21st Century Beauty

As I’m currently weekly commuting between Liverpool and London I’ve had to take stock of what exactly I own, use and need. That means everything from jeans to toothbrushes to phone chargers. On the whole it’s a dull and annoying task but what did shock me was the quantity of toiletries I possess. Once upon a time I had a bottle of shampoo, tube of toothpaste and some shower gel. Now my toiletry collection includes the aforementioned but also, half a dozen expensive bottles of eau de cologne, hair conditioner, mouth wash, hand moisturiser, body lotion (unused), face scrub, face wash, hair gel, hair wax and hair mould (Pall Mall Barbers brand no less).




As far as I’m aware I made no conscious decision to branch out into all these products. It was not a decision made with the logical process of a list of pros and cons, but more an organic shift to what I perceived to be required. With this in mind I went to the Boots at Euston Station whilst waiting for my train to see just what is on offer specifically for men. The Boots at the station is by no means a big store, but serves as a handy venue for travellers who forgot to pack the all important cosmetic article. This only heightened my surprise to find a whole aisle of men’s products which five years ago most people would declare to be fictional. First thing I noticed was the brands. There were of course the famous male brands – Gillette, Brut, Old Spice etc and the mainstream brands like Nivea and Sure, but they only took up half the aisle space. The rest was filled with brands such as Botanics and the new male range of No7 and at the top end you can now even get Chanel for Men. For some readers this might not be new or surprising. Perhaps you’ve been using these products since their release and I salute you for your forward thinking, but the idea of using some of these products is entirely new to me, as is the contemplation of spending up to £25 on mainstream lotions (if that doesn’t seem extravagant to you, don’t worry, the top end items can reach into the hundreds).



So to recap, I have now discovered a whole new range of brands and having got over my shock at paying £25 for male anti aging cream I now need to comprehend what exactly all these various potions do. The jargon in itself is an eye opener. There are lotions, creams, gels and even serums, to name just a miniscule number of ointments. The use of the term serum holds my curiosity the most. To me it sounds mythical, made from the juice of a rare flower only found in the uppermost crags of a tall misty mountain (normally by a fairy or sprite). Apparently it can also be found manufactured at the Boots factory in Nottingham in the East Midlands. The topic only becomes more complicated with SPF (sun protection factor) factors such as 15 or 25. It feels almost like planning a summer holiday and getting my necessary sun block, which in my unfortunate case tends to be factor 35 minimum. The education process has been long and complicated and fortunately my fiancée has been my tutor.



So, after what seemed like an explosion of male grooming products on the shelves of supermarkets and chemists alike, how have they come to be on our bathroom shelves? It is a rather backward and closed minded view that these products are geared solely for the gay community, but it might well be argued that they were the first to take advantage of the new range. I’m being careful here as I don’t want to make any sweeping statements, but I will hazard a guess that the cosmetic companies did probably target the gay community initially and allowed the products to be drawn into the mainstream market over time. Looking back, the first men I knew to have exfoliating scrubs and eye creams were gay; now the question is more often what brand of exfoliate do you use rather than do you own any.



Some people might suggest that to use these products puts a man into a metro sexual bracket, but I think this term is already becoming dated. I don’t think I dress in a metro sexual manner – I’m more “Geek Chic” – so let’s face facts – Perfect and Protect Serum is as mainstream as Head and Shoulders.



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