Male beauty parlours are springing up daily in South Africa in response to what has been described as a ‘metrosexual wave’. The country’s men-only parlours like Sorbet Man are doing so well, they already have 20 franchise stores within a short period of operation. The salon which launched as a spinoff from a women’s salon brand three years ago is expecting a 50 percent turnover this year.
In a report by Reuters, men who patronise these salons say it is a safe space for them to get preened and pampered without feeling awkward in a typical women’s salon. “It’s a male environment. They give you whisky if you want whisky. In the old days, we had to go to female hair salons. I think we need to look better after ourselves. I think it’s often been ignored, particularly in South Africa,” said Gerhard Joubert.
Joubert is right. Male grooming is often ignored as society has always dismissed the idea of men paying detailed attention to their appearance. Interest in fashion, shopping, and beauty has always been regarded as a feminine trait so that men who pay attention to these things are often said to be in touch with their femininity. Not that it is a bad thing.
Today, things are changing as they should. Blurring gender roles and the proliferation and influence of social media is making ‘male vanity’ socially acceptable, thereby birthing metrosexuality. Men are now doing more to look attractive by diversifying into skincare products, such as moisturizers, scrubs, and face masks.
As a result, a new market has emerged and marketers are responding fast. Especially here in Africa where the metrosexual wave has been slow to catch on. According to industry research, the global men’s grooming product market is expected to reach $78.6 billion by 2023 from $58 billion in 2017, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.3 percent within that period. In Africa and the Middle East, growing demand for face wash, anti-ageing, and oil-free cream products is driving market growth.
More brands are coming into the male grooming sector globally, and companies like Nivea, Unilever, Procter & Gamble and L’Oreal are taking advantage of the lucrative opportunity that this thriving industry presents to introduce a wider range of products targeted at Africa’s increasing young urban adult male population who are conscious about their looks.
Men-only salons are also being opened to sell these products and to meet the demand for everything including shaves, beard care, manicure, pedicure, skincare treatments, wax treatments, hair colouring and eyebrow threading. “I think over the years the stigma about male grooming has really limited men from basically expressing themselves,” Dexter Pillay, co-owner of Bespoke Man, a salon in Johannesburg, told Reuters. “It’s changed now so drastically where men are more metrosexual.”
The burgeoning of the male grooming industry is a testament to how social evolutions create new markets and why they should be embraced, particularly by African countries who are in dire need of advancing their economies. Sometimes, tradition hinders progress, and Africa sure has a lot of them.
