Geeks' Maids

Japanese geeks go gaga as 'maids' clean them up

Miwa Suzuki
Agence France-Presse

TOKYO -- Japanese geeks too pent-up to flirt with women or refine their style can now do both at once -- getting their hair cut and cleaned by "maids" in frilly aprons and bonnets.

Seizing on a lucrative fetish market, Tokyo's latest salon which opened Wednesday features hairdressers in black miniskirts ready to attend to the fashion needs of the metropolis's geeks.

The hair salon, Moesham, is in Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics district haunted by drab computer buffs and fanatic hobbyists known as "otaku," which literally means "your home", as in to stay at home.

Maid themes have already proved a huge success among Tokyo's plentiful otaku, with at least 50 cafes, bars, restaurants and massage parlors around the capital staffed by girls in the classic frills.

Hiroshi Asaeda, spokesman for Tokyo-based company DON which operates the first otaku hair salon, admits he himself had been a computer nerd.

"I used to be an otaku but I began to get interested in clothes and then hairstyles," the 22-year-old says. "I want other otakus snubbed by women to experience what I went through.

"There is nothing wrong with being an otaku. But the sight of them make people sick because of their fashion," he says.

"Take a look at the men walking down the street here. Many of them are in worn-out T-shirts and jeans that aren't their size and carry tattered daypacks."

Asaeda argues that his salon serves the greater public interest. Cleaner looking otaku, he says, would help people accept comics, video games and other objects of otakus' adoration which by one study form a 2.6 billion dollar market.

"I want to bring fashion into Akihabara, to clean it up," Asaeda declares in his salon decorated with white lacy curtains and fake flowers.

The main reason the otaku are drawn to maids is their obedience and cuteness, Asaeda says.

"Women say men in business suits look 30 percent better. Girls in maid costumes may look cuter," he says.

There is no sexual contact between the "maids" and the customers who come for a trim, but the hint of it is certainly present.

"Obviously getting shampooed makes you feel good. But it also makes your heart throb as a maid leans over you -- very close but not pressed onto your body," he explains.

For the otaku too shy for a peak at what's before him, he can watch the scene on the mirrors on the ceiling above him.

The operative word at the hair salon is "moe", which literally means "to sprout" but in slang translates as a meeker, Japanese version of "to go gaga".

"You would think 'it's cute' when you see a hamster. 'Moe' is that feeling but mingled with the bit of love you feel towards somebody out of reach," Asaeda explains.

The salon, which employs six hairdressers and 10 apprentices, targets men in their 40s or younger but also expects some customers to be women who like to play dress-up.

One of Moesham's hairdressers, Yuki Harada, in her 20s, laments pursuing her profession for people so unconcerned about hairstyles. "I want them to look cooler," she says.

Harada says she was a bit ashamed to wear the maid clothes but is now accustomed to them. "My language has also become more polite," she says.

A half-hour session with elaborate shampooing, a head massage and styling costs 3,000 yen. If the customer actually wants a haircut, the price goes up to 5,000 yen.