Men's Facial Hair Removal Flyer

    This flyer was shoved in my mailbox the other day and it took me some time to figure out what it meant. Despite their being cartoonish characters on it and plenty of other information to decipher from, my half-awake mind could not process what it was trying to sell.

Hipster McNeck-beard seems concerned about the thoughts of Mrs Housewife.

    I did finally use google translate on my phone to get a basic idea of what was going on and only then did the before and after pictures make sense. The service offered here is men's hair removal. While an American advertisement for similar procedures might suggest usage on the back or stomach, this one specializes in the face.

Can you grow a beard? Wouldn't you rather have patchy scraggle? Only $200 for 3 sessions!


    With my progressive western mindset, I usually feel that body modification is in the eye of the beholder. If someone has serious issues or dysmorphia about something, getting it surgically altered might be in line with saving their life. That said, the western part of my mind is surprised to see mustache and beard removal actually advertised to men here.

    It always seemed like a right of passage in the states. The first chest hair or chin hair or wisp of a mustache was the mark of a boy transitioning into manhood. At least, that's what it always looked like on TV.

    Japan is different of course and overly hairy Asian men are seen as not-Japanese-enough, which still baffles me a bit. This east-Asian ideal seems to be a trim man of average height whose cropped mane of jet black hair stays perfectly styled and thick while not a single hair grows between his eyebrows and groin.

    As attracted as I am to some Asian men, I find this ideal bizarre and uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure if it's the way a hairless chest can indicate a lack of maturity that I find alarming or just the fact that what attracts me to my mate has nothing to do with how stereotypically Japanese they may appear.

    My husband has a distinct five-o-clock shadow that grows spiky in the hours between his morning shave and going to bed at night. If he so chose and his job permitted it, he would have little problem growing a beard. He also has a smattering of chest hair. I have no problem with any of these things but he has always been troubled by the chest hair. As much as I love him and want him to be happy with his body, I also don't need him spending $200 to get rid of something I find attractive about him.

    When it comes down to it, if he told me he wanted to permanently get rid of his chest hair or any other hair on his body, I wouldn't feel like it was my place to tell him not to. It is his body and he should make it work for himself. At the same time, I did not hesitate to crumple this ad up and throw it in the garbage.

    Only in Japan would the hair removal ad celebrate making a grown man look more like a teenage boy.