5 Beauty Tips To Survive Summer In Japan

How to keep looking gorgeous and cool even when melting under the sun.

As we step closer to the much hotter days of summer, we are also more prone to the hardships our skin faces due to the humidity, scorching sun, and increase in pollution throughout the city—not to mention perpetual mask-wearing. To avoid these troubles, it’s essential to adjust your daily beauty and skincare routine. Here are five tips on what you can do to make sure you survive summer in Japan. Read on to learn how to keep your skin radiant, fresh, and glowing even when the sun is melting you!

1. Use SPF 45+ Sunscreen

Sunscreen is an absolute must if you’re looking to create a skincare regimen that is not only proactively anti-aging but also preventative. Sunscreen helps not only to protect us from harmful UV rays, but to keep us looking younger by helping with sun or age spots, premature wrinkles, and of course melanoma skin cancers.

Many Japanese UV creams and lotions are designed to act as a primer, which only makes our makeup routine much more efficient! For those ladies who don’t wear foundation or much makeup, find a non-comedogenic or oil-free sunscreen that you can apply on your face every day. Often, you can swap your moisturizer with a great facial sunscreen.

For your body sunscreen routine, try a spray-on product. They are absolutely wonderful since most are SPF 50+ these days, quick-drying, and of course super easy to apply.

2. Drink lots of… Tea

During the summer months, it’s even more important to stay hydrated to avoid heatstroke, extreme fatigue, and to make sure our bodies have proper sodium balance. Keeping hydrated also helps to flush out toxins, which is a must-do when living in a city like Tokyo.

Enjoyed either hot or iced, Japanese herbal teas have many health benefits ranging from beautifying the skin, allergy relief, and even helping the body remove toxins. 

Savvy Picks

• Yomogi-cha: Beautifies the skin, helps to reduce blemishes, age spots, and sun damage
• Biwa-cha: Helpful for inflammatory skin conditions, boosts general skin immunity (against infections)
• Hatomugi-cha: Lightens the skin, helps to improve complexion, and reduces freckles and spots

3. Use face & body mist

If you work at a regular office or at home, you’ve probably noticed that the environment there can get extra dry from the air-conditioning and airflow. One way to handle that without going to the doctor or ruining your skin is to carry a hydration spray near you for a quick mist fix here and there.

These products are great because not only do they make you feel refreshed and rehydrated but also can act as a quick pick-me-up when feeling a little sluggish or tired (that 3 p.m. danger snooze, anyone?)

4. Know the traditional foods to survive summer in Japan

Summer in Japan often comes with the unpleasant feeling of ‘summer fatigue’ or natsubate. In order to combat this, fuel your body with healthy and nutritious foods to help energize, invigorate, detox, and of course, cool down.

The seasonal foods which we begin to notice more and more at the start of the hot season here in Japan all come from a long-standing history of things the Japanese would strategically eat to combat the hardships of summer. Before the inventions of air-conditioning systems and ice machines, people actually had to find ingredients in nature in order to survive summer in Japan. Some natural great ways to cool down are mugi-cha, cold soba noodles, and shaved iced desserts. 

Enjoy the variety of fruit and veggies, too! Melon, for example, is a fantastic summer fruit that is not only packed with antioxidants but also gives us a boost in hydration which helps keep the skin glowing. Tomatoes, packed with Lycopene and Vitamin C, are also a must to increase in your daily routine as studies have shown that these yummy veggies help to fight the damaging effects of UV radiation on our skin.

5. Keep your hair moisturized

Summertime can be very hard on our hair whether from the strong sun rays outside, increase in air pollution, or even the drying effect from air conditioning. Also, if you’re one to go to the beach or pool often, saltwater, as well as chlorinated pool water, has a very drying and damaging effect on our hair and scalp.

To make sure your hair survive the hot days of summer in Japan, find a shampoo and conditioner that is moisturizing or even made for damage repair. To add to that, use a natural hair oil at night time while you sleep. This will help restore the hair cuticles and keep your hair looking healthy, strong, and resilient. You can also find great UV sprays for your hair and scalp to help prevent unwanted sunburns and also damage. 

This article was originally published in 2018 and edited on Aug. 5, 2020, with the latest information.