Macho Glop

Men face up to wrinkles

That bird of rare plumage, the American male, is strutting and primping. In the morning, after shaving, more and more men are reaching for a $20 tube of RNA Bio-Complex Moisture Cream instead of the Old Spice or witch hazel. Some pinstripe business executives are now canceling their three-martini lunches and scurrying across town to meet their wives at the skin-care salon for his-and-her noontime facials. For macho males, from Wall Street bankers to Los Angeles construction workers, a smooth, clear complexion has become as prized and pursued as a 32-inch waist and a ruddy tan.

During 1980, sales of men's personal grooming products are expected to top $1.5 billion. More than half that amount will go for men's fragrances, and demand for these is projected to rise by 15% this year. The biggest gain of all will come in a market that hardly existed ten years ago: men's skin-care products. Sales are expected to increase by at least 20% this year, to $100 million.

The skin-care products now being sold to men are as varied as anything ever served up to humanity's traditionally more wrinkle-conscious sex. Estee Lauder, purveyor of expensive creams, lotions and fragrances for women, offers a gilt-edged line of 70 different men's products under the Aramis label. Included in the list: pre-shave cleansing soaps to reduce razor drag and facial scrubs for use on the nose and forehead.

Speidel, a division of Textron Inc., has an elaborate array of moisturizers, conditioners and scents. Faberge Inc. has its Brut line of men's toiletries. Even conservative Chesebrough-Ponds, virtually the Sears, Roebuck of the cold cream world, is emphasizing rugged outdoor men in its commercials for hand lotions. The Coty company, which for years has offered Musk For Men cologne, is preparing to launch another entry into the sweet-smelling sweepstakes, Mark of the Man.

The strongest sign of the new acceptance of male cosmetics is the surge in male facials. At Georgette Klinger's mirror-and-chrome emporium on Manhattan's Madison Avenue, men now account for 20% of business. All day long a stream of admen, lawyers and bankers settle back in plush barber chairs to have their faces anointed and cleansed with an exotic array of creams, masks and steam baths.

At anywhere from $30 to $50 for the hourlong session, a facial by an experienced technician in a reputable salon is hardly dirt cheap, but devotees swear that it is money well spent. Says Connecticut Clothing Retailer Daniel Ferron, 59, a regular monthly customer at one New York salon: "I felt I was wasting a lot of time waiting around for my wife to have facials, so I decided to have them too. Now I look forward not only to what it does for my skin, but what it does to relax me." Until two years ago, Klinger's shop in Beverly Hills had an inconspicuous side entrance for men. But now the male customers are willing to march right up to the front door.

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