Koko Face Yoga: What Happened To The Brand After Shark Tank?
You may remember Koko Hayashi from her appearance on Season 11 of "Shark Tank" thanks to her entertaining personality, charm, and especially her jumpsuit, which featured close-up photos of her face in various yoga poses. Naturally, this is because Hayashi professionally coaches face yoga, a technique that rids the face of signs of aging through specific repeated yoga movements. Face yoga is common in Japan — Hayashi estimates the face yoga industry is worth "tens of millions" of dollars in the country — and promises a more youthful appearance in just "three to five minutes per day," according to the coach. Hayashi's journey to becoming a face yoga coach started with a cosmetic surgery gone wrong at age 29 and the pursuit of a non-invasive anti-aging remedy resulted in Koko Face Yoga.
Hayashi offers face yoga sessions to clients to teach them how to target specific areas of the face they'd like to see looking for youthful and vibrant. She's also the founder of Mirai Clinical, a cosmetics company offering solutions for anti-aging and skin revitalization through all-natural products. Before her appearance on "Shark Tank," Hayashi had filmed an episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," which happened to air within a few days of her presentation to ABC's resident Sharks. But just what happened to Hayashi and her business after "Shark Tank"?
What happened to Koko Face Yoga on Shark Tank?
During her presentation on "Shark Tank" in 2019, the entrepreneur pitched her claim of having found the "fountain of youth," sans plastic surgery or injectables, and asked the show's eponymous Sharks for $200,000 for 20% equity in her company. Koko Hayashi demonstrated the predicted results of a consistent face yoga routine on Kevin O'Leary, as well as the projection of his face without face yoga — much to the amusement of the room, with everyone, including O'Leary, haughtily laughing at the edited photos and the faces Hayashi walked him through.
While the Sharks — Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary, and guest shark Rohan Oza — were entertained by Hayashi, they didn't bite, and the 40-year-old face yoga coach left the show without any investors. Their reasoning, despite finding Hayashi so charming, was largely due to the notion that Americans want quick results when it comes to youthful looks and anti-aging procedures, not ones that they'd have to work toward for several minutes every day. For instance, guest Shark Oza told the entrepreneur, "Koko, I admire your energy. It's second to none. ... But I can't wrap my head around it, unfortunately. I'm out." However, this didn't impede Hayashi's dreams, and she continued with her vision to make a real impact in the skincare market with Koko Face Yoga.
Koko Face Yoga after Shark Tank
Despite not securing an investor on "Shark Tank," Koko Hayashi and Koko Face Yoga carried on. Hayashi happened to appear not only in an episode of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" the week of her "Shark Tank" appearance but also on "Steve Harvey" and "America's Got Talent" following her tryst with the Sharks. She may not have won a big paycheck, but suffice it to say her face yoga methodology has received some steady exposure nonetheless.
What's more, Hayashi still has A-list clients, including Kim Kardashian. While some viewers seemed to share a similar sentiment as the Sharks regarding the concept of face yoga being profitable or facial exercises even being effective — like Redditors who wrote "One of the worst ideas in shark tank" and "$200 for an hour instruction that I'm sure you could get on YouTube" — studies do show the practice has benefits. According to 2018 research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, facial exercise does result in increased "cheek fullness," and the study's "participants were more satisfied with all facial aging outcomes" once they compared their initial faces to post-study faces. So, it would appear that many could probably afford to learn from Hayashi before judging the practice.
Koko Face Yoga is still in business
Despite the doubts from the Sharks in 2019, Koko Face Yoga is still alive and well. On Koko Face Yoga's website, you'll find sessions available for purchase, a certification program to become a face yoga coach yourself, and anti-aging products to enhance your face yoga practice for youthfulness, including red light therapy lamps and hair growth serums. On social media, Koko Hayashi's Instagram has more than 150,000 followers, while her TikTok account has more than 580,000 followers. She also has an app called KFY (Koko Face Yoga) and is present on YouTube, though she's building a new account from the ground up following the banning of her longtime channel that had racked up "nearly 700,000 followers since 2010," according to a December 2023 Instagram post.
From the looks of it, Hayashi seems to have captured her own success without the help of "Shark Tank" investors. According to Net Worth Spot, her net worth is estimated to be around $266,000. If you recall her episode of "Shark Tank," her sales from the face yoga business had only reached $17,000 in 2019. With more money to her name now, we can conclude that Hayashi has successfully carved out her own path in life, whether a lot of this money is from Koko Face Yoga or most of it is from Mirai Clinical, her other business.
What's next for Koko Face Yoga?
In a May 15, 2023 interview with the entrepreneur-centered podcast TrepTalks, Koko Hayashi discussed her future plans to expand her app. Here, she wants to use an artificial intelligence-based facial scan to create personalized face yoga plans for users. Hayashi shared that Koko Face Yoga is a small business comprised of just herself and one assistant, but even with a small team, she has grand dreams for it and herself. According to the interview, Koko aims to claim the title of the "next Marie Kondo" — a household name that means business.
Hayashi continues to host private exercise sessions and reach people through many channels. On this, she shares on her website, "I believe everyone's face deserves a graceful aging process, by waking up sleeping muscles and relaxing overworking muscles." And this is exactly what you'll find in her private face exercise sessions, as well as in the tutorials on her social media pages.
Ultimately, while Hayashi wasn't too enthused by the response of the Sharks on "Shark Tank," it appears she took some of their advice to heart when building Koko Face Yoga into the even bigger force it is today. Plus, she's continued to grow Mirai Clinical, so the world really is hers for the taking if she keeps it up.