The 'Refined' Approach to Male Grooming

[The Ed.]

My first impressions of The Refinery manager, Deborah Gayle, are impressive. Clearly in charge, perhaps slightly formidable, she’s a woman who knows and loves the industry…but really only the male industry. As we talk, she occasionally comes across as a kind of mother hen to these men that come nervously through the doors into one of the UK’s only male-only salons, The Refinery, in London’s Mayfair. “I’ve gotten to know a few of our clients very well over the years and they’ll walk in and say, ‘Deborah, do you think I’ve put any weight on over Christmas?’” Hmm, I think, perhaps the male industry isn’t that different to the female industry after all.

She’s passionate about making sure The Refinery maintains its reputation as one of the most exclusive, successful male-only salons and I get the impression she’s fairly confident that no one is doing it as well as she is. Well, we like confidence.

I ask her about how The Refinery came to be. Established in 2000, I can’t help but think it was a brave business move at a time when the rise of the ‘metrosexual’ (for want of a better word) was yet to happen. “It was founded by two men in their late 20s, Laith Waines and Omar Fadli,” Deborah explains. “Laith used to go and visit hotels with his girlfriend and found that although the girlfriend had a lot of opportunities in the spa, there was very little for men; it was either swim or sauna. If there were opportunities for males to have facials or massages it was all very female. He would probably be the only man in the room.”

Deborah is keen to point out that The Refinery works partly because it is just for men. As she takes me on a tour of the luxurious salon defined by a rabbit warren of hidden corridors behind the retail store at the front, I realise that The Refinery is offering a service that very few female salons are offering: discretion. “Yes, this is the most ‘in your face’ male salon. We’re not hidden down a side road, we say what we do, but it’s still very discreet. It’s still very much a club, there’s not a fee but I think the gentlemen that come here feel it is a bit of a club. They belong to something and they like the peaceful experience they have when they come through the door.”

For a salon that claims to be the most ‘in your face’ salon, there’s still a lot of hiding that goes on. From the street, the salon looks, to all intents and purposes like a retail shop for male grooming products. There’s no hint that beyond the double doors at the back men are lounging in dressing gowns, following massages, facials or manicures. As I’m taken around Deborah explains how women are never allowed through the double doors into the treatment area unless they work there or, as in my case, they are personal guests of hers. And she’s right…it is like a gentlemen’s club. It feels a little like you’d need to know a secret handshake to get in. It feels exclusive, hidden, private and special.

I mention the difference I feel in this salon compared to female salons and she concurs. “You can’t simply tag the male grooming industry onto the female beauty industry. It doesn’t work.” Research suggests that she’s right. Many female salons that tend to offer male treatments may simply add ‘Male Facial’ to their service menu and it’s clear that men don’t feel comfortable stepping out of their comfort zone into a room full of chattering women looking them up and down.

“It’s even down to the wording on my service menu. Take Skinceuticals for example,” Deborah explains. “It’s a unisex product and it’s perfect for men but if I worded my menu in the way that product developers suggest, it wouldn’t work. We are just about to launch an amazing facial with a galvanic machine and it’s called Radiance Lift. It’s apparently like a face-lift but no man will have something called Radiance Lift Facial. We’ve got to completely rethink it.”

There was a time, in the middle of the last century when male grooming was popular with very little stigma attached to it. “I have a book about the hairdressing industry,” explains Deborah, “ which was written in 1932 and there’s a picture of our Harrod’s location shot in 1926. The men are having haircuts and they are having manicures at the same time.” So what changed? “We lost it, I think because of the war. It became too frivolous. Men were worried about money and putting food on the table and there wasn’t time for manicures.”

Since then stereotypes and myths about male grooming have grown and grown and The Refinery is working hard to overcome them. While Deborah admits that the industry has evolved enormously there are still some stereotypes and myths that need to be quashed. “It became, ‘Oh, it’s only the gay boys that do it.’ So there was this connotation to male grooming that you didn’t do it unless you were gay. Well, that’s just a myth and it’s a myth we have to dispel because, yes, gay clients do make up some of our client base, but so do dark haired men and elderly gentlemen and men with green eyes. We have gay clients but they are not the majority.”

And that’s not all. Deborah is clearly proud of how far the industry has developed and her role in it but even for the men that make it through the doors there are still some issues that The Refinery has to deal with carefully. I ask Deborah about the research that suggests more and more men are entering the professional beauty industry as therapists. I wonder whether this has been a positive thing for the industry. Surely, male clients will be more comfortable with male therapists?

“Now this is where there is still a problem. I personally had a facial done by a male therapist and I didn’t think anything of it. I was just grateful! But men are very funny about it. I think the whole ‘gay’ connotation, which they have sort of overcome by walking into the salon, raises it’s ugly head again when you tell them that a man will be looking after their skin.”

I ask whether that applies across their service menu. Are men reluctant to have a male nail technician or a masseur? “When it comes to massage, they will allow Jeremy to do massage because he’s a sports massage therapist. That makes it ok. For traditional massages they will not have a male masseur.” This interests me. Deborah goes on to explain how they will have a female barber but not a female shaver. “There isn’t a male on this planet who would want to have a woman holding a cut-throat blade to their neck!”

