The new mark of a man
Body products, ‘spirit cleanses’ — they’re masculine, too
The commercials are always the same: A razor is likened to a race car or a jet. A shower gel purports to make men smell like a bear. Among the truly absurd ads for male hygiene products, one has a shirtless, brawny Terry Crews popping out of another man’s beard to urge him to shave using a cream made by Old Spice.
To market any sort of self-care to men, many companies harp on an idea of extreme masculinity. There may be a few exceptions, such as the anti-bullying short film Gillette released in 2019, but usually everything is traveling at Mach 5 speed. Is all this out of date?
In the past five years, skin care companies have increasingly conflated beauty with wellness. Sixty-five percent of Ulta’s customers linked the two categories in a company survey, according to Monica Arnaudo, the chief merchandising officer at the company, adding that an even higher number of male respondents did so (3 of 4) — even though shelf space for men’s skin care products has not increased notably in recent years.
“We are finding that the role of beauty is evolving to include a strong element of investment in one’s self,” Arnaudo said.
Though there are fewer scantily clad babes than yore, personal care products for men are still marketed through titillation: high-speed driving, loud noises, and outlandish ideas of man and nature. But most men don’t find peace imagining themselves as centaurs. And nurturing one’s spirit can be facilitated by many activities.
One skin care line that is hoping to thwart the hyper-gendered market is Hu
manrace, from artist and super-producer Pharrell Williams. In November, Williams became one of the many celebrities to venture into the skin care business. The wares, which he developed with his dermatologist, Dr. Elena Jones, consist of a cleanser, an exfoliator and a moisturizer; the routine kit — what Williams called a three-minute facial — costs $100.
Packaged in Japaneseinspired, refillable containers, the line is marketed as an all-gender product. The company’s credo is the skin care products people use should be determined by their specific hygienic and self-care needs.
“We are for human beings,” Williams said. “We’re a brand that wants to cater to spirits no matter which way you identify it.”
Williams, who switched
to a rose vanilla scented deodorant four years ago because he did not want to smell like “1970s aftershave,” swears by a routine. He learned to incorporate it into daily life from Jones 20 years ago, after one of his friends suggested he do more for his skin.
“She was teasing me,” he said. “She was like, what’s going on? You’re just getting up and taking a shower and you’re using the same soap on your body as you use on your face?”
Those questions inspired Williams, 47, who credits his youthful face to his routine, to go further outside himself. He is now a skin-care-routine evangelist, with his own tutorials spread on Youtube.
“For me, the hard-core routine is about considering your spirit, considering your mind and then what you’re doing physically,” Williams said. “It’s definitely a moment to selfreflect and self-project or to
think about your trajectory for the day.”
For some men, self-care goes further than reflecting while taking care of their skin. Salehe Bembury, a shoe designer who has designed footwear for Versace, New Balance and Yeezy, finds that achieving new heights is his form of self-care.
“I find myself above an entire floor of clouds pretty much by myself and I find a lot of peace there,” he said. “It’s two hours of virtually undisturbed time with myself in my brain and my thoughts and my insights.”
Getting older encouraged Bembury, 34, to focus more on his physical and mental well-being. While he could bounce back from a night out quickly when he was in his 20s, he noticed more recently that he was grunting whenever he sat down or got up, he said.
These days, Bembury, who was raised on a pescatarian diet, stretches and
drinks water consistently, along with a handful of practices — such as not eating junk food and diluting juices — that his mother always told him to do.
Rapper Action Bronson (aka Ariyan Arslani) is changing his life, too, engaging in activities that bring him back to when he was a child with a carefree mind and a vivid creativity. That is his form of self-care.
“For me, when I’m in the water, I’m adrift, who knows?” Bronson, 37, said. “It’s just taking care of your mind, it doesn’t have to just be the body. It’s about taking care of your entire being, your spirit. It’s a spirit cleanse.”
Last year, when the pandemic forced him to pause for the first time since he began his rap career in the late 2000s, Bronson, who has made a career enjoying lavish meals around the world, decided it was time to focus on his weight after his wife “shamed” him, he said.
“Self-care was me making sure that I’m around for myself so I’m able to take care of my family,” said Bronson, now father to a young son. “My athleticism has been unlocked. I regained the ability to do so many things.”
While he has chosen to focus on his fitness, he still enjoys a lavish meal or a fine olive oil and calls it self-care.
“You have to indulge sometimes,” Bronson said. “There’s just little things, like buying yourself a nice little spoon set, having a nice little tea set that’s just yours, making a nice espresso, having a piece of tiramisu, a touch.”
Williams also learned to take care of himself, thanks to the advice of the opposite sex.
“Women have always played that role in my life,” he said. “You want to take advice from someone who has endured so much more than you’ll ever endure in this lifetime.”