00:00I personally do feel like it's almost like building a sculpture
00:03and hair just happens to be my medium.
00:05As I'm planning it out and drawing it in every step,
00:08I think, okay, well, these bobby pins and these elastics
00:12need to hold this in place.
00:13These braids are going to help strengthen and fortify this hairstyle.
00:17And when it actually works out
00:18and actually looks accurate to the character,
00:20I feel so proud.
00:22Hi, I'm Mei and I'm a content creator
00:24and I recreate hairstyles from anime and games to wear in real life.
00:31So when I was a kid, growing up Asian American,
00:35there wasn't a lot of mainstream Asian content
00:38or entertainment or media.
00:41Anime was my childhood because it was the only Asian content
00:45that I could relate to.
00:47Anime is basically animation from Japan
00:50and it covers a ton of different genres.
00:53I remember that I would take images of anime characters
00:57to my hairdresser and I would say,
00:58can you make me look like this?
01:00Anime actually really inspired a lot of my fashion and my styling.
01:05And to this day, I think you can still see that in how I present myself.
01:09I really love to think of fashion as sort of creating a character.
01:13There was a period in my life where I fell into a super deep depression
01:18and I really lost connection with a lot of the things that made me whole.
01:23And anime was one of those things.
01:25It wasn't until honestly the last two years that I started falling in love with it again
01:30because it was my audience that asked,
01:33Hey Mei, you know you used to make a lot of videos about anime.
01:37I wish you would talk about it again.
01:39It was really because of my audience that I was able to reconnect with my love of anime
01:44and to realize that I have a talent and I can actually share it with people.
01:49I think my goal is to create hairstyles that everybody can do at home.
01:54So I'm using very basic things like hair elastics, bobby pins, hairspray, hairbrush.
02:00So I've accumulated a lot of hair accessories over the years.
02:03This is actually a really pared down version because I run out of space really quick.
02:07But this is the stuff that I've decided to keep because I find that I use it the most.
02:13I'm actually really proud of this particular collection.
02:16These are all like Chinese inspired hairpins
02:19or ones that I can use for also like Japanese inspired hairstyles.
02:23So they have like a lot of like floral motifs and also like specifically Chinese style hairpins
02:30which are these ones that have a fork rather than a regular pin.
02:35I think these butterfly pins are actually my favorite hair accessory that I have in my like clip collection.
02:43I use them a lot.
02:44They appear a lot in a lot of like styling videos.
02:47I just really like how whimsical it is.
02:49And then these ones are bows.
02:51These ones I feel like I use a lot for specifically anime inspired hairstyles
02:55because a lot of characters wear bows.
02:57These like fuzzy hair ties, these ones are very anime to me.
03:02And these are my ribbons.
03:06This isn't all of them.
03:08These ones are like very whimsical.
03:11Stuff like this is definitely not for daily wear.
03:13So I kind of reserve them for like anime or game inspired hairstyles.
03:17This is actually my favorite piece that I own.
03:22It's super delicate, but I can't wait for the day that somebody requests a character that wears a crown
03:28because this is the most beautiful headpiece that I own.
03:34So before I show you guys how to do an anime inspired hairstyle,
03:37I think my hair needs a little refresh.
03:39Hi!
03:40Hello.
03:41How are you doing today?
03:43I'm good.
03:44Oh my gosh.
03:44I haven't seen you in so long.
03:46So today I'm having my long awaited hairstyle transformation.
03:49I'm going to be doing pastel pink today.
03:53First, my stylist Henry is applying bleach to my roots.
03:58He's actually doing off scalp application because I have a sensitivity to bleach.
04:07So ever since I was a kid, I remember that I wanted all of these crazy hairstyle colors,
04:12but you know, growing up with Asian parents, they were like,
04:15no, absolutely not.
04:17Rejected.
04:17If you do that, you're going to be the shame of our family.
04:21And I remember that I started with just like a little streak of pink and then another streak over here.
04:26And then as time went on, one day I just went full pink and they couldn't even stop me anymore.
04:34With pink colors, they tend to fade really fast.
04:37The more pastel you go, the more lighter it is.
04:41And because of that, it'll fade out even faster.
04:51All right.
04:51We finished.
04:52What do you think?
04:55I love it.
04:56Oh my gosh.
04:59It feels so soft.
05:00Oh my gosh.
05:01I'm so happy to be pink again.
05:03Thank you so much.
05:15So now that my hair is pink, I'm going to show you guys my favorite anime-inspired hairstyle.
05:20So out of the dozens of anime-inspired hairstyles that I've done, this one is actually my favorite one.
05:24And this one is inspired by Otohime Ryugo from Okami-san and her seven companions.
05:30So this is where the magic happens.
05:32I'm taking my braid and grabbing it underneath.
05:34I'm going to fold it three times underneath itself until I reach to the top of my head.
05:41And then I'm going to cinch it in the middle right here and hold it down to cover the elastic.
05:48And it creates sort of like a little figure eight shape and it looks like a bow.
05:54And then I'm just going to repeat on the other side.
05:58We're done here.
05:59I really like the result.
06:01That's why this is my favorite hairstyle out of the millions that I've done.
06:04Because I like how it creates like a very interesting illusion of double hair bows where you have ribbons made
06:11by your hair,
06:12but you also have this actual hair bow that mimics the ribbon that we've created with our hair.
06:16And I feel like it creates a very interesting like cartoony effect, which is like why I like to make
06:22these hairstyles.
06:23I find so much genuine joy in teaching people how to discover their own style.
06:29It makes me feel so happy that I can have that relationship with so many thousands of people.
06:33And it's such a positive outlet for me in a way that channels all of my creativity,
06:38all of my love for fashion, for hair, for makeup.
06:41And I feel like I want to walk out the door feeling like a work of art.
06:52That way I can also do the beauty and Hal as well.
Comments