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A contest of hair-raising proportions
Tokyo, Apr 17: People who used to be bald or are close to losing their hair have gathered in Tokyo to see who was able to best grow back the most amount of hair in an unusual contest.
Tokyo, Apr 17: People who used to be bald or are close to losing their hair have gathered in Tokyo to see who was able to best grow back the most amount of hair in an unusual contest.
Who is the hairiest of them all? Bald and those who are close to losing their hair of all ages from all parts of Japan gathered in Tokyo on Monday (April 14) to see who was able to grow back the most amount of hair.
One of the contestants, Kenta (pronounced KEN-TAH) Tamura, 26, spent years trying to stop the bald spot on his head from growing larger. But it wasn't until a couple of months ago that he was able to succeed.
After six months of massaging his scalp, applying lotion and increasing his intake of vitamins, his hair started to grow back.
"After about six months, I noticed that my hair was growing longer, before, it wouldn't grow at all. It was at that time I thought that my efforts were starting to pay off," said Tamura who decided to enter the contest because he was proud of his achievement.
The organiser of the contest, a company which owns a chain of salons which specialise in growing back hair, said 57 of the 300 bald people who sent in photographs of when they were bald and after their hair had grown back, made it to the finals in Tokyo.
At the contest, the before and after pictures were projected on giant screens as each contestant came out to bow to the judges and wave at their supporters and friends.
Fifteen finalists were interviewed. Ten won awards. The third annual hair-growth champion was Takahiko Nishii, 32, who won because of the effort he had put into nurturing his hair.
"I used to spend so much time putting on hair spray before going out and I didn't like going out very much with people, I felt uncomfortable, but now it is totally different. I can go out without doing anything to my hair," said Nishii who won a 3 million yen ($24,940) cash prize.
Katsumasa (KAH-TSOO-MAH-SAH) Okamura, President of Reve 21, the company which runs the salons, said he planned to continue holding hair growth contests because of the positive message the competition sends.
"People who are bald or in the process of losing their hair are very worried and they don't want anyone to know about their worries. They are in a very gloomy mindset. But by alleviating this worry, they are able to become more cheerful and optimistic about the way they think, life in general and through this contest, we wanted to show ordinary people how people can transform," said Okamura.
Bureau Report
The organiser of the contest, a company which owns a chain of salons which specialise in growing back hair, said 57 of the 300 bald people who sent in photographs of when they were bald and after their hair had grown back, made it to the finals in Tokyo.
At the contest, the before and after pictures were projected on giant screens as each contestant came out to bow to the judges and wave at their supporters and friends.
Fifteen finalists were interviewed. Ten won awards. The third annual hair-growth champion was Takahiko Nishii, 32, who won because of the effort he had put into nurturing his hair.
"I used to spend so much time putting on hair spray before going out and I didn't like going out very much with people, I felt uncomfortable, but now it is totally different. I can go out without doing anything to my hair," said Nishii who won a 3 million yen ($24,940) cash prize.
Katsumasa (KAH-TSOO-MAH-SAH) Okamura, President of Reve 21, the company which runs the salons, said he planned to continue holding hair growth contests because of the positive message the competition sends.
"People who are bald or in the process of losing their hair are very worried and they don't want anyone to know about their worries. They are in a very gloomy mindset. But by alleviating this worry, they are able to become more cheerful and optimistic about the way they think, life in general and through this contest, we wanted to show ordinary people how people can transform," said Okamura.
Bureau Report