11 Useful Products Too Embarrassing to Actually Use

Well, someone has finally stood up to the gods of haircut, said "NO MORE" and made the above hair-catching neck gutter. It looks like it probably works great. And it makes you look like either a complete tool, or the average citizen in the year 2011 as portrayed in 1950s sci-fi.

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Look at the first picture. That man has absolutely no idea what's happening to him. He's like "What are we doing, guys? Is this a neck bathtub or something?" A second later he notices the woman with the sharp object coming from behind him and screams "OH MY GOD THEY ARE GOING TO COLLECT MY BLOOD!"

Working in an office would be a slightly less soul-crushing experience if we could avoid the physical annoyances that come with it, like neck and back pain. That way, the torment would merely be psychological. Unfortunately, not every workplace can afford to hire dozens of interns just to massage everyone's neck all the time, so here's a much cheaper and simpler solution that we assume feels like you're being hugged by a balloon animal.

As relaxing as it may be, if we saw someone wearing this at the office, we'd fully expect an alien to burst out of her stomach within the hour. There's virtually no way to distinguish between this revolutionary self-massaging neck cushion and a mind-raping space pod.

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Sometimes you're just too busy to deal with the social aspect of working in an office, but there are only so many ways you can say "I don't care about your children, Gary." Or maybe you just hate everyone you work with and really, really wish the feeling were mutual. The CubeGuard Notification System is the easiest way to make this happen.

This "simple, elegant signaling tool" is a banner that comes with helpful messages like "Please Do Not Disturb," "Currently Busy" and "Nobody Will Attend My Funeral" (this one's implied in all the others). The thing is, like most items in this list, this is actually a good idea, but there has to be a less dickishly passive-aggressive way to let people know that you're busy (like for example saying, "Hey, I'm busy").

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Other messages include "Working from Home" and "Out to Lunch," which you can leave on when you're not having lunch if you want to really confuse everyone. This thing also saves the police at least one step in securing your cubicle when someone inevitably murders you there.

It's 2011. So when, oh when, is it finally going to become socially acceptable to augment our bodies with technology? Hold a gun and you're a badass. Replace your arm with a gun, and suddenly you can't get a job.

Via geekalerts.com

Likewise, if you hold a flashlight in your hand while you fix a computer, you're cool -- even though you now only have half as many hands to do the work. But wear these awesome head-mounted LED lights, and you're a dork who's probably trying to slowly turn himself into a Borg.

This isn't some frivolous gadget here -- low blood flow in the legs is a serious problem. It can lead to blood clots, which in turn can lead to death. Hospitals use special compression wraps to squeeze your legs into behaving properly, so here's some you can use at home.

So, let's get this straight: The fact that some people really need this product means that the manufacturers put no effort into making them look anything other than completely ridiculous? Why not make them black? Or any color other than day-glo blue? When some elderly person comes to you and complains of numbness and swelling in his legs, why does your reply have to be, "Sure, we can fix that, but you have to agree to let us make you look like Megaman."

One of the main symptoms of a bad migraine is the strong desire to lock yourself in a dark room and press a pillow against your head. This solution isn't very practical if you are among the employed or have any kind of responsibilities at all. That's why these state-of-the-art migraine-healing glasses exist.

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Those dick-like protrusions press themselves against your face and massage away the pain. Or, you know, they could go rogue and poke you repeatedly in the eyes. Which, now that we think about it, would distract you from your migraine, so win-win!

If people ask what's going on, you can always tell them that the sun is nearly extinguished in your era and it's taking you a while to adjust to 21st-century sunlight.

As hot as the weather can get sometimes, you can't just walk down the street pointing a battery-operated fan at yourself all day -- that would be silly. Also, your arm would get super tired. Believe it or not, someone has come up with a classy, sleek-looking solution for both of these problems.

Via thetechnologyreview.net

No, seriously, this thing actually works. The collar is filled with water, and an internal fan helps it evaporate around your neck, thus keeping you cool and refreshed even in the hottest of summer days. On the downside, if you leave the prison boundaries it makes your head explode.

Via thetechnologyreview.net

Sitting on an exercise ball may not be the most comfortable thing in the world, but it's good for you -- it works your abs and it's really good for your lower back. It forces your core muscles to keep working as you type (to keep you from tumbling onto the floor while your "chair" bounces into the hall where the boss trips over it and breaks his neck).

Thus we have the Balance Ball Chair, created with the help of chiropractors and designed to help you maintain a better posture and such. We've talked about the importance of sitting properly and how "active sitting" could save your life -- but let's face it, chances are this will never catch on simply because it makes you look like at any moment you're going to grab onto a pair of handles and go bouncing across the parking lot.

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Finally! It's the superior hair-drying job of a fancy professional salon hair dryer, in the comfort of your own home!

And ... why is it gold, again? And why does it seem to have eyes in the forehead so that it appears you're staring out of the mouth hole of a screaming sports mascot costume?