Nowadays, makeup, skin care and hairdressing are gender-neutral, and men's grooming needs can even be compared to women's.
In addition to the basic care products such as cleansing and moisturizing, hair care and hair coloring, makeup concealer, nail polish, cosmetics and food homologous products and even health and beauty products have gradually entered the shopping list of male consumers, who are more and more willing to try new products. Like women, a full series of grooming steps is becoming their new habit.
Judging from the recent market trends, after the completion of the contact with the concept of beauty and skin care through the basic products, more and more male consumers are looking for higher-level personal care products to meet their more comprehensive treatment needs. This higher-end product is a nutritional supplement, with targeted products that address cosmetic health issues such as skin, hair and nails being the most representative.
Personal care nutritional supplements are being favored by male consumers
According to a new study by analyst firm First and First Consulting, 9.8 million men in the U.S. say they take nutritional supplements to maintain healthy skin, hair and nails, a 29% increase over 2021. Among them, male consumers aged 25 to 44 accounted for 47% of the male skin care nutritional supplement market, while male consumers aged 16 to 24 increased by 164% year-on-year, making them the fastest growing consumer group.
Jeremy Triefenbach of Venture Capital Stage 1 Financial told WWD that he believes the skincare brand's foray into edible nutritional supplements satisfies male consumers who are looking for a more diverse range of health care needs.
Recently, Disco, an American men's skincare start-up founded in 2019, launched the first edible skin supplement called "Fountain of Youth", whose main effect is to reduce skin blemishes and wrinkles. Co-founded by Benjamin Smith and dermatologist Eva O'Brien, Disco is positioned to offer men high-end facial and body care products, including cleansers, creams, eye creams, masks, shower gels, anti-sweat rolls and more, for $12 to $34.
Disco launches the first edible one called "Fountain of Youth"
Men's beauty brand Scotch Porter launched its first nutritional supplement last year that can be used to provide nutritional support for beard, hair, skin and immune system. Ritual, a multivitamin company founded in 2016, launched a men-specific multivitamin product in 2020. Asystem, a healthcare brand that focuses on "Clean Beauty" and cosmeceuticals, launched a "Superhuman" supplement in 2019 that boosts immunity, energy and mental focus, followed by gummies that relieve stress and insomnia.
Asystem
The continuous introduction of edible nutritional supplement products by different brands to target men's diverse health needs is actually a testament to the growing segment and attracts more players into the space, including players like Hims. It is a publicly traded U.S. telemedicine service company, but it has introduced oral nutritional supplements to address the problem of localized hair loss in men. It also includes brands like Roman, Keeps and Nutrafol, which have also launched their own anti-hair loss products.
From the perspective of consumption habits, men's involvement in nutritional supplements to maintain their health needs is not a nascent consumer trend. Many men buy various protein powders, fitness shakes and supplements for fitness shaping reasons, but now they are also starting to buy skin care and beauty supplements outside of fitness products, and this change in consumption habits also shows that the health needs of male consumers are undergoing an upgrade - they are no longer satisfied with external fitness shaping needs, and the intrinsic, more comprehensive and systematic health concept is increasingly favored by male consumers.
However, even though beauty and skin care has been accepted by most male consumers, due to the social significance and historical reasons of male image, the male beauty and skin care market has not yet ushered in a full stage of development. Like beauty and skin care products, skin care nutritional supplements also face this so-called "male consciousness" problem.
The American Psychological Association's guidelines for psychological practice for boys and men released in 2018 mention that the most traditional ideology of masculinity is associated with mental health, and men have not received the help they deserve since childhood, and have been taught to "rely on themselves and reduce their attention to appearance and mental health" from an early age. In the face of socially solidified masculinity, men will always have unspeakable shame when purchasing personal care products, and many male personal care brands are also paying attention to men's mental health and redefining "masculinity" through product marketing and alliances with non-profit organizations.
Jonathan Keren, founder of Maapilim, a men's skincare and grooming brand founded in Tel Aviv, Israel in 2015, said: "When we first sold men's products, we clearly felt that something was missing in the male skincare field, and we wanted to stimulate more discussion among men about skincare methods and self-care, so that men are less emotionally rigid, which can be achieved by praising other people's skin and openly discussing the way of wellness." ”
Launched in 2010 to "give men more opportunities to care for themselves", dove Men+Care has become a global advocate for paternity leave for men, working to secure paternity leave opportunities for men around the world to promote "greater gender equality between men and women at home and at work".
Dove Men+Care
Dr Wizdom Powell, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center and director of the Institute for Health Inequalities, said: "I do think that contemporary norms for men are changing, and our understanding of how masculine temperament is formed is deepening. Dr. Powell was hired by Dove Men+Care as a consultant to study the mental health of men and boys in marginalized communities.
Dr Powell explains: "Men have more pronounced depressive symptoms when they think they shouldn't tell others about sources of stress, and rarely seek mental health screening and stick to treatment. The potential to work with brands to disseminate this information about self-care cannot be underestimated. ”
Asystem co-founder Oli Walsh believes that nutritional supplements are more acceptable to male consumers than skin care products because their consumption habits of buying health products have a long history. "I think nutritional supplements are more acceptable to male consumers. Because they always drink protein and fitness shakes, they have formed a consumption habit for products such as 'supplements'. So even though skin care and beauty are still seen as detrimental to masculinity at the moment, nutritional supplements don't face this 'accusation' because they target intrinsic health problems. ”
Andrew Dudum, founder and CEO of Hims & Hers, told WWD, "I believe there will be even more development in this space because it is still in its early stages. When I talk to male consumers, they say they're still hopeful about the health and wellness space, and they want to be able to buy nutrients that reduce anxiety or treat depression. However, at present, this demand is still a relatively high-level health demand, and the average male consumer is still in the stage of prioritizing skin health and body health. ”
Nutritional supplements for Hims & Hers
Overall, the male nutritional supplement market is indeed a blue ocean, if you want to release the full potential of the market, the brand should not only pay attention to the professionalism and functionality of the product, but also make efforts at the level of social tolerance for male beauty, and ally with non-profit organizations to jointly pay attention to men's mental health, help men have a sense of "appearance and physical health management", and then stimulate continuous consumption potential. WWD
Written by Jason
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