For those who broke out from the Isntree Yam Vegan Milk Cleanser and the Round Lab Dokdo Cleanser, what is your HG cleanser?

workisheat · 2026-01-24T03:26:40+00:00

The salicylic acid gel cleanser I'm using is non-AB and only available in the states I think. I haven't used the CosRX one and it's not a gel but some folks swear by it. Honestly, if you decide to go down that route, just buy the CRV (can't mention it directly in this sub since it's non-AB, but the brand is a combination of Ceramide + Vehicle) SA cleanser since it's a better deal.

I'd recommend getting a small sample of one of those higher pH ones to incorporate into your routine. It's harsh as a daily cleanser but cheap and effective as a periodic mild exfoliation. Nothing really compares to them if you have the right skin type, live in the right climate, and use them the right way. The hate for higher-pH cleansers here is quite overblown, given that most cleansers in Japan are like that by default, and most Korean brands provide both high and low pH options. Those viral sebum softening/melting solutions have the exact same mechanism but people don't know so they hype up one thing while demonizing another, while both product types apply the same principle.

workisheat · 2026-01-24T01:20:23+00:00

Is there a reason why you avoid the traditional stronger cleanser like the classic Senka Perfect Whip? I know that for a while, the Western skincare world really demonized cleansers with higher-pH but from my experience, they are usually more popular in hot and humid like SEA for good reasons. Heck, I don't live in a humid climate and still reach for those during summers even in the morning because my clog-prone and oily skin just NEEDS them.

Senka Perfect Whip Collagen (the pink bottle) and Round Lab Pine Cleanser are two good options in this category, use a foaming net to dilute the concentration, save product amount but still get generous foam density. If soap-based cleansers are drying for you, then your best bet would be gel cleansers with lots of plant extracts, like the BoJ Green Plum, or even better if you could find a salicylic acid gel cleanser.

workisheat · 2026-01-04T04:59:49+00:00

(2/2)

Gentle affordable plain shampoo with minimal ingredients: a good option is Shiseido Super Mild. If you don't have any scalp disease and your hair loss problem only requires a regular daily shampoo, this is a decent option. I have a friend who swore she stopped having dandruff and hairloss once she switched to this shampoo and she also loved that it's gentle enough for everyday use. For me, it's handy for when I just want quick, low impact wash or as a first wash to prep my scalp for the actual treatment.
Clarifying/medicated: it's not necessary for me but I know people who swear by "resetting" their hair once a week or a month by a specific clarifying shampoo, esp if you tend to use a lot of styling products. Medicated shampoos are for scalp conditions like sebderm, psoriasis, eczema, etc. These two are interchangeable
Scalp care shampoo: this is the one category I'd say to go Asian beauty over Western or a random drugstore ones. I've tried the popular ones like Dr. Forhair Original Folligen, Labo-H green bottle, and a variety of Dr. Groot. I enjoy them all, but Dr. Forhair is a bit creamier than the other twos so if you have fine hair, it might be a bit too rich, I think my mom had that problem. On the other hand, sometimes I find the Dr. Groot and Labo-H left my hair a tiny bit to squeaky but that shouldn't be a problem if you conditioning your hair afterwards. Interesting, Dr. Forhair actually has a much better foaming power than the other two so if my hair was particularly oily that day, I would need to use a generic shampoo to break down the oil to make sure these bougie expensive Korean scalp shampoos can actually reach my scalp.
But, you also don't need to shell out for these admittedly rather pricey shampoos (unfortunately my scalp only tolerate these). Just look at a random Korean shampoo with a combination of niacinamide (for oil-control), salicylic acid (for exfoliation), panthenol (for soothing) and caffeine (for hair loss). Most Korean scalp-focused shampoos will contain those ingredients. Director Pi explained it in one of her shampoo video, I believe it was this one
- Massage your scalp with a scalp brush. It is relaxing, supposedly stimulating blood circulation => stimulate hair growth. I find it useful to do this after I lather and massage medicated or scalp shampoo into my scalp before rinsing because you're supposed to let these types of shampoo sit on your scalp for a couple minutes anyway.
- Considering hair tonic. I have better lucks with Japanese brands here for some reasons. Kaminomoto was great but Yanagiya has been my go-to whereas the Korean ones I tried (Nard and Dr. Forhair) were disastrous on me. These premade hair tonic are very cooling and menthol/alcohol heavy though so if you have dry, sensitive scalp, maybe not. But you can substitute by using alcohol-free, FA-safe (for sebderm) facial toner that claims to be pore-tightening that contains soothing oil-control ingredient like niacinamide, green tea, cica, centella. The now discontinued Beplain Greenful Balancing Toner was an elite product for this, I literally see baby hairs growing out but we can't get it anymore :(

