The Next Era of Men's Beauty Will Be Built on Understanding Men
Every few years, the men's beauty industry seems to ask the same question. How do we get more men to use skincare? For years, the answers have looked similar. Dark packaging. Minimalist branding. Products positioned as straightforward alternatives to beauty rather than part of it. The assumption has often been that if skincare felt masculine enough, men would finally embrace it. I don't think that's where the market is heading anymore.
Chris Salgardo understands this better than most. After spending 18 years at Kiehl's, including 12 as President, he launched Atwater with a different philosophy. Rather than adding more complexity to men's skincare, the brand focuses on clarity, education, and routines that fit naturally into everyday life.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about a survey showing that 68% of Gen Z and Millennial men say they care more about their appearance today than they did five years ago. More than half reported spending more time and money on personal care, and 70% said they would consider professional treatments to slow the signs of aging. Those numbers tell us the market is growing.
Over the past year, my doctoral research has involved extensive conversations with men about their beauty and personal care routines. One pattern became clear very quickly. The gap wasn't between men who cared and men who didn't. The gap was between how the industry talks about beauty and how many men describe their own experiences.
Many of the men I interviewed followed thoughtful routines that included skincare, body care, fragrance, grooming, and healthy aging practices. Yet they rarely described those routines as beauty. Instead, they talked about feeling put together, maintaining a routine, looking presentable, or taking care of themselves. The behavior often looked remarkably similar; the language did not.
That difference matters because industries don't just sell products. They sell ideas, identities, and ways of thinking about those products. For years, men's beauty has largely been framed around making skincare feel more acceptable for men. I think the next phase will be very different. Rather than asking how to make beauty more masculine, brands will begin asking how to better understand the men they're building products for.
Those are very different strategies. One changes the packaging; the other changes the conversation. The next generation of men's beauty brands won't compete simply on formulations or ingredients. They'll compete on how well they understand the people using them. The brands that win won't necessarily be the loudest or the most masculine. They'll be the ones that recognize men don't need to be convinced that taking care of themselves matters; they're already telling us it does. The real opportunity is listening.
Dania Khalife
