Mori · licensed hairdresser, 8 years in Tokyo & Shanghai, specialising in Japanese straightening.
Matching a product to a hair type was the job. That is what this article is.
Ichikami is the Japanese drugstore shampoo I get asked about second-most, after Tsubaki, and the question is the same one: which bottle? On Amazon the range is a mess of seller-invented names. Smooth and Sleek. Smoothing. Moisturizing. Moist. Airy. The Premium. Some are one product under two names; one has been discontinued in Japan and is still listed as current.
Here is the clean answer. Kracie currently makes three everyday Ichikami lines plus a premium tier, every one of them sulphate-free, and each is built for a different hair problem. Pick by problem, not by which listing has the most reviews.
⏱️ In a hurry?
Tangles, rough feel, hair that catches on itself → Ichikami Smooth (sold as Smooth and Sleek)
Dry, frizzy, puffs up in humidity → Ichikami Moist (sold as Moisturizing)
Coloured, bleached, snaps when stretched → Ichikami The Premium Silky Smooth
Already know which one → buy the Smooth refill or the Moist refill and keep your pump
Quick Comparison
| Line | Japanese name | Weight | Built for | Price | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smooth (Smooth and Sleek) | なめらかスムースケア | Light | Tangles and friction damage | $ | Check Price on Amazon |
| Moist (Moisturizing) | 濃密W保湿ケア | Medium | Dryness, frizz, dry scalp | $ | Check Price on Amazon |
| Damage Repair & Colour Care | ダメージリペア＆カラーケア | Medium | Colour-faded, squeaky hair | $ | No reliable US listing (see below) |
| The Premium Silky Smooth | THE PREMIUM シルキースムース | Medium-heavy | Chemical and heat damage | $$ | Check Price on Amazon |
Price bands: $ budget · $$ mid-range. Amazon pricing moves — check the live listing.
None of these contains a sulphate. That is the single fact that separates Ichikami from Tsubaki, and I will come back to why it matters.
First, Decode the Listings
Ichikami is made by Kracie, and the whole in-bath range was reformulated on 6 February 2026 for the brand’s twentieth year. The three lines kept their names, scents and cleansers; what changed was the shared botanical extract (cherry blossom and calendula were added) and the bottle, down from 480 mL to 450 mL. Most Amazon stock is still the 480 mL generation: same lines, same surfactants, previous extract. Not a reason to wait.
Here is the map from Amazon’s names to the real ones:
- Smooth and Sleek / Smoothing / Cuticle Smooth → the Smooth line (なめらかスムースケア). One product. The pump set and the shampoo refill are the same formula.
- Moisturizing / Moist / Moisturizing Care → the Moist line (濃密W保湿ケア). The W stands for hair and scalp. Pump set, shampoo refill.
- Color Care → the Damage Repair & Colour Care line. It exists in Japan. On Amazon US, every listing I checked this week had no Add to Cart button. I will tell you what to buy instead.
- Airy / Airy & Silky / Soft Volume → the old Volume line (ふんわりボリュームケア). Kracie has discontinued it. Anything still listed is clearance stock, and I would not pay for it.
- The Premium / Extra Damage Care / Silky Smooth → Ichikami’s premium tier, which is a genuinely different formula. More on that below. In Japan this tier was relaunched on 1 September 2026 as Ichikami PREMIER; the US listings are still the previous THE PREMIUM generation.
So if you bought Ichikami on my recommendation in the Ichikami vs Tsubaki comparison, you bought the Smooth line. That article also repeated an old piece of advice about using it only two or three times a week. I want to correct that here, because the ingredient list does not support it.
The Cleanser Is the Whole Story
Turn any Ichikami bottle round and the second ingredient is TEA-lauroyl sarcosinate. On the Smooth line it is paired with sodium lauroyl methylaminopropionate; on Moist and Colour Care it is paired with TEA-cocoyl glutamate. All three are amino-acid-derived surfactants. There is no sodium laureth sulfate and, unlike several Japanese brands that advertise themselves as gentle, there is no olefin sulfonate either. I explain how to read that distinction on a Japanese label in the sulphate-free label guide.
