So, with short hair you use less water and less power?!?

[Eirelin]

http://fashionetc.com/news/beauty/2877-japanese-employees-same-haircut

Japanese Firm Asks Employees to Get Same Haircut

Is it OK for a company to ask its employees to chop off their hair?

Off with their hair!

Japanese construction firm Maeda Corp. has come up with an unconventional approach to going eco: mass employee haircuts.

The company is asking its 2,700 employees to hit the salon so they can sport identical, low-maintenance hairstyles which require less water, less blow-drying time, and less energy, the Telegraph reports.

Female workers have been requested to adopt a "cute" bob with long, side-swept bangs, while males can go green with a short back-and-sides cut that is slightly longer on top.

"Our company is very keen on protecting the environment and we encourage our staff to adopt many environment-friendly actions," spokesman Chizuru Inoue tells the paper. "We are not sure of the data yet, but we believe if people have short hair they do not need to use their hair dryers for so long and they will use less water. If all our staff do this, then it may save a lot of power."

[Yame]

That's some major BS. My long hair uses up way less water and power than it would if I cut it short. Because it's long, all I have to do is wash it once a week and leave it up on most days. If it were short, I'd have to wash it much more often, heat style it on "bad hair days" and possibly use leave ins.

My regular showers take 5-10 minutes without washing. When I wash it, it can take up to 40 min. That happens just once a week. That's how much water I save when I don't wash it, and it wouldn't be much less with short hair because I wash only my scalp.

[Honestwitness]

I use much less water and electricity now that my hair is longer. I wash it much less often and always air dry it.

[Eirelin]

I use much less water and electricity now that my hair is longer. I wash it much less often and always air dry it.


That's some major BS. My long hair uses up way less water and power than it would if I cut it short. Because it's long, all I have to do is wash it once a week and leave it up on most days. If it were short, I'd have to wash it much more often, heat style it on "bad hair days" and possibly use leave ins.

My regular showers take 5-10 minutes without washing. When I wash it, it can take up to 40 min. That happens just once a week. That's how much water I save when I don't wash it, and it wouldn't be much less with short hair because I wash only my scalp.

Exactly what I was thinking! I don't blow dry or use a curling or flat iron. I wash once a week or so and air dry.

Who comes up with these ideas?

Last night, I spritzed and then French-braided it with a long scarf folded in half and pinned the bangs to one side, with homemade hair spray from boiled lemon. Today, I have really pretty beach waves. No washing, rinsing, curling, blow drying, or manufactured products!

[ladyfey]

I used less water when it was short. I wash it just as often now as I did then, but it takes longer now. I never heat styled or blew-dry even with short hair. So for me, it would be true.

[Coffeebug]

I think this is appauling and way more to do with control and loss of individuality than the environment. My hair needs washing less often for being longer cos it's always tied up and I never blowdry it. Besides, they even admit they're not basing this demand on any facts. It's so 1984 isn't it.

[Neneka]

That is just crazy! There is no real logic behind that ("we believe"). Does the company own it's workers? Apparently it thinks it does. Maybe it's more about control than "going green" or some stupid attempt to create a good image of that company.

[Eirelin]

It's so 1984 isn't it.

Ironically, I just re-read that. And then watched the movie last night.

Yeah, let's tell everyone to just do Julia's hair.

No, thank you.

[spidermom]

When my hair was short, I used much less water and power. It was wash, run my fingers through it, and go. (I kind of miss that.)

I think I used more water and power for the in-between/growing-out stages because it was so hard to get my hair to look good. It bushed out like you wouldn't believe.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/spidermom/BOONEW.jpg
That's completely natural, air-dried hair. As you can imagine, I didn't let that happen very often.

I know I use way more water for my long hair because it's a long process to wash and condition it (maybe I'm slow), and it has to be done every 3-4 days if I don't want a skull-cap of hair stuck to my scalp with sebum (ewwwwwwwww!).

[HairFaerie]

I think this is appauling and way more to do with control and loss of individuality than the environment. My hair needs washing less often for being longer cos it's always tied up and I never blowdry it. Besides, they even admit they're not basing this demand on any facts. It's so 1984 isn't it.

My thoughts exactly!