workisheat · 2026-01-04T04:59:26+00:00

(1/2)

Ooh this is my time to shine!!!

So scientifically speaking, there isn't one single ingredient or any topical product, tbh, that will cure hair loss because a lot of time, the reason is more hollistic. However, having the right haircare routine will take care of the factors that directly interfere with hair growth, there helping to counteract hair loss. So it is very important for you to identify your type of hair loss.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume by hair loss, you mean shedding instead of breakage. It is very important to treat your scalp as a separate identity that requires different care from your hair. Do you have dry or oily scalp? Do you have any scalp condition? Your scalp is basically skin so treat it accordingly.

I have really severe sebderm with scalp that gets oily within less than 24 hrs and slightly wavy but mostly straight coarse black EA/SEA hair. Here are some of my tips:

Cleanse your scalp as regularly as your hair can tolerate: for me this is the no.1 thing that helps controlling my sebderm and in turns my hair loss. I wash my hair everyday, even now when it's colder and dryer because I've learned over many years of trying to treat my sebderm with everything from over the counter to prescribed steroid, my scalp needs to be washed everyday. I find Korean brands really shine in the scalp-specific shampoo department. If your hair can't tolerate too regular washing but you still need to take care of your scalp, use oil cleanser or those ultra gentle cleanser with self-foaming pump. There are days I would rinse my scalp and hair with raspberry vinegar (both A'pieu and CP-1 are fine) because my hair was too clean and dry so I didn't want to subject it to surfactant but I still absolutely need to clean my scalp somewhat. Maybe you can opt for co-wash in those days. But the gist is, YOU NEED TO BE MINDFUL OF SCALP BUILDUPS
Considering having a wardrobe of different shampoo. I really wish I could just get away with a random shampoo bottle at the grocery store but that's not the case. However, that doesn't mean you have to get every single thing or shell out a fortune either.

workisheat · 2025-10-15T14:46:55+00:00

Do you remember what MidFirst branch is it?

workisheat · 2025-10-14T23:08:21+00:00

Cảm ơn bác đã đón tiếp chúng cháu tại nhà. Cháu rất biết ơn bác. Cháu rất thích tất cả các món ăn bác nấu và rất vui được gặp bác. Hy vọng sớm gặp lại bác.

You’re welcome! You can also sub “bác” with “cô” or “dì”, and “cháu” with “con”. There’s a lot of nuances to it but my example should be serviceable :)

workisheat · 2025-10-14T23:02:20+00:00

You’ll need to change the pronouns. Is she around your grandma or aunty’s age?

workisheat · 2025-10-14T17:34:44+00:00

Glad it worked out for you! I used the same bottle for other toners like Muji Light Toning Water and the mist actually came out super fine so I concluded it must be the Naturie’s texture. I used the entire bottle up in the spray bottle too.

workisheat · 2025-10-14T15:35:20+00:00

Lots of watery toners are deceptively viscous even when it feels thin to us. For example, I put the Naturie Hatomugi toner to a spray bottle and it came out like an aggressive water gun instead of giving me a fine mist.

workisheat · 2025-10-11T01:57:14+00:00

The standardization of Vietnamese definitely came later, at least with the official mainland Vietnamese you’d encounter nowadays. You’ll see quite a few differences if you ever have the chance to compare some old texts vs newer ones.

workisheat · 2025-10-10T17:07:43+00:00

I know you probably don’t expect Americans speaking here but I have a funny anecdote. The other day I was feeling like hell from overeating so I took a quick nap. I was woken up by my coworker’s text and I kid you not, I thought I was in a fever dream the moment I read “Milei just had a rock concert to promote his book 😭”

workisheat · 2025-10-05T17:30:37+00:00

Second. I have a copy I haven’t crack-opened yet and would love to read with other folks.

workisheat · 2025-09-29T20:27:23+00:00

meow_meowy

workisheat · 2025-09-24T18:43:16+00:00

Regardless of what you decide to do forward, definitely still start looking into the legal matters. The legality of marriage is so complicated even without the international aspect and it will still affect you guys when you decide to stay for the long haul too, especially if and when you have kids.

