How Superman actor Henry Cavill unintentionally helped to shave the profits off razor makers
Calls for end to age of hipster beard have been heard for years, but it has yet to happen as brands such as Gillette, Edge and Schick try to adapt to slowing sales
The era of the beard lives on in 2018 – and it could be deadly news for the razor industry.
The rise of the laid-back approach to shaving, most popular among men under the age of 45, is causing some serious problems and strategic readjustments in the razor industry, CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn reported.
“Today, men are not judged negatively when they skip a shave – it is not considered lazy or disrespectful,” Massimiliano Menozzi, vice-president of Gillette North America, told CNN.
Gillette said studies show that the average number of times men shave each month has fallen from 3.7 to 3.2 over the past decade.
It may not seem much, but sales of manual razor and blades in the United States have slipped in the past three years, according to Nielsen brick-and-mortar retail scanner data.
That has caused some problems in the razor industry, with sales down by 5.1 per cent during the year to June compared with the same 12-month period to June last year.
Actor Henry Cavill, star of Superman, was just one of the people who cut down on his shaving after growing facial hair for his role in the latest Mission: Impossible – Fallout film.