Photo/Illutration A photo of a woman's arm that became swollen due to the use of a hair removal product, forcing her to complain to the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan (Provided by the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan)

Older male teenagers are overwhelmingly facing a consumer problem that is making them want to tear their hair out.

Depilatory complaints resulted in the highest counseling cases reported among male older teens for the first time, based on the number brought to consumer centers across Japan last year.

Consumers registered many complaints such as, “I saw an ad for a hair removal product on my mobile phone and bought it, but it gave me symptoms like itchiness and redness. And the product was delivered to me again, but I didn’t know that I had signed a purchase contract on a regular basis.”

The data was disclosed in the White Paper on Consumer Affairs approved by the government at a Cabinet meeting on June 9.

While many men and women are interested in beauty care products, an increasing number of young people are reporting consumer-related problems.

It was the first time that problems with these products ranked in the top 10 among those registered by men.

By counseling requests, problems with hair removal products totaled 2,600 cases among males aged between 15 and 29.

Among older male teens between 15 and 19, depilatory complaints totaled 1,406, the highest among all cases. The complaints had ranked 15th or under the previous year, but the number soared last year, amounting to about eight times the 184 cases of females in the same age group.

The second most complaints among the same male age group were related to online games, 553, while the third were cosmetic and related items, 361.

There were also 246 complaints about health foods and 184 for lotions. Many consumers complained about them, citing “they disagreed with me” and “products were repeatedly delivered.”

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