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Hey, guys – get your groom on at man salons
Kerry Lester
| Beep Staff Writer
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Full story posted on Beep "Get
busy in the Burbs"
http://www.beepcentral.com/story.aspx?story=14534
Whoever said that only girls want to look good?
Guys don’t like to admit it, but secretly many of
them do care about how their hair and clothes look.
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view more photos |
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| Mary Beth
Nolan |
| Kiki
Nelson gives a hot towel treatment to
Brian Bukowski of Chicago as Elizabeth
Tuma shampoos Jeff Plantz of St. Charles
Wednesday at Men's Groom Room in St.
Charles. |
Some retailers are trying to cater to a growing
group of guys who are willing to pay to look good,
but don’t want to feel girly doing it.
At Men’s Groom Room, a salon and spa in St. Charles,
for example, there are no plants, nothing bright and
flashy, and especially nothing pink. Just stainless
steel wall paneling and zero clutter. The main piece
of artwork in the waiting room is a flat screen TV,
surrounded by large, leather couches and large
selection of sports magazines.
“For guys, less is more,” says owner Jodie Rees.
Rees says when she founded the salon in 2005, she
had no intentions of jumping on the metrosexual
bandwagon. “We just wanted to give men a place where
they could be comfortable getting a facial or
waxing,” she says.
And for the most part, they are. Unlike Steve
Carrell’s scream-filled waxing scene in “40 Year-Old
Virgin,” most guys are pleasantly surprised by their
painless treatments in masculine surroundings.
“I think they expect looking good to be a painful
process,” Rees says. “But it’s not.”
The salon offers a basic menu of massages and skin
and hair services. Even their skin and hair care
product lines are basic and sans any sort of girly
scents.
Guys in their 20s and 30s often frequent the Men’s
Groom Room for pedicures and waxings.
“A lot of guys see their wives and girlfriends
getting pedicures, and want to clean up their feet
for vacations or sandal season,” Rees says.
Manicures, or as the Men’s Groom Room calls them,
“hand detailing,” begin at $15. Pedicures, or “foot
detailing,” are priced at $45.
After cleaning up ugly cuticles and calluses on the
hands and feet, a neutral, matte polish can be
applied.
“In our two year history, we’ve had hundreds of
manicures — but never anyone wanting a color,” Rees
says.
The salon also has a core group of young men who
come back every six to eight weeks to get their
chest hair, back hair and eyebrows waxed.
Customers are often nervous or tentative on their
first trip to the salon. “They often come in and
look around, and get something very basic, like a
haircut or shave,” she says. “Some guys won’t even
want a hot towel treatment because they think it’s
overly feminine.”
Most treatments are administered in private rooms.
“That way, they don’t have to worry about seeing
their neighbors on Main Street or sitting next to a
bunch of people,” she says.
Upon a return trip, they get a little more
adventurous. Many customers start to realize that
looking good requires a little basic upkeep.
“After all, guys go out and get their teeth cleaned
like clockwork,: Rees says. “Why shouldn’t they do
the same thing for the rest?”
Guise, a combination men’s clothing boutique and
grooming salon in Lincoln Park, also offers a
male-friendly environment.
Guise is clearly a guy’s store. Owner Brad
Habansky’s shop at 2217 N. Halsted St., which
targets men between the ages of 28 and 45, has a
streamlined, industrial interior and prints of James
Dean and Steve McQueen on the walls. While getting a
haircut, manicure or shave, customers can watch
sports on flat-screen TVs.
Typically, Guise’s customers begin with a haircut
and, after two or three visits, they begin to drift
around the store to search for the right suit or
pair of boots and ask questions about how to
assemble an appropriate look.
“It’s a cool place, and I like the idea of a
boutique-salon with TVs,” says Jon Gemus, one of the
store’s loyal clients. “It’s just a cool idea.”
Habansky says a good haircut can inspire customers
to consider other aspects of their style, hence
adding clothes to the salon.
“I want the guys to look like guys, but cool,” he
says. “I don’t want them to look metrosexual. People
in Chicago aren’t known for dressing well. But I
think that a lot of guys want to look understated
and manly.”
Medill News Service reporter Jess Wangness
contributed to this report.
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