Male Grooming - Past and Present

New Generation Thinker Alun Withey with a short feature on the history of men's personal grooming, showing that both the practices and the arguments about men’s use of 'product' have a longer history than we might think.

The market for male cosmetic products is on the rise, especially in the Zoom age as blemishes are revealed in close-up. But men’s cosmetics are not new: the 18th century saw the birth of a whole range of shaving soaps, pastes, powders and lotions. And just like today, their use sparked debates about manliness and over-attention to appearance.

Producer: Eliane Glaser