WHILE women are renowned for investing significant time and money into their appearance, new research has found that it is in fact men who are the vainer sex.
The study by luxury men’s lifestyle etailer, avaj.co.uk, revealed men look at their reflection 23 times a day, whilst women did so 16 times per day.
Men confessed to ‘mainly’ looking at their appearance to admire themselves and the body parts they like the most. This is in direct contrast to women, the majority of whom said they mainly looked at their appearance for reassurance that they look OK (for example, that their make-up is in place). Women also mainly focussed time spent in front of the mirror on looking at the body parts they are the most self-conscious about.
On average men spent 10 minutes per day looking at their reflection which amounts to almost six and a half days per year. 11% of male respondents confessed to mirror gazing over 30 times a day.
82% of men agreed that maintaining a good personal appearance was a key prerogative.
Dominating the list of body parts men were most happy with was arms (76%), followed by legs (54%), smile (49%), eyes (43%), and hair (38%).
Tracey Denison, managing director at avaj.co.uk, said “Surprisingly, unlike women, men are more likely to spend time in front of the mirror admiring the parts of themselves they are happy with – suggesting vanity is the real purpose behind the time spent looking at reflections. The trend for even those men who opt for a more rugged look ensuring they are well groomed – investing in beard care kits and the like – further reinforces this idea.
“It’s also possible that the selfie trend is partially driving this rise in male vanity, as people become more used to celebrating their appearance. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have seeped through to women as much, and they still seem to be the more self-conscious sex.”
Two thirds of men (67%) revealed they had 3 or more cosmetic products, suggesting that men no longer wish to grow older gracefully.
The survey also found a third of men (34%), had used a female friend or family member’s cosmetic products at least once, whilst one in 10 (9%) said they used cosmetic products targeted at women regularly.
avaj sells a unique range of grooming products, clothing, homeware and men’s accessories for the modern gentleman.
