The men’s beauty business is poised to grow in leaps and bounds. While this can be attributed to Covid times when men had no access to salons, today, this segment is showing significant growth with their increasing awareness and preferences in grooming.
Samir Srivastav, CEO, Looks chairs the session on “Growing Men’s Beauty Business” at the StyleSpeak Beauty Conference 2024 hosted on April 29-30 at HBS 2024, where eminent panelists Prannay Dokkannia, COO, Lloyds Luxuries and Anurav Dave, Founder & CEO, Luzo discuss the growth potential of this segment.
Samir Srivastav: Prannay, as the COO of Truefitt and Hill India, what is your understanding of the men’s grooming business in India?
Prannay Dokkania: Truefitt and Hill is a British brand which is more than 2 centuries old. In our experience, men’s grooming had not taken off in India pre-Covid, but during Covid a large part of the men’s workforce went online which suddenly made them aware of their own grooming, and got them shopping.
Post Covid many of the men who came to our stores wanted to understand our products, the ingredients used in them etc. before buying. So consumers are now buying with knowledge. Thirdly, men are now embracing hair colour in our stores….every 3rd or 4th customer wants to colour their hair. It has become a part of men’s grooming, for coverage, not fashion. We are also seeing a good trend with regards to skin. Men are becoming aware of what treatment they want for their skin. This has picked up now versus pre Covid times.
We have 31 doors and cater to luxury to premium stores. We charge Rs.1900 to Rs.2900 for haircuts, so you can understand our clientele. We see that there is a good inflow of male customers and every segment of the salon is growing.
Samir Srivastav: Yes, men’s consumption is growing. Even Looks was started by Sanjay Dutta 35 years ago as a parlour for men… for shaving, haircuts, head massage and nail trimming. Later, it became a unisex salon. Today 800 barbers work in Looks alone, which means that male services consumption is there, premium consumption exists!
Samir Srivastav: How are male services doing on your booking app Anurav?
Anurav Dave: We have crossed 1 lakh app downloads and have a huge customer database for men and women which drives sales into the salons listed on the LUZO app. We cover 400 salons at present.
Information about the service is important to get men into your salon. Secondly what we have noticed is that men’s loyalty is higher than that of the women clients coming in for salon services. Our client ratio is 70:30 women to men but the percentage of the latter is increasing.
We once introduced a scheme to woo male customers – if women customers came with male partner, he would get a free haircut. And when the male customer comes along with a female, we observed that the services of the female client increases. This is an interesting trend.
At first men used to come for hair and beard, but now cleanup has become very popular. Upselling to a male customer is easier!
Samir Srivastav: Prannay Truefitt & Hill is present in 32 cities. Are you present in any smaller cities? How do you compare the consumption behavior of customers across cities?
Prannay Dokkania: We franchise in Tier 2 cities, and among the smaller cities, we are in Guwahati and Bhubaneshwar. Our Gauhati customers used to consume the services in Calcutta or Bombay because of non-availability of services in their location. Several of these Tier 2 city customers have become our franchisees. They have better local expertise as compared to us, and our outlets in these cities do very well.
In tier II cities, people have the money, but no avenue to spend it, so clearly, there’s a lot of money with Tier 2 as well. These customers spend a good amount of money when they come to us.
Samir Srivastav: Does your app data show a demand for beard grooming going up?
Anurav Dave: Beard bookings have also started coming in. Hair and beard go hand in hand. If haircut grows, we are sure beard services will also grow.
Samir Srivastav: Prannay, are your barbers encouraged to make small talk, or do you tell them that the male clients are focused only on the service?
Prannay Dokkania: We have a 10-step process, and every barber has to follow that process. However, we encourage the barbers to talk to only those customers who want to talk – this is a part of the training. Nearly 50-60% of our customers prefer silence.
Samir Srivastav: How do barbers get training? Most hair brands focus on ladies hairdressing so the barbers get left out. There’s a big opportunity area here.
Prannay, what is your take on penetration of product retailing?
Prannay Dokkania: It is 70: 30 female to male customers. It is easy to sell products to a male customer as they are easy to convince. But they too understand that they need products for their own hair/scalp/ skin type….one size fits all doesn’t work. So it is important to work with a brand which caters to wide customer needs.
Samir Srivastav: What are the Indian male beard trends?
Prannay Dokkania: We are seeing a change here. Few years back 1 in 20 men used to keep a beard and now this percentage is increasing. 3 in 20 is the ratio we are seeing. But the trend is growing and may become big in 4-5 years. However clients coming for beard services are very particular and for this, a skilled barber is needed.
Samir Srivastav: In conclusion, I can say that male services in India are really showing signs of growth and the opportunity is very big. How you approach it is important. Well trained barbers are the need of the hour, as well as good training partners. Creating an environment which is comfortable and conducive for men is important.
