"Does that hurt?" asks the doctor. "Err, not really," say I. "Right, turn it up to 40," she tells the technician. Then it does kind of start to hurt. It feels as though somebody is firing a tiny laser beam into my cheek. Indeed, that is exactly what is happening.
I am here, being zapped, as part of a WEEK 3 investigation into men's beauty treatments -- they're extremely popular these days, or at least that's what the Japanese media says.
Apparently, the market for skin treatments, manicures, eyebrow plucking, electrolysis and other procedures for guys is now worth about 4.6 trillion yen per year in Japan, and new "aesthetic salons" seem to be springing up like rogue nose hairs wherever you look.