"93% of men say the term ‘metrosexual is offensive"

Via Leah@fashionitsa

Allure & GQ released their 2010 Grooming and Beauty Study this morning. 1,000 men and 1,000 women aged 18-64 were surveyed for the Conde Nast imprints, and while the findings aren’t exactly revelatory (women spend more time and money on beauty and grooming, they feel more pressure to look younger, etc.), it seems men are ramping up their beauty regimens. Just don’t call them metrosexuals.

Fashionista culled the five most interesting findings from the exhaustive survey. Check them out.

1. “93% of men say the term ‘metrosexual is offensive and dated, and doesn’t describe me.’”

2. Women still spend more time on their beauty routines, but the time gap is closing. Allure and GQ found today men spend 22 minutes on their beauty regiment, as opposed to women, who spend 29 minutes. Men are spending more time primping than they did five years ago, when they spent just 20 minutes getting prepped.

3. Women have always been under pressure to look good, but the study shows that men are (finally) feeling some pressure to keep up appearances too. The survey asked, “Compared to 10 years ago, are men today under more pressure to care about their appearance?” 72% of men, and 78% of women said yes.

4. The survey asked participants to choose words they would use to “describe the image they want to project.” Men said: confident, masculine, intelligent, cool, and classic. Women? Confident, feminine, classic, youthful and intelligent. Who knew men and women want to project such similar images? Except of course for the “youthful” part. Men get handsome and “silver” when they get older, and we’re bombarded with botox and fillers to freeze time. In fact, the survey found that compared to 10 years ago, 92% of women feel that there is there more pressure “to look younger than one’s age.”

5. Men love their products too. 84% of men and 92% of women agreed that men feel more comfortable purchasing grooming products today compared to previous generations. To back that up, the study found that men spend $121 a year on grooming and beauty products, up from $90 five years ago. (Women spent an average of $194 on grooming and beauty products last year.)