フゥ～!!!
The shiny black packaging and product name totally channels Sumitani Masaki’s Haado Gei. Regular Salux Japanese nylon washcloths and this “hard” version were on sale at Don Quijote, so I spun by after work to pick one up as a replacement for my tattered, perforated one. The “hard” ones came in more muted colors instead of the pastels of the standard version, so I grabbed one and an extra for a spare, even if they were a dollar more each. Busting it out immediately for a shower when I got home, I noticed that it was a lot bigger than my old standard Salux “body towel” (that’s what they call it in katakana on the packaging). The package says 28cm by 100cm, but I don’t recall what the standard one is supposed to measure. It feels around 10-20cm longer and 5-10cm wider. Definitely easier on the shoulder joints when washing the back.
The roughness is greater than the standard version, but it’s not like it scrapes your skin down to the bleeding point. The amusing hardness scale on the packaging rates this one a 9 out of 10. I’d guess it’s about 125-150% the roughness of my old, broken-in standard Salux. The package has a yellow “Warning – not recommended for delicate skin!” and “Hard Level Strong” labeling. It’s pretty funny. Definitely looks like they were marketing these toward men.
Interestingly, this one is made only 13% of nylon, the remaining 87% being polyester. Again, I’m not really sure what the specs for the standard one are, but I was under the assumption that it was primarily nylon. Up close, different threads can be seen – coarse horizontal white thread bundles held together by thinner, colored vertical threads. Just a guess, but I’m thinking the coarse horizontal threads are polyester and are what is responsible for the “hardness”, and the thinner individual vertical threads in the weave are the nylon.
Highly recommended
Four out of four exfoliated monkeys
$3.99 USD plus sales tax on sale
Made in Japan
An update – this week, they’re on sale at Long’s!