In the wealthy Jardins neighborhood of Sao Paulo, one street boasts five beauty salons, but the Mr Jardins shop stands out from the pack — catering to a male clientele.
Men stop in for traditional haircuts and shaves, but also come for other treatments — waxing, waist-slimming massages, youth-boosting facials, skin cleanses and even manicures and pedicures.
In Brazil, men are the new target of a booming beauty industry, where services and products are no longer reserved for the fairer sex.
Gregorio Mendes, the owner of Mr Jardins, says his salon welcomes new clients “every day” who come in for a haircut, and end up daring to take advantage of the other services on offer.
“It’s a growing market. The misconception that a man who waxes is maybe not a real man is beginning to disappear,” Mendes said, referring to the concept of machismo still lingering in Latin America.
“Men of all ages come here, either because they want to or because their wives, girlfriends or daughters bring them. It’s not a gay or straight thing. The important thing is that they want to look good,” he said.
Marcos Costa, a tall, slim 44-year-old entrepreneur at Mr Jardins, explains that he does “everything possible” to make himself more attractive, but still sees a bit of a stigma attached to male primping.
“Women love for us to be well-groomed and smell good, but if they see us at the hair salon getting a manicure, that bugs them,” Costa said at the salon, which opened five years ago.
According to the Brazilian Association of the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Industry, the beauty sector has grown 10 percent annually over the last decade, as 40 million people joined Brazil’s booming middle class.
Last year, the beauty market in Brazil generated US$42 billion in sales, accounting for 10 percent of the world market, putting it in third place behind only the US and Japan.
Earlier this month in Sao Paulo at Beauty Fair, which organizers say is Latin America’s largest and the world’s third-biggest beauty product and appliance expo, commercial deals totaled more than US$200 million.
Dyes and tinted shampoos, matte nail polish, beard grooming products, moisturizers and hair removal creams for those afraid of hot wax are just some of the products being peddled to men, industry professionals say.
“Men are less and less ashamed to take care of themselves. The sector hasn’t seen a boom quite yet, but we’re getting there,” said Marcia Sandim, marketing director for the Ikesaki boutique chain, a major player in the Sao Paulo beauty market.
A spokeswoman for French cosmetics giant L’Oreal said: “We all see that this is a growing market that we are following carefully.”
Sergio Piao, an official with US consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, said that “growth in sales of products for men practically doubled last year.”
With less than a year to go before the Brazil World Cup, soccer stars Lionel Messi and Pele are part of the company’s advertising campaign for its just-launched anti-dandruff shampoo for men.
At Mr Jardins, Mendes says his biggest problem is finding male estheticians trained in beauty services for men.
“We need more professionals,” he said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of