For men, beer and manicure
PHILADELPHIA -- Steven Wooke takes a swig from a bottle of Heineken as his left hand rests on a small table, his fingers spread out like playing cards. He's getting a manicure -- hand detailing, the salon calls it -- and it's a pampering the 24-year-old information technology manager has learned to enjoy.
''My girlfriend notices it," Wooke said during a visit to an American Male salon. ''I try to come in every two weeks."
American Male -- which is opening its 15th salon, in Las Vegas, in February -- is one of a growing number of salons devoted to men who want more than just a barbershop haircut but don't feel comfortable at women's beauty salons and wouldn't be caught dead in a froufrou day spa.
The salons are catering to an apparently growing interest by men in grooming. Sales of men's skin care products sold through department stores rose 13 percent last year, more than double the growth for the women's market, according to NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. Retail sales in the US men's grooming market are expected to reach $10 billion by 2008, up 25 percent from last year, according to Packaged Facts, a unit of MarketResearch.com in New York.
Men's salons are seeking to put some distance between themselves and beauty salons, though. Some have TVs tuned to sports channels. Some offer free beer. At least one lets clients light up cigars.
Prices for haircuts, waxing, manicures, pedicures, facials, shaving, and massages start at about $20.
''Men don't really like going to salons. They don't like being with women in there, and they don't like the smell of the salons," said Howard Hafetz, chief executive of Raylon Corp., American Male Salons' parent company. Raylon operates or licenses salons in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Others catering to men include Miami-based The Art of Shaving, which has eight locations in four states and is opening 10 more by the end of 2006; Sport Clips of Georgetown, Texas, with 300 franchised locations; and Roosters Men's Grooming Centers of Round Rock, Texas, with 13 salons open and five under construction.
''Men are getting more vain," said Marian Salzman, author of ''The Future of Men" and director of strategic content at the ad agency JWT, in New York.
''There's more pressure to look young and sexy. Even young boys are waxing their bodies to be hairless."
