 isn't a bad price because I checked around and some salons wanted $500-800+. Other salons quoted less, but I couldn't confirm how skilled or trained they were in this procedure and you definitely want a stylist who has been thoroughly trained unless you want your hair to break and fall off!

Anyways after converting the poor exchange rate for the US dollar to the Japanese yen, the cost for the Tokyo, Japan salon charge was $150 which included wash, cut, straightening, styling. Took about 2.5 hours total and told not to get it wet for 1-2 days. Slight language barrier as they don't speak much English. However, they use a lot of English words like cut, straight perm, shampoo, so it's pretty easy to let them know what you want. They have a printed "menu" of their services and will point out and say what it is and you can see the cost, so there are no surprises at what you'll pay total in the end. Also, no tipping in Japan!

The salon is a large well known chain called Ash Hair Make and the location I went to was in a town named Musashi Sakai, just west of the main Tokyo/Shinjuku area and close to the train station. They do have a website if you want to google it.

They are also pretty careful and analyze your hair thoroughly and check to see that it can handle the JHS and will ask when you had the last chemical or color treatment.

If you've never experienced the Japanese hair salons, the service level is a great experience! My daughter also had the JHS done by Ash salon the previous time with great results for half the price of our US stylist.

In many larger salons in Japan, they charge different rates for various stylists ranging from Director, Top Stylist, Stylist. This time I had a Top Stylist assigned, so maybe if if was a Stylist, the price might be slightly less. Or if it was a small shop with less stylists or just an owner, the price could possibly be around $125.

I tried googling to check out other posts for more touristy Tokyo area (Harajuku) salons that spoke English, but their pricing was much higher, close to $200+ for the straightening alone, so YMMV. I think the smaller shops (and there are a ton of hair salons all over Japan, probably several on each block!) in the smaller towns are priced more competetively for the JHS or have specials like Ash salon did. Most will have their prices posted in their shop windows or on board in front of their shops, so you can see what they charge. I was seeing about $125 for a lot of small shops for cut and JHS, so not too bad.

We were also in Thailand and the local shops advertised JHS there for probably $75-100, but I am a bit leery as I didn't see a lot of postings and feedback and didn't know their skill levels. I've heard that Singapore and China are also possible places to get it done for less than US, but again YMMV on the skill and experience of the stylist!

So, if you happen to go to Japan it might be worth checking out and trying the Japan salon service but do your research first!

I've gotten this straightening treatment about five times now (once a year) and it's done wonders in keeping my hair frizz-free and manageable. For me, the first straightening session took about six hours, but the appointments have gotten shorter every year, mainly due to the chemical damage my hair's been through which makes it easier for the chemicals to penetrate my hair and do its job. While I do have to say it makes the hair a lot straighter and easier tame, it IS in fact very damaging and may require special care depending on who you are. I personally just shampoo my hair and leave in my regular condition for about five minutes before rising it off, and that seems to work fine for me. If you color or do anything else with your hair, you'll probably have to do a lot more to maintain your hair's health.


I normally get the Japanese hair straightening done in China or in Flushing, so it comes out to be roughly $150 which is really inexpensive for this treatment. Other salons probably charge a LOT more, but they might also have better products. Nothing really negative has happened to my hair and my health yet, though, so I'm going to say the straightening products my stylist uses isn't too bad, but I would still recommend others to try a legitimate salon if they would want to get their hair done for the first time.


Also, I let my hair take a break once in a while from the straightening (every three years). Even though I do love the result of my hair, it's still never the best to get it straightened too often as there are harsh chemicals being used.

Overall, great experience with this process!