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