Clearly there are issues regarding the acceptability of male treatments that still need to be overcome. “There are all sorts of things that first time clients are scared or worried about. Nearly every time they choose a shaving treatment first, something manly. But when they have it they are gob-smacked not just by how fantastic their skin feels but by how fantastic they feel.” Deborah is proud of the 90% return-business they get from first time clients and she puts it down to one simple thing: making them feel comfortable. “We always give new clients a tour and we sit them down in the lounge and they see people sitting there and they identify with them. They think ‘Wow, these aren’t two-headed guys sporting loads of blonde highlights and make up! These are regular guys just like me. They’ve already discovered the secret!” (Oh look, there’s that word again.)

Despite the barriers that the male grooming industry and The Refinery has to overcome every time a new client walks through the doors, research suggests that the male grooming industry is booming. I ask Deborah why she thinks that is. She admits it’s difficult to pinpoint. “I think it’s the whole age nonsense. We as women have lived for generations with the expectation that you will be judged on how you look and how young you look. There are more and more industries that are now judging men in the same way. This is a new thing for them, again probably born out of that ‘metrosexual’, David Beckham trend. It’s now OK for the world to judge men on how well groomed they are.”

The recession isn’t helping either. More and more men are fighting for jobs and the competition means that appearance is more important than ever. “If you’re in a role that’s customer facing or where you’re representing a company when it’s a bit cut-throat, one of the things you can do to give yourself a step up is by looking the part.”

Deborah goes on to consider the possible psychology behind the emergence of the market. She suggests that perhaps it’s not just a practical consideration. “For a man who lives on his own for whatever reason and he doesn’t happen to have a girlfriend, who give him any human touch? Perhaps we’re just responding to the basic human need to feel human touch. Men don’t give each other hugs. To have a facial or a massage means they are actually having an hour of one-to-one human contact.”

The simple fact is that the male grooming industry is growing. It’s not growing anything like as quickly at the female industry but compared to the female industry it’s practically embryonic. The successful male only salons still occupy the top-end premium market and I wonder whether there is room for male-only salons lower down, perhaps as budget or standard salons. “Possibly. I mean people are trying to do it but as yet, not terribly successfully. There’s obviously a client base other wise these wash-and-go companies wouldn’t exist but the sort of time we spend on our clients, the amount of effort I put into finding the best treatments, the best products…unfortunately, with that comes a cost. I don’t think you can replicate this kind of service at a lower level.”

Speaking of products, I ask Deborah about the retail side of the business. In the female industry, it’s notoriously difficult to make serious profit from retail. Women are far too cynical and Deborah agrees. “Women have more knowledge of products and so when someone says ‘I’ve got something great for cellulite’ we raise our eyebrows, roll our eyes and practically ask them to prove it. If you say to a guy, ‘We’ve got a great product for thickening hair’, they’re like Americans, you can sell to them.”

It’s to do with packaging as well. “Men love the Dermalogica products. It’s a fairly standard brand so they recognise it and the products do exactly what it says on the tin. Plus they are white and grey so they’ll look perfectly acceptable in a man’s bathroom.” The male product industry is probably the only thing that’s risen as successfully in the industry as The Refinery has and Deborah is more than a little grateful for that.

“In the early days basically it was products for women repackaged. But now there are a lot of products out there for the male market. At one point, we had to develop our own. We were one of the first developing products for men by men. We guinea-pigged them on our own clients. They were never for women. They are made by Spa Aromatherapy Associates and are all essential oil based. They are a beautiful product for men.”

“It’s inconceivable to me that it’s acceptable for 50% of the population to not have good skin and hair. We call it ‘Educating’. We have to educate the men who get into the shower and wash hair, face, body with anything that’s got suds in it. We need to get them away from that habit but it can be quite a slow process.”

When you talk to women about the male grooming industry, there’s always one question they are bound to ask. “What about waxing?” Deborah explains: “Laser hair removal! Who would have imagined ten years ago that men would become hair free zones?” I ask her why she thinks this trend has developed. “We women have been doing it gradually for years; it’s got to the point where we are naked. I think women have been pushing their men towards it.” Perhaps, I postulate, men are just as prone to influences from the media as women? “Absolutely. If you look at the front of Men’s Health…there’s not a hair to be seen. Back in the 60s I remember my mum swooning over Sean Connery and he had a thatch of hair on his back and shoulders. It was ok. It was normal. If you put that on the front of a magazine now, no one would buy it.”

And what about the other kind of waxing, you know, the intimate type? “Well, nobody ever talks about it particularly but let’s face it. If you start on the backside, where do you begin and end? It has to come all off!”

The fact is, there are still always going to be men that are never going to walk into a salon. But that doesn’t faze Deborah Gayle. The Refinery is working perfectly as it is. I get the impression that there aren’t many people more knowledeagable on the subject of the male grooming industry. The business-woman in Gayle is clearly dominant and she has plans to roll out new ventures, perhaps across the UK, through The Refinery. There’s little doubt that anything she does will be coloured by luxury, exclusivity and masculinity…just as The Refinery is.

Until then…geek on.

The Ed.

 

[fozzyo]

Interesting read.

There is one really important thing to remember about The Refinery ... they are in London. If the same salon opening in Birmingham, Manchester or Aberdeen I would expect it not to be as successful. This is the problem with the male grooming world - the rest of the country isn't ready for salons on such a scale.

I think the majority of male grooming salons make their money from their hair dressing / barbers and the beauty treatments are more of an add-on.

One of the things Salons and therapists need to move on from is patronising treatment names - call a manicure a manicure not a MAN-icure, call a facial a facial and not a Skin MOT. Realise that a lot of guys do actually enjoy a massage - not just a Sports / Deep Tissue Massage.