It's well established that hairless heads are easier and cheaper to care for. But at one Japanese hotel chain, checking in with a balding scalp means a discount of 500 yen per night—about $4.40 in US dollars.
Why? The Tetora Group, which owns more than a dozen hotels around Japan, says that lack of hair makes it easier to clean the shower—less hair to clog up the drain. Tetora Group also has a balding mascot and merchandise featuring the balding chap based on the chain's president, Koji Miura, who appreciates his aerodynamic skull when running marathons, according toSoraNews24.
Balding guys in Japan can then make their way to a Japanese-style pub in Tokyo's Akasaka district for another 500 yen discount, created with the over-stressed businessman in mind.
“I was thinking of some way to help support salarymen, but without a theme the idea was lame,” pub owner Yoshida Toyoda told Reuters. “Then one day I was walking downtown and kept seeing bald guys. That was it.”
The pub features bald statistics on the walls and if five bald men come in together, one drinks for free.
“They will send the baldest guy in so they can get 30%. That’s kind of funny.”
And for about the past decade at the family-owned Congdon’s Restaurant in Wells, Maine, hairless people get the hookup on Bald Thursdays. The discount depends on just how bald you are: receding hairline gets 10%, crown balding gets 20% and extensive balding gets a 30% discount.
Some customers game the system, and that's OK. “We get some construction guys in here and they will buy coffee and donuts for the whole crew and they will send the baldest guy in so they can get 30 percent. That's kind of funny,” owner Gary Leech told WCSH.