A recent episode of VH1's Best Week Ever included a segment called “Save It or Shave It,” where three clearly gay men judge whether various celebrities' hairstyles are sleek and stylish (“save it”) or truly terrifying (“shave it”). The star hair-do appears, followed by a dishy one-liner, and then all three men join together to hand down the sentence — in the case of Janet Jackson's peacock-inspired Mohawk, “Shave it!”

These coif connoisseurs are the Sunsilk Hairapy Guys, the frothy marketing concoction of Unilever, an international product company that wants the Hairapy Guys to become stars - and sell shampoo in the process.

Sunsilk, a Unilever product and the No. 2 shampoo in the world, is being sold on U.S. shelves for the first time; and the three out, gay actors who make up the Hairapy Guys are a critical part of Unilever's strategy to break Sunsilk into the highly competitive U.S. hair care market.

The Sunsilk Hairapy Guys campaign appears to be groundbreaking. It may be the first time that openly gay people have been part of a promotional campaign to introduce a new, mainstream product. But the campaign also raises a couple of red flags. The Hairapy Guys do not appear in the Sunsilk commercials and - at least for now - seem to have an oddly limited role. And even stranger is the inclusion of a "mature subject matter" warning on the Hairapy Guys official site.

How did a multinational corporation decide to use identifiably gay men as part of such a high-profile product launch? And are there still business concerns around the use of such imagery?

In an interview with AfterElton.com, Unilever Brand Marketing Director Tiffany Kurtz says that the idea came straight from their target demographic: women ages 18–34.

“We have spoken to over 10,000 women” in that demographic, says Kurtz. “We've done focus groups. … We've gone to bars, we've gone to their homes, we've gone to their work. We have groups of girlfriends that we talk to.”

The women told Unilever that they had a lot of “drama” in their lives and they dealt with it by talking about it. Whom did the women find especially “nonjudgmental,” “approachable” and “credible” when it came to this type of therapy — in addition to fashion and hair? Gay men — or what Kurtz calls, “the gay-guy girlfriend.”

Women loved the idea of the gay best friend in shows like Will & Grace and Sex and the City, as well as the gay style experts of Queer Eye. Combine these images with the Sunsilk marketers' concept of “sitting in the stylist's chair,” and the Hairapy Guys — “where hair meets therapy” — were born.

Three out gay actors from Los Angeles have been chosen for Hairapy duties. Micah McCain has a long resume that includes a theatrical one-man show, supporting appearances on NYPD Blue and Las Vegas, as well as a drag act. Robbie Laughlin, is best known as the blond one on Bravo's short-lived Queer Eye for the Straight Girl. And Ethan Mechare is a relative newcomer to the business. His biggest project is a short film starring Master P.

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