An interview with Professional Beauty magazine.

1. Do you think male grooming has still got some way to mature in the
industry?

Very much so. The Male Grooming concept is very much in it‘s infancy and has a long way to go, both with the take-up of services by men and the development of products specific to men‘s needs. If you take a look at how long the Beauty Salon concept has been evolving, you can see it is ever-changing to fit the skin and body care needs of women.

2. What will be the big trends for the industry?

It‘s difficult to predict anything with Male Grooming other than more market penetration. Men are a lot different to women and they aren‘t early adopters when it comes to skincare or relaxation. In other words, it‘s difficult to ‘push them along‘. Men will gradually see and demand the benefits of products such as concealers and other cosmetics, but it will be a slow process.

3. What kind of place has been successful and why?

The Male Grooming graveyard is a quickly expanding place, with so many misguided entrepreneurs opening ‘beauty salons‘ for men. To be successful at Male Grooming, you have to begin by thinking like a man, and then develop your offering on top of that. Strange as this seems, I don‘t see much common ground between Beauty Salons and Male Grooming Salons, but the most successful businesses service a need to their clientele in a format which is most acceptable to them.

4. Can a beauty salon ever offer male treatments and be as successful with
male clientele as a dedicated gent‘s place?

Not in my opinion as I see them as distinctly different services. There are a small percentage of men who use Beauty Salons, but they tend to be less inhibited compared to the rest of the male population.

5. What is the one thing people always get wrong in male grooming?

The biggest mistake I‘ve seen is that the business owners are surprised at the initial slow take-up of the business by customers. This then causes cashflow difficulties which causes the business owner to rapidly reassess what they can do. Quite often they turn the business into a Beauty Salon by which time it‘s too late. The cash has run out!

Male Grooming is still a niche market and by no means mainstream, so anyone thinking of going into this business needs to realise that they have their work cut out to make it successful.

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