You might be, like me, very overdue for a hair cut. Unless you wear a pageboy style, it’s not so simple to cut it yourself. Too bad you don’t still have a Flowbee to make it easy! In case you weren’t around in the late 1980s, the Flowbee was a hair trimmer that attached to your vacuum cleaner. It sucked in your hair and made sure every strand was cut to the same precise yet adjustable length. At least that was the idea. It was invented by carpenter Rick Hunts.
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Hunts, who raised more than $100,000 from investors and even sold his cabinet shop to obtain additional funds to mass market his creation, clearly felt the Flowbee would be a slam-dunk. He approached major personal grooming companies like Conair, Norelco, and Remington to see if they’d be interested in the Flowbee. He also approached beauty salons to see if they’d consider selling them to customers. He later recalled that all of them said the idea was nuts. In the case of the salons, they were afraid the Flowbee might actually work as advertised and see a reduction in foot traffic from people content to cut their own hair.
But the Flowbee found everlasting fame in infomercials, where it became both ubiquitous and fascinating. Read the history of the Flowbee at Mental Floss.
Source: neatorama