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As the economy and wages worsen, more Japanese are cutting their own hair

December 3, 2008
By Ken Worsley


With the economy officially in recession and wages falling in October as Japanese firms cut back on overtime, the Nikkei is reporting that more and more Japanese are taking matters into their own hands - when it comes to getting a haircut.

In a piece in Wednesday morning’s edition, the Nikkei reports that sales of hair dye, electric clippers and and hair irons is on the rise, as visits to hair salons are apparently on the decline. The paper reports that Loft has seen a 10% rise in the sales of hair irons, while Koizumi Seiki has seen a 20% rise in sales of its negative-ion hair iron. Meanwhile, Yodobashi Camera is reporting a 10-20% rise in sales of men purchasing hair irons, while Joshin Denki in Osaka’s Nipponbashi has seen a 20% increase in sales of one Panasonic model of hair clipper.

On the other hand, beauty salon operator Taya saw 4.6% fewer customers in the April-September quarter, while Arte Salon Holdings has seen a 9.3% decline in the number of customers over the first ten months of 2008.

So, now that Toyota has cut bonuses for management by 10%, one has to wonder if a self bar-code hairstyling machine will hit the market any time soon.

Filed Under Business, Retail 

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Comments

5 Responses to “As the economy and wages worsen, more Japanese are cutting their own hair”

  1. WG on December 6th, 2008 12:58 am

    So the skirts are getting longer?

  2. Milo on December 6th, 2008 9:45 pm

    What the heck is a negative-ion hair iron?

  3. George on December 10th, 2008 12:34 am

    I cut my own hair. No matter how much I make, I don’t see the point in paying for someone to cut dead cells off my head.

  4. Ken Worsley on December 10th, 2008 11:31 am

    George, I agree with that.

    Milo, I’m not really sure, but I think it’s just a regular hair iron with some snake oil.

  5. Kirby on December 11th, 2008 1:51 pm

    Milo - negative-ions cause hair to feel smoother and damage it less than normal hair irons.

    George - I used to cut my own hair, but then I realized that how you present yourself matters, and shaggy or unevenness in the back is hard to get rid of yourself. Playing it down as “dead cells” is kind of pointless

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