The health and beauty department at your local shopping center is no longer a haven for women who want to ponder what palette best suits their pout and what mascara will provide the most separation and lift for our eyelashes. No longer can we lavish luxuriously picking up the lotions and serums one by one and lifting them to our nostrils, breathing in the notes of lavendar, lilies, or a day at the beach. Nope. Move over, ladies. The men are moving in.
It is hard to pinpoint where it all began. For some reason, most would agree that it was a beard thing, and it just bushed out from there. Beards came back into style and men did not want to walk around smelling of coconut and lilacs. Enter the Man Brands: Squatch soaps and deodorants, hair and skin care. Duke Cannon fired a shot at the market as well, and as luck would have it, he hit big. Where has this been all our lives, asked the men now sniffing gin and cedar beard oil and asking strangers for opinions on their skin type. Women must now share the aisle. And we think that it is kind of great.
Definitely a Market
We’ve made room for the gentlemen in the health and beauty departments, and now we are scooting over at the spa, esthetician, and plastic surgeon’s offices to make room for the men. We are all secretly wondering if this is “weird?” Stop wondering. It is not. In fact, it is quite historic when you consider the Vikings and their penchant for makeup and jewelry, or the Founding Fathers in their powdered wigs. Men have been historically fashionable and could even be put in the catagory of “primpers.”
So, when did we expect men to stop caring about their appearance? When did rugged good looks translate to unkempt beards and scraggly hair? It never did, and men of all ages are seizing the opportunity to make improvements in a variety of ways. And so, technically, it is safe to say that the market for plastic surgery seekers has doubled.
What Do They Want?
Well, they are men and despite what we consider, they are the same species as women. They are looking for procedures that will give them an extra edge. The same reason that a woman wants an eye-lift is a viable reason for a man to want the same thing. Never has there been such a boom in technology when it comes to improving appearance, and why should the spoils go only to the female of the species?
It shouldn’t. Men are booking appointments with estheticians for facials, procedures that reduce fine lines and smooth their complexion, and remove unwanted hair; the desires for both genders are the same: to look and feel better in their own skin, to own who they are. Butt lifts for men? If you’ve never seen the right but in a pair of good jeans then you have no right to judge. They are actually doing us all a favor…
As a society, we seldom consider the psychology of men, especially men of a certain age. Feelings of insecurity or a desire for improvement are not relegated to females only. Men are looking to improve with age; or some men, that looks like a non-invasive sculpting procedure or a “lunch lift.” For other men, the wrinkles are too much, too soon, so a face lift that brings back that strong, defined jawline is the ticket.
Benefits Beyond Treatment
Is this just a trend? Will it go away? We don’t think so. The barrier has been torn down, and we wonder why it wasn’t long ago. Perhaps because we have been obsessed with clickbait that shows us celebrity plastic surgeries gone wrong? Perhaps because we haven’t been a society that supports that kind of confidence, but now we are. We are kinder and gentler and we see the benefits behind and beyond the treatment.
We see confident, handsome men who are overcomers and protectors. But now we see what they knew; the transformation is finally completed. The marble always held the figure, it only needed to be freed. It is a simple truth. They want the same things that women want – and when it comes to confidence and self-empowerment, do we have to put a gender on it?