[ratgirldjh]

LOL
Since I cut my almost waist length hair to a shoulder length bob - it seems to get dirty faster! Now instead of washing once a week or less I find myself washing 2 or 3 times a week just to keep it looking 'swingy'!!! And I can also imagine that some people would be more likely to want to blow dry shorter hair - I don't - but I can see why it might help it have more of a style... I'm growing my hair back now because I found this much more work than I thought it would be.

[Carolyn]

Another thread on the same topic: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=77368&highlight=japanese

[noelgirl]

Do they get demerits for that "cute" bob going all Roseanne Rosannadana? Because that's what my hair does at that length without daily heat styling. With long hair, my blow dryer is gathering dust. I'm probably going to use it for the first time in over a year for Halloween, because my costume idea involves long straight hair, but heat styling is not a daily or even weekly thing when my hair is long.

[Eirelin]

Another thread on the same topic: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=77368&highlight=japanese

OOPS! Thanks! Sorry about the reposting. I promise I did look at the top of the article to see that it was from today, but of course, someone picked it up from a few days ago.

Sorry :doh:

[dRummie]

To be fair, most people do use blow dryers and don't stretch washes. So unless your hair is the type that reacts especially poorly to a shorter cut (no idea how common this would be with "asian" hair), it makes sense that longer hair would require more water to wet and more power to dry. My personal experience confirms this, though, of course, that won't be true for everyone.

[Venefica]

I wash my hair about once a week, and while yes I do use more water for that once a week it is still far less than those that wash their hair every day. Also I do not use a blow dryer, nor do I use hairspray which containers often can be quite polluting. Seriously you can not make calculations like that, every person is different, they might as well say everyone should change to having a bath tub other than a shower as that uses more water. There are also so many factors involved.

Now I do understand that in some of the large Japanese cities that are very crowded energy saving means get very important, but that have to be done in a informed way not just by an employer getting a bright idea and then wanting to make sweeping changes in peoples lives based on nothing but speculation.

I however is more appalled with the fact that the company want all their employers to have the same hairdo than them wanting them to have it short, there are allot of different ways to have short hair, however this company want everyone to have a uniform helmet on their head effectively speaking with all the workers looking exactly like one another, and that kind of loss of individuality is what is appalling to me.

That being said, is it ok if a company to ask it's employers to get a haircut, well yes as long as it is a request that the employers can refuse without fear of retribution, however in many places in Japan, a request from a superior that is a polite order and you have no choice but to comply and then that is not ok no, these workers are people not drones, do not treat them like it drones.

[Sunshineliz]

If they were truly dedicated to going green with their employees hair they'd just forbid heat styling and put a limit on showers. Ponytail or bun and it wouldn't look bad on most of them. Of course the employees could just lie about that (unless they've completely gone Big Brother and can tell.)

And is it just me, or does a "bob with sideswept bangs" sound hard to style nice? It might take their employees longer to style that.

But of course, they admitted to having no real idea if it would work--they just think it might. So lets just go with some crazy man's PR ploy and make everyone cut their hair.:rolleyes:

ETA: And don't forget the men probably using electric clippers to get that short style. Save electricity and let them grow it!;)

[TessieAnn]

Any directive about men growing beards to cut down on electricity for shavers or water use for a blade? Or maybe they've done a cost-analysis on energy use for shaving vs beard washing?

How about women shaving their legs?

Dry clean vs machine wash clothes?

The fact that a company could even contemplate such intrusion into personal choices says a lot.

Much that is absurd happens in the name of "being green."

ETA: Sunshineliz I should have read your post--we're thinking along the same lines.

I'm wondering about the power it takes to keep all that short hair shorn!

[Sunshineliz]

Any directive about men growing beards to cut down on electricity for shavers or water use for a blade? Or maybe they've done a cost-analysis on energy use for shaving vs beard washing?

How about women shaving their legs?

Dry clean vs machine wash clothes?

The fact that a company could even contemplate such intrusion into personal choices says a lot.

Much that is absurd happens in the name of "being green."

ETA: Sunshineliz I should have read your post--we're thinking along the same lines.

I'm wondering about the power it takes to keep all that short hair shorn!

:)I think you said it better. If this were facebook I would 'like' this.

[Prelude]

what a crazy world we live in :S

[Beatnik Guy]

"Our company is very keen on protecting the environment and we encourage our staff to adopt many environment-friendly actions," spokesman Chizuru Inoue tells the paper. "We are not sure of the data yet, but we believe if people have short hair they do not need to use their hair dryers for so long and they will use less water. If all our staff do this, then it may save a lot of power."

