KeUpper shocks your hair into submission

Written by: Michael Keferl on August 19, 2007 at 10:26 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 1 Comment

We were checking out the local electronics superstores this weekend, and stumbled upon what appeared to be a set of headphones designed to deliver music directly into your brain…

Instead, it turned out to be KeUpper (ケアッパ), which means “hair upper”, a $1000 device designed to stimulate your hair into growing by shocking the living daylights out of your head.

KeUpper is produced by Takigawa, though we can’t find a sign of it on the site. Either they’ve given up on it, or this is one of those “secrets of the stars” that the masses aren’t supposed to know about. Either way, if used properly for seven minutes a day, you can go from mostly bald to almost mostly bald after only 25 weeks!

If true hair growth will come through home appliances, we have no doubt that it will come from Japan, hopefully in time for guys like me.

I demoed the KeUpper myself, and could barely stand the pain of cranial electrocution after a mere five seconds. Whether it works or not I have no idea, but it’s made me far more comfortable accepting my inevitable genetic fate of hairline recession. I guess they don’t make fashionable wigs and fake facial hair for nothing…

Get your own KeUpper from Rakuten (Japanese)

Tags: Electronics, Men
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Real and fake facial hair trends for Japanese men

Written by: Michael Keferl on July 6, 2007 at 4:04 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 13 Comments

While not exactly known for being able to grow even partially-full beards, facial hair is in for Japanese men, both young and old alike. Those on the young end of the spectrum tend to be with a hipper crowd, are students, or simply don’t care about looking like a clean-shaven salaryman. After all, most Japanese men who enter companies are forced to stay smooth per company policy. However, once they retire (or get off of work for the weekend) there’s a whole new world of goatees and mustaches that only need some patience….or a little adhesive!

Having facial hair (hige in Japanese) takes a bit of work for most men, and the older guys who can pull it off and look good doing it are called choiwaru oyaji (ちょい悪おやじ), meaning “cool old man”. You can spot guys like this all over Tokyo these days, looking sharp in a modern suit with no necktie and sporting a neatly trimmed beard. For young guys, a beard is the perfect counter-action to the mainstream feminization of Japanese men, a la Kat-Tun. It separates the men from the boys, so to speak.

There’s an entire facial hair culture now, with websites like Hige Club, a portal and salon that’s all about the facial hair lifestyle. Tips on how to kiss with facial hair, dye it, or even eat natto without making a mess are included in their column section, with lots of other resources available to members. For those with money to spend, salons like Fujii in Tokyo offer high-class beard coloring and trimming with modern style, but still with a barber’s touch. After all, there’s nothing manly about growing a beard and then having it “styled”. Fujii does “base design” for facial hair, creating a good look for customers so they can go home and maintain it on their own.

Of course, not everyone is blessed with a beard that can be worked with beyond a few sprouts on the chin. For these unfortunate (lucky?) fellows, companies like Propia have had great success in marketing fake facial hair that isn’t over-the-top, but is just enough to create the look their customers want. The word for “fake beard” in Japanese is tsuke hige (ã?¤ã?‘ã?²ã?’), and they’ve been a surprise hit for both retired salarymen and and current ones who want the look for just a couple of days. We’ve seen some around town that we suspected were fake, but it’s nearly impossible to tell as far as we know. At about $30 for a goatee, they’d better look pretty real.

Pictures via the above links

Tags: Fashion, Men
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Otokomae Trend: Japanese products branded for Men by Kanebo, Pocky, Tofu company

Written by: Michael Keferl on January 8, 2007 at 10:31 am | In MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

We’ve always thought the idea of “Men’s” versions of products was a little silly. After all, do we really need to be told which candy our gender has been determined to eat? Well, Pocky took care of that a while back with “Men’s Pocky”, which is more bitter than the other versions. Finally! Everyone now knows which chocolate-covered cracker stick fits their biology.

Kanebo also made a オトコ香る “Men’s Flavor” rose gum to get stray Pocky out of your teeth.

Rain falls differently for men and women apparently, so this umbrella solves that problem as well.

Perhaps the differentiation is more focused on getting men to buy things at all. We had to go get some chapstick the other day, but had no idea which one to choose! There were so many colors and versions, all which seemed to be for women, but upon seeing the Gatsby chapstick for men we had a huge sigh of relief…until we tasted it. Yuck.

Otokomae is a tofu company with a hip (albeit noisy) website with the ”男” (man) kanji all over everything. The branding is very masculine, and each kind of tofu has a masculine name like “handsome tofu”.

Otokomae’s tofu is more or less targeted at women of course, but the theme of “men’s” is becoming more and more common these days. After all, if you’re a man and you need something, wouldn’t you prefer one that’s made with you in mind?

Tags: Men
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS