Seeking to Expand in the Health and Beauty Care Market? Don’t Overlook the Mampering Trend.
What are men looking for from the beauty industry? And what the heck is mampering?
Male partner, “Honey, where’s my stubble softener face wash?”
Female partner, “In the cabinet, next to your exfoliating powder.”
Male partner, “Ah, found it. By the way, do you think this new anti-aging serum is doing anything for me?”

Female partner, “Let me see. Yeah, the skin under your eyes looks a bit tighter.”
Welcome to the age of mampering, short for male pampering. Driven by male millennials, mampering is going mainstream. Men are increasingly seeking personal care products that are designed specifically with their skin, hair, and facial needs in mind.
Market research portal Statista forecasts that the global market for men’s personal care products will reach USD 21.4B in 2016 . That figure is expected to grow to USD 26.6B by 2020. DataMonitor cites three innovation trends in the expanding male grooming product market: facial hair care, functional make-up, and tailored solutions that address the demand for high performance ingredients and masculine oriented claims .
If women thought they had cornered the beauty and health care market, today it’s no problem to find moisturizers, scrubs, hair and beard grooming solutions, anti-aging, anti-acne, and bio-anything for people of the male persuasion. Traditional male product companies, such as Old Spice and Gillette, are launching new products in a bid to ride the wave of increasing interest in a wider offering. However, manufacturers of female personal care products, including the likes of L’Oreal, Clinque, and Biotherm, are jumping in with their own homme-oriented collections.
How did this explosion of beauty products for men happen? Simple – men’s attitudes towards their appearance and grooming have been gradually changing as millennials reach maturity. The modern man cares about bags under his eyes, sagging skin, aging, wrinkles, misbehaving hair, and other such troubles that used to be the worry realm of….well, women.
So what did they do? Obviously, they started using their wives’ or girlfriends’ face creams, conditioners, cleansers, and exfoliators. More than one woman was surprised to see her moisturizer disappearing so quickly, only to discover that her guy had been slathering it on when she turned her back. Companies identified the opportunity and dove in, developing creative products and marketing schemes to nurture the increasing interest in male specific solutions.
Research by Mintel indicates that that up until 2015, skin care products were driving growth in the male personal care market. Hair care products are now expected to take over as the biggest market driver going forward. Catering to this trend could be profitable for hair care product manufacturers and hair salons. Everything goes from brush-in color for beard and mustache to conditioners and masks designed for men. Expect to increasingly see hair and body salon services targeted to men.
Botom line: Men want to be pampered. Who are we to deny them?