|
Men driving Boom in Cosmetics
January 06, 2003
THEY have been called the vainest generation in history. They
spend fortunes on hair dye, hormone replacement injections, anti-wrinkle
serums and dance lessons calculated to preserve their fading looks.
And the women are worse.
American middle-class men in their 40s, the last of the post-war
baby-boomers who grew up in the youth-obsessed 1960s and 70s,
are identified as key consumers by those analysing the boom in
the $57 billion "grey beauty" business.
Determined to avoid the obvious signs of ageing, which they fear
will cost them sexual and career opportunities, they each pop
up to 100 vitamin pills a week, and have tummy tucks at weekends
to avoid taking time off from the high-paying jobs needed to maintain
such regimes.
Up to 100,000 "urban trend-setters", typically college-educated
stockbrokers or media lawyers, spend up to $50,000 a year –
only $6000 less than their female counterparts – to look
younger than they are.
Role models include Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise and software
giant Oracle's playboy boss Larry Ellison. Cruise celebrated his
40th birthday last year wearing a teeth-straightening brace, claiming
his jaw had changed shape as he grew older.
Ellison, 58, is putting $140 million a year into research to turn
back the biological clock. His daughter said he was terrified
of ageing.
A new study by the US Government's Centres for Disease Control
charts baby-boomers' obsession with the fountain of youth. "These
are the kids who sang that they hoped to die before they got old,"
a spokesman said. "Well, that never happened and now they
have to live with the consequences."
Middle-aged women have been exercising and going under the knife
since the 1980s, when Jane Fonda showed ageing can be resisted.
Demi Moore, who turned 40 in November, prepared for her comeback
in the forthcoming Charlie's Angels sequel with $700,000 worth
of treatment including breast implants, liposuction, collagen
injections into her lips and porcelain veneers for her teeth.
But men are catching up fast, says Michael Weiss, a social analyst
who studied spending by a typical male urban trendsetter for American
Demographics magazine. Although trendsetter numbers are small,
their example is often followed in the US and elsewhere.
The most expensive items on Weiss's list are hormone injections
that offer better skin tone, muscle flexibility and sex drive.
There were 1.6 million Botox injections last year, a 2000 per
cent increase over the past five years. Other big sellers are
$6000 liposuction treatments, $4500 eye-lifts and $1500 chemical
face peels.
|