Why this matters in the shower: sarcosinate lathers properly, which is why Ichikami does not feel like the thin, reluctant foam of most sulphate-free shampoos, but it takes less lipid off the hair and scalp per wash than a laureth sulfate does.
My professional judgement: this makes Ichikami an everyday shampoo, not a clarifier. The idea that it dries hair out if used daily comes from people pairing the light Smooth shampoo with no conditioner, or with the wrong one, on hair that needed the Moist line. The fix is the bottle, not the frequency. If you have an oily scalp and wash every day, the Smooth line is the right daily shampoo, and a scalp brush will do more for buildup than washing less often.
One more thing the label tells you. Every Ichikami shampoo is silicone-free. The conditioners are not; they rely on dimethicone and amodimethicone for slip. That is how the set works: a light wash, then a film that closes the cuticle. If you want silicone-free on both sides, Ichikami is not your brand.
The Question That Picks Your Bottle
Ichikami’s three everyday lines solve three different complaints. Run a wide-tooth comb through your hair when it is dry and listen to what it does.
- It catches and snags halfway down, and the hair feels rough rather than dry → friction damage. Cuticles are lifted and catching on each other. Go to Smooth.
- It goes through, but the hair puffs up, looks dull, and the ends feel like straw → dryness. The fibre needs oil and water put back. Go to Moist.
- It goes through, but the colour looks flat and the hair squeaks when wet → colour damage. The cuticle has been opened chemically. That is the Colour Care job, and since you cannot easily buy it in the US, go to The Premium.
- Strands snap when you stretch them gently → structural damage. No everyday line is enough. Go to The Premium, and read the damage section of the Tsubaki guide for the stretch test in detail.
Friction damage and dryness feel similar to the hand and need different products. Most people who say Ichikami did nothing bought Smooth for dry hair, or Moist for fine hair that tangled.
Ichikami Smooth — The One Most People Mean
Amazon name: Smooth and Sleek · Weight: Light · Built for: Tangles, rough texture, fine to medium hair
Ichikami Smooth is the line that built the brand, and the one most Amazon reviews are talking about. The shampoo is the sarcosinate–methylalanine pair with rice bran oil, rice germ oil and camellia seed extract; the conditioner adds the cuticle-smoothing film. Kracie calls the finish silk hair, and on straight, fine to medium Asian hair that is what it reads as: hair that falls into place and does not tangle at the nape by evening. What it does not do is add weight. On coarse, dry or wavy hair it cleans nicely and leaves you looking for more.
Who it is for
- Fine to medium hair that tangles, especially at the back
- Anyone whose scalp gets oily by day two and who washes daily
- Straight hair that you want to stay straight and light
Who should skip it
- Dry, frizzy, or thick hair — see Moist
- Bleached or chemically damaged hair — it is too light to help
- Anyone expecting a rich, heavy conditioner. The set is light on both sides.
Pair it with: the Smooth conditioner in the set, then the Smooth conditioner refill once the bottle is empty. If the ends are drier than the roots, use the Moist conditioner on the ends only.
👉 Check Price on Amazon → · Stylevana (ships worldwide) →
Ichikami Moist — For Dry and Frizzy Hair
Amazon name: Moisturizing · Weight: Medium · Built for: Dryness, frizz, dry or tight scalp
Ichikami Moist swaps the methylalanine for cocoyl glutamate, which is the softer of the two pairings, and adds apricot kernel oil and tea-flower extract to the rice bran base. The W in the Japanese name means it is formulated for both hair and scalp, and that is the honest reason to pick it: it is the Ichikami for people whose scalp feels tight after washing as well as whose ends feel dry.
It is still a medium-weight product. Next to Tsubaki Moist & Repair it is noticeably lighter, which is the point. Tsubaki coats; Ichikami Moist conditions without the two-week buildup wall. If you want to see that difference laid out, the Japanese shampoo comparison puts the five big drugstore brands on one weight scale.
Who it is for
- Dry, frizzy hair that puffs in humidity
- Wavy or loosely curly hair that wants moisture without silicone-heavy shampoo
- Dry or itchy scalp (the formula is built for it)
- Anyone who found Smooth too light
Who should skip it
- Fine, flat hair with an oily scalp — it will sit heavier than you want
- Severely damaged hair — it moisturises; it does not rebuild. See The Premium.
