Men are embracing beauty culture:  many just refuse to call it that

By Jordan Foster

Just weeks after the premiere of popular gay hockey romance series Heated Rivalry, star Hudson Williams’ extensive skincare routine has gone viral. In a now-viral video for The Cut, the 24-year-old walks viewers through his “five-step Korean beauty routine.”

His multi-step regimen includes a close shave, a cleanse, pore-minimising treatments, a “super-glowing” toner and serums targeted toward “rejuvenating” the young star’s face and body.

The nearly 20-minute routine, replete with self-deprecating humour and an ironic bent against vanity, has amassed well over 500,000 views (and counting), almost 2,000 comments and 36,000 likes on YouTube alone.

Williams’ routine, and its public broadcast online, is emblematic of a wider shift in our highly visual and virtual culture among men. From style guides and intensive workout routines to recommendations for skin and hair, men are investing in their appearance.

But, in a curious contortion, they’ve called their work on the face and body anything (and everything) but beauty.

Beauty’s cultural force has long weighed upon women, who have been invited to modify their appearances in step with challenging, often contradictory, beauty norms. But in a recent and curious shift, beauty norms and appearance pressures have intensified among men.

Men’s bodies are increasingly visible in product advertisements and mainstream campaigns, with a surfeit of cosmetics targeted toward men.

Mundane investments in skincare and grooming are not uncommon, with young men especially doubling down on their efforts to refine the face and body through multi-step routines not unlike Williams’.

Driven at least in part by social media influencers and the rise of platformed figures who dialogue around the importance of looking good, “freshening up” and keeping sharp, men are investing in their appearance as women long have.

Alongside these investments, boys and men are enjoined to bulk up to achieve a muscled and well-defined look. Widely-followed influencers and celebrities alike echo the call, endorsing a range of compound exercises to improve one’s physique and “science based” changes to boost growth.

The drive toward muscularity is demanding, with many recommendations touting the importance of rigorous diets and intensive exercise regimes.

While some recommendations are innocuous enough, men have entertained more extreme, sometimes dangerous practices to modify and refine the appearance of their face and body.

Sometimes called “looksmaxxing,” a term capturing efforts that enhance men’s appearance, practices like “mewing” and the far more dangerous exercise of “bone-smashing” are often endorsed to promote facial harmony and a stronger jawline.

The preponderance and popularity of these appearance-focused practices online have produced what medical researcher Daniel Konig and his colleagues describe as an “almost pathological obsession” with attractiveness, with significant consequences for boys and men.

Public reporting on men’s relationship to their appearance indicates that a growing number of men are suffering from body insecurity and lower esteem, manifesting in the rise of muscle dysmorphia, a body-image disorder focused on a perceived lack of physical size or strength.

In a similar vein, the United Kingdom’s Sexualization of Young People report indicates that online, boys are increasingly under pressure to “display their bodies in a hyper-masculine way showing off muscles and posturing as powerful and dominant.”

The young people I’ve spoken with insist that while appearance weighs heavily on everyone, men are increasingly subject to the demands of a culture preoccupied with looking good.

For boys and men, social media platforms, and the celebrities and influencers who populate them, are a particularly thorny topic. They invite an intense sense of comparison between men and their physiques and, for many, a feeling of not quite being good enough.

Still, few describe these pressures in terms related to beauty per se. As a historically feminised domain, beauty has been derided as frivolous and unimportant. But as many men are coming to find, the truth is far more complex. Beauty returns rewards to those who are thought to possess it or, perhaps, to those who are willing to pay for it.

Men represent a growing and lucrative ground on which to sell products and services designed to optimise their appearance.

This previously untapped market segment is ripe for commercial exploitation, with an increasing number of men making spending on beauty products and services.

In 2024, market researcher Mintel reported that more than half of men use facial skincare products, with members of Gen Z accounting for the greatest share of growth in skincare products – especially “high-end” and “clean” products.

It’s estimated that the global market for men’s beauty products, including skincare and grooming, will exceed US$5 billion by 2027, adding to the industry’s already striking US$450 billion evaluation.

Men’s interest in more costly and intensive beauty treatments is also on the rise. The American Academy of Plastic Surgeons reports that a growing number of men are pursuing body augmentation and cosmetic surgery, as well as non-invasive procedures like dermal filler injections and facial neurotoxins like Botox.

Under both knife and needle, beauty’s cultural force is sure to be felt.

Jordan Foster is Assistant Professor, Sociology, MacEwan University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence