American Male puts the 'man' in manicure

PHILADELPHIA — Steven Wooke takes a swig from a bottle of Heineken as his left hand rests on a small table, his fingers spread out like a fan of playing cards.

He's getting a manicure — or hand detailing, as the salon calls it — and it's a pampering the 24-year-old information technology manager has learned to enjoy.

"My girlfriend notices it," said Wooke during a recent visit to an American Male salon for nail grooming sans polish. "I try to come in every two weeks."

American Male — which is opening its 15th salon, in Las Vegas, in February — is one of a growing number of salons devoted to men who want more than just a barbershop haircut but don't feel comfortable sitting in women's beauty salons and wouldn't be caught dead entering a froufrou day spa.

The salons are catering to an apparently growing interest by men in grooming. Sales of men's skin care products sold through department stores rose 13 percent last year, more than double the growth for the women's market, according to NPD Group, a marketing research firm in Port Washington, N.Y.

Retail sales in the U.S. men's grooming market are expected to reach $10 billion by 2008, up 25 percent from last year, according to Packaged Facts, a unit of MarketResearch.com in New York.

From the decor to the terminology they use, men's salons are seeking to put some distance between themselves and beauty salons.

Some have strong sports themes, including TVs tuned to sports channels. Some offer free beer. And at least one lets clients light up cigars. Prices for haircuts, waxing, manicures, pedicures, facials, shaving and massages start at about $20 and go up from there.

"Men don't really like going to salons. They don't like being with women in there, and they don't like the smell of the salons," said Howard Hafetz, chief executive of Raylon Corp., American Male Salons' parent company. "They don't want to look across the aisle and see their buddy's wife over there."

Raylon, based in Reading, 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia, now operates or licenses salons in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, California, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado.

Other chains catering to men's grooming include Miami-based The Art of Shaving, which has eight locations in four states and is opening 10 more by the end of 2006; Sport Clips of Georgetown, Texas, with 300 franchised locations; and Roosters Men's Grooming Centers of Round Rock, Texas, with 13 salons open and five more under construction.

"Men are getting more vain," said Marian Salzman, author of "The Future of Men" and director of strategic content at ad agency JWT in New York. "There's more pressure to look young and sexy. Even young boys are waxing their bodies to be hairless."