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Nina Varghese

CHENNAI, July 8

RAJA is a 24-year-old plumber who plays hockey for the local team. Once a month Raja visits the neighbourhood salon to style and colour his hair and if his business has been good, get a facial and oil massage as well.

With an increase of men like Raja in the lower and mid-market segments, who have started paying more attention to grooming, the beauty and grooming industry has grown tremendously. The old image of the Indian male, dressed in ill fitting clothes, with unkempt hair, bad breath, body odour and oily skin is almost gone, though not quite.

Mr S. Jagdish, Head Retail, Cavinkare Pvt Ltd, said that there has been a sea change in the attitude of people towards personal grooming. The upper end of the grooming business is indexed to enhancement in lifestyles and personal feel good factors.

The mid and lower end are largely `need fulfilment' in terms of grooming, though there is a great awareness now than before. He said that lifestyle across demographics has changed quite a bit in the last five years. The numerous lifestyle brands that crowd the market place are a reflection of this trend.

He said that heightened awareness was seen between the ages 19 and 40. Mr Jagdish said that the spend ratio of men to women was in the region of 1:2, for instance, at Limelite, which is a salon owned by Cavinkare, if a man spends say Rs 250 on an average the woman spends Rs 500.

The rates at the salons in Chennai are quite competitive and the gold facial is priced at Rs1000, all other grooming requirements would be an add on, sources said.

The average monthly spend by a woman on grooming would be around Rs 750 while a man would be around Rs 500, sources said.

Across metros too, the numbers of the beauty care salons and clinics catering to both men and women have gone up, the sources said .

The last year has seen companies such as Henkel Spic and the Chennai-based Cavinkare Pvt Ltd entering the beauty care and hair colourant segment with branded salons.

Mr A. Satish Kumar, Managing Director, Henkel Spic India Ltd, said that the hair colour market is estimated at Rs 200 crore, which includes both professional and retail. The segment is growing at around 25 per cent, he said, with the company's brand Schwarzkopf growing at 50 per cent.

The organised industry consumes products worth Rs 1000 crore, he said. The Schwarzkopf brand is available only in specialised hair care salons and is perceived as a premium one.

At present there are 600 Schwarzkopf salons in India. Most of them cater to women. He said that the company was equally strong in the top metros like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai where the Schwarzkopf salon had a significant presence.

Mr Jadish said the retail salon business was started under a separate company `Trends in Vogue' one year ago. Cavinkare owns and operates two brands of beauty salons, Salon Green Trends and Limelite Salon Green Trends caters to both men and women under one roof yet ensuring privacy and offering exclusive service areas for each of them.

In 2004, the company plans to take this brand to other southern cities including Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore and Tiurchi.

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