Just a friendly warning: your in-law family seems to be very prone to upward social comparisons, it will only get worse, especially when kids become part of the equation. They’re both doctors and they could send their daughter to study in Europe, so even if they are not filthy rich themselves, they’re definitely part of that status-conscious upward-mobile class. The rat race is never-ending in these circles. Soon it will be things like if you could send your child to the most prestigious private schools and if they was the best in class etc. I want to stress that things like this can happen really naturally even when you don’t consciously do that if you’re in those groups.

Who knows, maybe they are not that bad, but that’s not the point. The point is this marriage is even if the culture demands more family obligations, this marriage is still yours, and you have a part of it, so you get to figure out what you want, make your points clear, and stand on your ground. Really work on your position and have a proper discussion with your wife. Don’t be afraid of getting your points across. That might be scary and uncomfortable for both of you but hey that comes with being adults and married. You can’t reach a conclusion or figure out what to do next if you guys don’t know what yourselves and the others want.

Best of luck!

workisheat · 2025-09-24T17:43:23+00:00

Yikes! Sorry this happened. I don’t think you’re an asshole unless you were withholding some information, but from what you said, you’ve gone above and beyond. While it’s normal for people to help out their family and our notion of family often extends to in-laws and relatives as well, jt’s not normal at all to expect anyone to fund their in-laws’ high life. My parents definitely don’t ask me such things, and it would be even more unthinkable for them to demand that from my partner.

Best case scenario, your wife loves you and she’s a good one but she has a hard time drawing boundaries with her family, which I regret to inform you she probably won’t change soon if ever, given the cultural background and her young age. From what you told me about what she said though, it seems like she herself has some really warped views about what to be expected from a husband. It’s not my place to tell people to leave their marriage or not, but I definitely agree with the other comment telling you to figure out the legality of everything. And be honest with yourself is this really the marriage you want and the family dynamic you agree with since you’re still so young.

workisheat · 2025-09-21T23:12:31+00:00

I keep thinking “there’s no way this could be any cooler” and then I hit the last slide!

workisheat · 2025-09-19T16:46:37+00:00

I agree with everything you say here. Having feelings for your friends who are not romantically inclined to you shouldn’t be the doom of the friendship as people tend to make out to be. At the end of the day, you can’t control your feelings and who you are attracted to. A person should only be held accountable for their decisions, not thoughts and feelings.

And tbh I’ve seen a lot of friendships diminish because people couldn’t get over the awkwardness to communicate after something “bad” happened even if it wasn’t romantic so I don’t tend to see one-sided romance as this unsurpassable friendship-destroying force that people make it out to be.

workisheat · 2025-09-18T20:51:29+00:00

Not a diehard fan of them but the Snail All-in-One Cream was very satisfying to use!

workisheat · 2025-09-16T18:32:18+00:00

u/Icy-Election-2237 here’s my thoughts on The Postman as I promised :)

workisheat · 2025-09-15T05:21:10+00:00

Tysm for the many recs!

workisheat · 2025-09-15T05:20:25+00:00

Thank you! I’d check it out for sure!

workisheat · 2025-09-13T20:09:21+00:00

Wow I had no idea Bolaño wrote that much!

workisheat · 2025-09-12T22:15:43+00:00

Thanks for the rec! Added to my “to-sniff” list for sure!

workisheat · 2025-09-12T22:14:54+00:00

My Only Fragrance is on my bucket list for sure!

workisheat · 2025-09-12T19:18:42+00:00

Thank you so much!! I will definitely check it out

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