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The prevalence of hair removal salons for both men and women, and in recent years, even for children in Japan reflects a commonly held belief in Japanese society that hairless bodies look better than hairy ones. In Japanese, body hair is often referred to as ムダ毛 mudage, meaning "unwanted hair."
However, the concept of body hair positivity is also beginning to make inroads. One company that is sensitive to this trend is Schick Japan K.K. which boasts the top share of the wet shaving market in Japan. Today, the company announced that it will discontinue the use of the expression mudage in all channels it operates from April 9th, 2022, in order to accommodate changing attitudes towards facial and body hair.
According to their press release, they are committed to providing products and services that are not bound by stereotypes such as "all 'unwanted hair' on your face should be shaved," "it's ridiculous for men to be concerned about body hair and shave their bodies," "it's natural for women to take care of their body hair," and "one must remove body hair to avoid disapproval from the opposite sex."
In 2020, they adopted the brand tagline "It's in your hands™" to express their desire to help customers find and express their true selves when they pick up a Schick product and use it, whether that means shaving, trimming, or just leaving your hair alone.
The company will gradually phase out the usage of "unwanted hair" on their various websites and printed materials by the end of December 2022.
Schick's #BodyHairPositive project
Schick's #BodyHairPositive is a project that aims to create a society in which people can think positively about their own body hair and feel free to say: "this is the kind of body hair I find beautiful" rather than following a uniform concept of beauty, a society where people can talk about body hair in a positive manner, a society that celebrates body hair diversity.
They've enlisted model, actress and TV personality 香音 Kanon (center) and real size model 北原弥生 Mika Kitahara (right) in their latest ad campaign. See their website for details.
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- External Link
- https://grapee.jp/en/
19 Comments
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painkiller
More of these stories please!
Garthgoyle
Chicks with hair on their arms, totally fine.
Armpits, legs and in between legs, naaasty. Wax that thing.
Harry_Gatto
What, so she looks like an 8 year old, or an oven-ready chicken?
Dirk T
From what I can tell, the global deforestation trend in the Southern Hemisphere hasn't reached Japan yet ...
bass4funk
Thankfully.
FizzBit
If Schick goes super woke like Gillette(just a marketing ploy), I’ll need to go back to the leather strap and straight razor.
snowymountainhell
Came here because of @Reckless’ and other jokes but now … Is no one other parent here, not even slightly, creeped out by this ‘current style of writing’ in advertising and entertainment?
First, Hollywood & Disney, and now, ‘pop’ media writing advertising copy for these major corporations,
suggesting that parents also “groom” their children with a more ‘positive body hair image’, touting products under the guise of popular ‘touch words’ like ‘change’, ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, etc?
Look at creepiest part here:
“The prevalence of hair removal,… and in recent years, even for children[?!?]… *reflects a commonly held belief in… society that hairless bodies look better*” -
Followed by:
“…beginning to make inroads. One company that is sensitive to this trend…” -
“in order to accommodate changing attitudes… committed to providing products & services that are not bound by stereotypes” -
“…a project that aims to create a society…” -
… Ad nauseum.
Stop worming adult themes into families’ lives. Perhaps go pedol your personal agendas & need to express sexuality to each other
and ‘leave the kids alone!’
Dirk T
Why does the Japanese advertisement use a gaijin arm with blonde hair?
Garthgoyle
It's just an arm.
If you want to go into racism and stuff that's not there, at all, the blonde hair could just be the result of the white balance, lighting and color correcting used on the photo.
But seriously, it's just an arm.
Dirk T
"If you want to go into racism and stuff that's not there, at all, the blonde hair could just be the result of the white balance, lighting and color correcting used on the photo"
You haven't been up close and personal to many Japanese bodies if you believe that. No racism on my part, friend.