Why Co-Creating A Product or Service That We Pay For Makes Us Feel Empowered
Recently, my office at the Dr. U Hair and Skin Clinic in Los Angeles published posts on social media about the subject of pubic hair eyelash transplantation. Yes, I am serious. This is indeed an actual cosmetic procedure where we transplant pubic hair follicles into the lash line. Since we’ve developed the technology to safely remove any type of hair, we let our patients choose from areas like the nape, legs, arms, armpits and the pubic area. And they love being able to do this, even if their selection is extremely unconventional. One may start to wonder why this is the case. It seems that the underlying emotional dynamic goes beyond the feeling of freedom to choose. It’s about the power of co-creating a final result.
Many individuals consider the eyelashes and eyebrows to be highly personalized features of their face. In other words, people often have strong opinions and preferences about how they want their lashes and brows to look, often resorting to various forms of cosmetics like pencils, shadows, mascara as well as and enhancements like eyelash extensions and false lash strips.
Long, beautifully curved eyelashes have always been coveted by women and will probably not go out of style or demand anytime soon. These days, both males and females prefer having the appearance of thick, full looking eyebrows, as opposed to thin, sparse arches.
Nowadays, the follicularly challenged can undergo eyelash and eyebrow transplantation to grow their own set of longer eyelashes and fuller eyebrows, despite their genetic limitations.
My practice in these procedures is a little bit different as it allows individuals to choose their hair type. Conventional forms of these procedures only rely on follicles taken from the scalp. They are performed with regular FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) hair transplant punches, the same devices used for hair loss surgeries for thinning and baldness, where donor hair grafts are extracted from the patient’s head. However, these punches are best used for harvesting hair follicles from the scalp which grow close to ninety degrees.
Using these general FUE punches will not work as well for other types of hair. Nape and body hair, in general, grow at sharper angles and also have the tendency to curve below the skin. When using a basic FUE punch, which has a regular cylindrical configuration, it becomes difficult to accurately pinpoint and safely surround the follicles without cutting through these grafts.
Due to the need for using body hair for many different applications, I worked with my engineering team to develop a more advanced punch. Unlike the conventional FUE punch, this instrumentation doesn’t depend on using the visible hair above the skin as a cue for locating the follicle. It self-navigates and accurately surrounds the graft that needs to be extracted. This is the story of how my technology, the Dr.UGraft ™ family of hair transplant devices came into being.
And with the capability to safely harvest any type of hair, regardless of their growth angles, my patients could then choose any type of donor hair they wanted for their hair transplant procedures. For the eyelashes, they do not have to be restricted to the conventional use of head hair, which is comparatively very thick and grows indefinitely. Dr.UGraft ™ patients can choose leg hair, nape hair, pubic hair and hair from any other body regions, such as armpit hair, for example.
At my clinic, it is clear that the power of choice is immensely gratifying for many people. Most patients will go along with the recommendation of nape hair, due to its fine caliber. But others delight in having the freedom to choose their donor graft and select more unorthodox options like pubic hair. And they adore their results, quite immensely, oftentimes, happy to share the fact that they underwent this type of procedure.
Giving people the ability to choose and co-create their results grants them a sense of power, along with emotional gratification. And, in many cases, especially with eyelash and eyebrow transplantation, these outcomes seem to elicit a rather high perceived value, as my clinic and I have noticed with our patients. Exploring the psychology behind this is quite interesting, insightful and worth delving into since it has significant implications for other areas of life.
The Psychology Behind the Power of Choice
According to psychologists, giving people a reasonable range of choices that they can easily process is empowering. It gets them excited and motivated to make a decision to get them their end result. Choices, in this manner, confer a sense of power and control which tends to be equated with survival, at a deep instinctual level. According to Susan Weinschenk Ph.D., this is why having choices makes us feel powerful.
In fact, people and animals have been shown to value a sense of control over having a fast, easy and straightforward path to their end goal. Research shows that both human and animal subjects will tend to choose a more complicated path over a more simple and direct one to obtain the desired objective.
According to Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing, when monkeys and pigeons learn to push buttons to receive food and are then presented with being able to choose one button versus multiple buttons, both types of animals show a preference for multiple buttons.
She also discusses an experiment with humans being given chips at a casino. When choosing between a table with one roulette wheel or two, they preferred the two wheels, even though they were both exactly the same.
Hence, going back to the example of eyelash and eyebrow transplantation, rather than choosing nape hair for their eyelashes, this may explain why some people will opt for the more extreme and unusual choice of pubic hair and feel extremely thrilled with their decision to do so.
Paradoxically, when the number of choices becomes too numerous, people may experience analysis paralysis or the experience of distress in having to make the right decision. And this may cause them to delay or forego having to make a decision altogether.
Choice and Co-Creation and What This Means For Businesses in General
Beyond the concept of choice is the ability to co-create a highly valued result.
According to an article by Consumer Think, entitled, Customization is the New Black: The Age of the Passive Consumer is Decidedly Over, the appeal of co-creating a product or end result is that “human beings are emotionally hardwired to imagine and be expressive, and we are drawn to what we create.”
They also discuss that researchers have done studies which show that playing an active role in creating, generates feelings related to control, ownership and immediacy. And there is a stronger emotional connection to the end result.
Business organizations are now being encouraged to develop their offerings along these lines, allowing customers to “create and personify” who they are as individuals. In doing so, this gives them the ability to meet untapped demand by enabling deep hard-wired emotional needs to be met through self- expression, and individualization.
Self-Empowerment Through Creative Endeavors
Whether we are speaking of choices for eyelash transplantation, or co-creating a personalized product such as T-shirts, jewelry or sneakers, one thing remains certain, that we are all creative by nature. Opportunities to be creative not only gives us an area that we can control, but also helps us feel more empowered in healthy, constructive ways. In our busy, day to day lives, we are often preoccupied with numerous tasks and obligations. And it can be difficult to make room to channel our mental and emotional energies into meaningful creative pursuits that allow us to express more of our unique ideas and potential.
But it may be worth it, in the end, to take our insights more seriously and experience a sense of empowerment which can help us feel more invigorated in other areas of life. If being able to co-create on small levels, can fill us with a satisfying sense of power, we can only expect to reap even larger benefits from other endeavors. If you’ve ever had an idea or a feeling of inspiration from a hobby or pursuit that is meaningful to you, don’t keep putting it aside. Find some time to jot it down on paper and work on small steps whenever you can to bring in more fully into fruition. Have fun and see where this takes you.