Men Are From Mars

A new study insists that sales of men's grooming products have grown faster than the overall market for cosmetics and toiletries in recent years.

Men, says the study, are paying more attention to a growing array of colognes, hair gels, mousse, pre-shaves, during-shaves, after-shaves and, yes, even face creams, skin creams and hand creams.

Why? Well, it seems we're in the era of the metrosexual.

He is a heterosexual male, yes, but he's nonetheless showing an increasing interest in grooming, clothing, housewares, furniture and assorted creature comforts – affinities traditionally considered the realm only of women, and of gay men.

This heterometrosexual even shops by, and for, himself. Gone forever, goes the theory, is the old credo that retailers must create shopping environments only for the female of the species. Some men, it seems, do like to shop. In the apartment of today's Odd Couple, we're told, both guys agree on dish towels that match the appliances.

We now have the Straight Guy With the Queer Eye! Or so goes the theory.

No less a trendspotter than Faith Popcorn is all over this. Looking for the latest fads, her organization interviewed me recently to explore how this trend has affected store design. Is it true, I was asked, that retailers are now reconfiguring their store plans to accommodate this new phenomenon? “Store design aimed at men.” It sounds valid, though I'm not convinced.

In 1993, another trendspotter, John Gray, told us definitively that “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus.” And that's been our roadmap ever since. Man, Gray assured us, is the predator of the species, the confrontationalist, the problem-solver, goal-oriented, ambitious, even cutthroat.

Woman is the romantic, the nurturer, focusing on the needs of others, the lover of beauty, art, commitment.

To put that into everyday retail terms, Venus likes to surround herself in soft, good-smelling stuff; Mars needs to buy only one suit of armor a year (and to shave only as needed, and the rougher the better).

So, okay, if Mars is now buying face cream, and Bloomingdale's is reconfiguring its entire first floor to make him feel at home, where is Venus? Lowe's, bastion of macho power saws and tool sets, thinks she just might be in one of its superstores. The home-supply retailer has announced it is working with fitness guru Liz Neporent to develop a program for women to “improve their health while improving their home.” Neporent is the author of “Fitness for Dummies,” “Weight Training for Dummies” and “The Ultimate Body: 10 Perfect Workouts for Women.”

Lowe's feels that “many home improvement projects take advantage of the same muscles used during a formal exercise routine. Skip the gym and get a workout while giving the home a facelift. Bend to lift tools, boxes and equipment and perform general gardening tasks to help firm and tighten. Make a conscious effort to use a hammer or concentrate on painting projects. For a total body workout, mow the lawn by hand, rake leaves, clear brush or haul branches.”

The Lowe's/Neporent program has such exercises as the “hammer curl,” the “screwdriver finger curl” and the “crowbar side lift.”

So today, I guess, Venus is in the garage, lifting the bags of leaves out into the street. And Mars is in the bathroom, lifting the bags under his eyes.