Justifying this sort of totalitarian crap with spurious calls to environmentalism is pretty offensive too.

[dulce]

Those shorter "styled" bob dos require flat ironing or a curling iron unless your hair is stick straight plus even then you need it to get the ends to go under properly,plus most use a blowdryer to go from wet to dry fast[no air drying usually]If they wanted to save energy,grow your hair,let airdry and use diluted shampoo.What silliness.

[AcornMystic]

Figures. If I was reading that I would have guessed it was Japan. I make that comment based on an article I read a while back about the waist-line requirements there. Japan seems to be interested in making all its citizens a carbon copy of one another with their ideals. It's like turning everyone into an anorexic spiky-short haired anime character. What is the world coming to! :( .. or in this case Japan.. *exasperated laugh*

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html?no_interstitial

EDIT: I totally forgot to even put my 2 cents on the original topic because I was so turned off from that baha. Well, I don't think one would use less water. I mean, the longer hair you have, if you were trying to go for healthy, the less frequent you would wash it, you'd think, and heat appliances would be out of the question. If anything, people are going to use heat appliances more to manage their hair and start washing their hair more to rid oils not going any place, with the lack of hair to distribute it to, so it will seem even more greasy, causing increased washing all the more and end up a vicious cycle. Makes sense to me anyway. I've been trying WO washing and do it every other day, eventually, when my hair gets longer, stretch it to a week. That doesn't sound like more washing to me.

[Sunshineliz]

Someone should send this thread and the other one on the subject to the CEOs of that company. :D

[GRU]

Someone should send this thread and the other one on the subject to the CEOs of that company. :D

But what about all of the electricity that would be "wasted" in sending them an email? :lol:

[PurusNox]

Wow! This is simply ridiculous! As someone stated before, let them grow long hair and air dry it. >.<

[Lostsoule77]

This is just creepy to me! In a country where the majority of people already have the same hair color their cut is one way to differentiate themselves from one another. My DH keeps saying these doom & gloom things about what is going on in the world now a days and this is just another scary example that he might be right.

I usually kinda scoff at him because he's a natural pessimistic, but control of the people is a good way to start having total control of everything! I don't mean to derail this thread or anything. Just reading this freaked me out a tad. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm tired. :rolleyes:

[Sunshineliz]

But what about all of the electricity that would be "wasted" in sending them an email? :lol:

You're right, we just all need to learn telepathy to save electricity.:)

[halo_tightens]

I know from experience that this would be completely bogus for me, personally. When my hair was cut in a short style, I washed it almost every day. I then had to blow dry it completely, use styling products, and flat-iron every inch.

Now? I just wash it once or twice a week and air-dry.

Seems like an easy enough call to me! :)

[Lianna]

I wonder if people would "get caught" if they wore a short wig instead. :D Or even fired after. O.o

[lapushka]

Oh, please! Why not ask them to all just shave their heads and get it over with. They can wear wigs, right. :roll: </sarcasm>

Personally, I need to have my hair washed 3 to 4 times a week when it's short (depending on how short it is). On top of that, when my hair's short, it needs to be heavily styled to look decent. Longer, washings can be stretched to about 1 to 2 a week (every 5 days). It can be air dried. It can be worn up. There's virtually no styling involved whatsoever.

This sort of thing varies individually.

The person making such claims (better for the environment) knows zilch about most women's hair. I think roughly stating, it's an illusion that shorter hair requires less energy and water.

[ravenreed]

I use much more water now. It takes forever to rinse conditioner out of my hair and I also use vinegar catnip rinses. That takes a lot of extra water. I didn't blow dry even when my hair was shorter

[Panth]

Erm, if you look on the original thread here: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=77368&highlight=japanese

Go to Arya's comment (no. 9). Basically, this whole thing has been mis-reported and exaggerated by Western media. If you look at Japanese reports you can see that it's more a pie-in-the-sky theory rather than 1984-esque enforcement

[mrs_coffee]

I use much less water and electricity now that my hair is longer. I wash it much less often and always air dry it.

Me too. When I had my pixie I had to wet it and blow dry it every day to keep it from sticking out 392038 ways. Now I wash every 3 days and only use the blow dryer until my hair is no longer dripping wet.