Pair it with: the Moist conditioner in the set. Once a week on the ends, the Fino hair mask if you want more than the conditioner gives.
👉 Check Price on Amazon → · Stylevana (ships worldwide) →
Ichikami Damage Repair & Colour Care — The One You Cannot Easily Buy
You can buy it — just not on Amazon US. Stylevana lists the 450 mL bottle at $11.37 and ships worldwide, which makes this the one Ichikami line where the overseas route is simpler than the US one. Price checked November 2026.
👉 Ichikami Damage Repair & Colour Care on Stylevana →
Weight: Medium · Built for: Colour-treated hair that squeaks when wet
This is the newest of the three everyday lines. It uses the Moist cleanser pair and adds Lipidure (polyquaternium-64, a moisture-binding polymer also used in salon colour aftercare) plus a polyquaternium-7 veil to close the cuticle after colour. Scent is lemon blossom and cherry, less sweet than the other two.
I checked every US listing I could find in the first week of November 2026. All were third-party sellers with no Add to Cart button, so I am not linking it.
What to buy instead: for colour fade on otherwise healthy hair, the Moist line does most of the job, because fade is mostly cuticle lift plus dryness. If the hair also snaps when stretched, go to The Premium below. If you live in Japan, it is on every drugstore shelf; the sulphate-free label guide tells you what the back of the bottle will say.
Ichikami The Premium Silky Smooth — For Damaged Hair
Amazon name: The Premium, Extra Damage Care · Weight: Medium-heavy · Built for: Bleach, colour, heat and chemical damage
The Premium Silky Smooth is not a stronger version of the everyday lines. It is a different formula from the cleanser up. The surfactant pair is sodium lauroyl methylalaninate with lauramidopropyl betaine, with no sarcosinate at all, which gives a creamier, lower-stripping wash. The shampoo carries what Kracie calls a booster serum (fermented rice bran, peony root extract, glycosyl trehalose) and the treatment carries γ-docosalactone, a heat-activated repair ingredient that bonds to the hair when you blow-dry it. In other words, the set is designed to be used with a dryer, not air-dried.
That makes it the Ichikami for the hair that fails the stretch test. It is also the heaviest in the range, and on healthy fine hair it is more than you need.
In Japan this tier was relaunched on 1 September 2026 as Ichikami PREMIER (Silky Smooth and Repair Moist lines, same surfactant pair, plus a pre-shampoo treatment). US listings are still the THE PREMIUM generation. If PREMIER appears on Amazon with a real cart button, it is the successor to this product, not a different one.
Who it is for
- Bleached, balayaged or repeatedly coloured hair
- Hair that snaps in the stretch test
- Heat-damaged hair from daily irons
- Anyone who bought Smooth or Moist for damaged hair and felt nothing change
Who should skip it
- Healthy hair of any type — it is too heavy and too expensive for what you would get
- Fine hair with an oily scalp
Pair it with: the matching treatment in the set, then the treatment refill twin-pack. Do not use this shampoo with a different conditioner; the heat-repair ingredient is in the treatment, not the shampoo.
Refills: Buy the Pump Once
Japanese brands sell foil refill pouches, and Ichikami’s are cheaper per millilitre than the pump bottle. On Amazon they are listed separately and usually under the seller’s own wording:
- Smooth: shampoo refill 330 mL · conditioner refill 340 g
- Moist: shampoo refill 330 mL
- The Premium: treatment refill, set of two
If Your Hair Has Been Straightened
This is the group Ichikami matters most for. After Japanese straightening, sulphates shorten the life of the treatment, and most Japanese drugstore shampoos, Tsubaki included, use sodium laureth sulfate. Ichikami does not, at any price point, which makes it the cheapest safe daily wash I know of for straightened hair.
Use the Smooth line if the straightening is recent and the hair is healthy; use The Premium if the hair was already damaged before the treatment. Either way, respect the 72-hour rule first, and the full aftercare routine is in what to wash straightened hair with.
