Beard Growth Shaves Razor Sales

Image: fda.gov

A quick glance around airports, bars, or supermarkets leads one to conclude that fewer men are shaving. There's more stubble, fuzz, and beards walking around than in recent years. The fad for "casual" styles may contribute to this phenomenon. Other causes for the increase in male facial hair may exist, but I'll leave that exploration to minds smarter than mine.

Procter & Gamble, manufacturer of Gillette razors and other shaving products, noted this hairy phenomenon in a recent Financial Times report on the topic. Diminished use of razors has shaved profits from P&G's lucrative Gillette product lines. However, the consumer giant sees a new market for shaving -- "manscaping," a/k/a body shaving. As P&G's CFO told the FT, "'While the incidence of facial shaving is down, the incidence of body shaving is up, and we can take advantage of that and plan to do that as well.'" That sounds like P&G had one helluva senior management meeting. (The ad campaign for manscaping ought to be an interesting one.)

Meanwhile, Gillette has filed the trademark "Gillette Body." That puts a whole new twist to the concept of "a shave and a shower," don't you think?