Hairmake & Kimono Rental First Kiyomizu Shop — Local services in Kyoto

Came here in April 2023. My friends and I were slightly late for our appointment but the staff was very accommodating. We booked for kimono rental, makeup, hair styling and photography.

The entire process felt very rushed. Since there were many customers in the store that day, I was pretty much neglected at some point. It was confusing because we didn't know what we're supposed to do. There was a very passionate staff (middle aged lady) who helped us choose our kimono.

After I chose my kimono, I wasn't told on what to do. I saw my friends were having their hair done, so I waited outside the makeup studio. After my hair was done, I was asked to get my kimono fitted even though I hadn't gotten the hair accessories fitted yet. At this point the hairdresser already moved on to the next customer so I had to wait awhile. By the time I had finished fitting my hair accessory, my friends were already done with their kimono fitting and we're moving on to makeup 🙄.

Moving on, I was told to go upstairs but they didn't pass me the bag containing the kimono set I had chosen, so I had to look for it. They also didn't give me any plastic bag until the middle aged lady staff realised I was lagging wayyyy behind my friends and told the younger staffs to quickly pass me a plastic bag for my shoes (had to take them off before going to 2nd floor) so that I could get my kimono fitted.

When I was done with the fitting, I queued for makeup. All my friends were already done at this point and I was the last one. After make up was done, we were greeted by the photographer.

The photographer could speak Mandarin so communication was easy. We were brought to various locations for the photo shoot, including Yasaka Shrine. We received the photos about 5 days after the photoshoot. We realised some of the angles were weird/awkward. A little disappointed, honestly. We even felt that the photos we took using our phones were better than some of the photos the photographer took using a professional camera. 😮‍💨 Nonetheless, there were still some good shots that I really liked.

If you're wondering, why I even rate 4 stars for this after complaining so much, it's because overall the experience was still not bad. There was a wide selection of kimono to choose from, and the kimono was comfortable (except the obi, ppl who've done this before will know why hahahaha). The middle-aged lady staff's attentiveness really stopped this rating from dropping. I think there were really just too many customers, so they were really busy. The photographer himself was also quite nice, giving us tips on how to stand and pose (but the angle of some shots, maybe...

My family and I had the worst experience here, and definitely the worst experience of our whole Japan trip. As soon as we entered the doors we were rushed to pick our yukatas. I understood why this happened as we were a group of 6 and there were more appointments after us (our appointment was 1 hr), but the pressure was a lot. When my sister and I went upstairs to get dressed, they wrapped our yukatas so tight that we started to get dizzy. My sister mentioned I even looked pale. We communicated this to the staff and they kept the insisting we leave it right because “Japanese women have been doing it for year and we would eventually get used to it. “ My sister has asthma so it was important that she could breathe effectively. She had to fight for them to loosen her yukata, eventually the lady did. When I told the lady that it was too tight she did not want to loosen it. So out of respect for them and their culture, I did as they asked and kept it tight. I walked downstairs to get my hair done and I could feel the blood flow to my brain decreasing. When my hair was finally done, I literally felt like I was going to faint. My sister even said I began to look pale. One of the staff members came up to me to see if I was ok, and I said no I felt dizzy because it was so tight. She sent me back upstairs to have it loosened finally. The fact that they did not listen to us the first time about our breathing being restricted really put a bad taste in my mouth. As a nurse, I know breathing is one of the most important things we do for our body to stay alive. Mind you, my sister and I are quite slim as well.

When we came back to return our yukatas and get changed back to our normal clothes, one of the staff members was pushing my brother in law to the room to get changed and basically were rushing us to change. There was no one there waiting so I did not understand why we needed to quickly change out of our clothes. I don’t mind moving fast but the pressure from the staff was too much. As a diverse family (Black, Puerto Rican, Filipino) we definitely could tell we were treated unequally compared to the Japanese customers they had. We could have picked any kimono store in the area but we chose that one, which we all regret. I do not recommend this place. There are many other places around the area you can go to for better service. I rarely write reviews, so for me to write this really says something. This goes to show that places with good ratings don’t always prove to deserve it. Now every time I see a kimono I am reminded of what happened today. Very disappointed in...

The kimonos and yukatas were beautiful but the experience was not great at all! The woman helping me put on the kimono put on the band that goes on before the kimono and I could not breathe- like actually. I told her it was too tight bc I was actually starting to get dizzy and sweat. She said, Japanese women have been doing this for years and then told me I will get used to it. I literally told her, I’m getting dizzy, I can’t breathe but I tried to stick it out until I just couldn’t. After 5 more minutes, I really could not take it. After telling her I’m an asthmatic and I can’t breathe, she still did not want to take the band off but she finally did after much complaint and push back! No one should have to fight as hard to breathe. She said without it being tight, the kimono would fall apart, but guess what, they finally put a smaller band on and the kimono did not fall apart and I was able to breathe! When we came back at about 2:30, the shop was empty and the lady at the front was ripping the hair accessories from my hair! We got up stairs and the woman helping me take off the kimono was pulling me this way and that to get the kimono off. It was quite ridiculous! There are too many kimono rental places for them to be this rough and...