If You Are in Japan: The Colour Care Problem Disappears
This article is written for readers buying Ichikami from outside Japan, which is why one of the four is so hard to get. From a Japanese address that is simply not true. Prices are Amazon.co.jp in November 2026, tax included, and move — check before you buy.
🔴 Damage Repair & Colour Care — ¥770 for the 480 ml pump. The section above calls this the one you cannot easily buy, because Amazon US does not list it and the cheapest overseas route is about $11. In Japan it is ¥770, on the shelf, in the ordinary pump bottle. If you live here and you colour your hair, this is the bottle in the range to buy, and the whole difficulty this article describes is someone else’s problem.
👉 いち髪 ダメージリペア＆カラーケア ポンプ 480ml を Amazon.co.jp で見る →
Ichikami Smooth (なめらかスムースケア) — ¥1,292 for the shampoo-and-conditioner pump set, 450 ml each. Note that Amazon.co.jp sells it as a pair rather than as a single bottle, which is the normal Japanese format.
👉 いち髪 なめらかスムースケア ポンプセット を Amazon.co.jp で見る →
Ichikami Moist (濃密Ｗ保渿ケア) — ¥682 for the 640 ml refill, which is two bottles’ worth. The refill advice in this article is written as a tip for people abroad; here it is just how the product is sold.
👉 いち髪 濃密Ｗ保渿ケア 詰め替え を Amazon.co.jp で見る →
Where else: Matsumoto Kiyoshi, Sundrug and Cosmos usually undercut Amazon on the single bottle, and Ichikami is almost always somewhere in a point-multiplier campaign. If you are buying one bottle, buy it at a drugstore; if you are buying refills, Amazon is simpler.
If You Still Cannot Decide
Tangles, rough, fine to medium → Smooth. This is the majority of people asking.
Dry, frizzy, tight scalp → Moist.
Coloured but healthy → Moist, until Colour Care has a real US listing.
Bleached, breaking, heat-damaged → The Premium, with its own treatment and a dryer.
Straightened → Smooth for healthy hair, The Premium for damaged.
Curly → Moist of the four, but Ichikami is a straight-hair brand at heart. The curly conditioner guide has better options.
No idea → Smooth. Its failure mode, slightly too light, is the mildest of the four, and it is the cheapest way to find out whether you like the brand at all.
FAQ
Is Ichikami sulfate-free?
Yes, every line. The cleansers are TEA-lauroyl sarcosinate paired with either a methylalanine or a glutamate surfactant, and the premium tier uses methylalaninate with a betaine. There is no laureth sulfate and no olefin sulfonate in any current Ichikami shampoo.
Is Smoothing the same as Smooth and Sleek?
Yes. Smoothing, Smooth and Sleek, and Cuticle Smooth are all sellers’ names for the Smooth line, the original Ichikami. The refill and the pump set are the same formula.
Can I use Ichikami every day?
Yes. The cleansers are mild enough for daily use on any hair type. If daily washing leaves your hair dry, you have the wrong line, not the wrong frequency. Switch from Smooth to Moist.
What happened to Ichikami Airy or Volume?
Kracie discontinued the Volume line. Listings still using Airy, Airy & Silky or Soft Volume are old stock. The current range is Smooth, Moist, Colour Care and the premium tier.
Ichikami or Tsubaki?
Ichikami if you want sulphate-free, lighter, or you have straightened hair. Tsubaki if your hair is coarse, dry and undamaged and you want a richer finish. The full comparison walks through it, and the Japanese vs Korean guide puts both next to the Korean brands if that is your alternative.
Bottom Line
Four lines, three problems and one brand-wide fact. Tangles → Smooth. Dry → Moist. Damaged → The Premium. Everything is sulphate-free, so pick by what your hair does with a comb, not by which listing has the most reviews, and ignore anything called Airy.
Tangles and rough texture → Ichikami Smooth (Smooth and Sleek)
Dry, frizzy, tight scalp → Ichikami Moist (Moisturizing)
Bleached, breaking, heat-damaged → Ichikami The Premium Silky Smooth
Prices and availability on Amazon change. Check the live listing before buying.