68% of Gen Z and Millennial Men Say Appearance Matters More Than It Did Five Years Ago

A survey by Talker Research conducted earlier this year found that 68% of U.S. men say they care more about their appearance today than they did five years ago, with the trend being especially pronounced among Gen Z and Millennial men. The average man now follows a grooming routine, more than half say they’re spending more time and money on personal care than they did five years ago, and 70% say they would seek professional help to slow the signs of aging.

Those statistics are certainly interesting, but they weren’t what immediately caught my attention. Over the past year, I’ve spent countless hours interviewing consumers as part of my doctoral research on beauty and personal care routines. Those conversations included both women and men, and if I’m being honest, some of the interviews with men ended up being the ones I thought about the most long after they were over.

Going into the research, I expected the conversations to be different. I assumed men would simply talk less about beauty or place less importance on their routines. That wasn’t what I found. Many of the men I interviewed described thoughtful routines that included skincare, body care, fragrance, grooming, and other daily rituals. What differed wasn’t necessarily the behavior; it was the language.

Women often described their routines using words like self-care, confidence, relaxation, or even therapy. Men rarely chose those words. Instead, they talked about looking presentable, feeling fresh, having a routine, or taking care of myself. The emotional experience often seemed to be there, but it was communicated through a vocabulary that felt more practical than emotional.

As a consumer behavior researcher, I found that fascinating. It made me wonder how much of our understanding of men’s relationship with beauty has been shaped by the language we expect to hear. If we’re listening for words like self-care or wellness, we may overlook similar experiences simply because they’re being expressed differently.

At the end of several conversations, a few men thanked me for asking the questions. They told me no one had ever asked them how they take care of themselves, what those routines meant to them, or how they felt when they skipped them. Some even said that saying those thoughts out loud felt therapeutic.

It reminded me that sometimes research isn’t just about collecting data. It’s about creating space for conversations that people haven’t had before. I don’t think the most interesting story is that men suddenly started caring about their appearance; my interviews suggested many already did. What’s changing is that they’re becoming more willing to engage with the conversation, and perhaps we’re becoming more willing to ask better questions.

As the men’s beauty market continues to grow, I think the opportunity for brands extends far beyond developing another moisturizer or body wash designed for men. We need to better understand how men experience confidence, routine, identity, and self-care on their own terms, rather than expecting them to describe those experiences using language that was never theirs to begin with.

Dania Khalife