Who's the fairest of them all?

Over the years, the women in the country have been fed with the idea that they are not fair enough. Success, a good-looking husband and a dream job — everything can be achieved only if they smother their faces with fairness creams. With the incoming storm of multinationals, it was only a matter of time before men had a share in the market too. Is the fairness quotient only limited to women or were men just a dormant market for years?

“Honestly speaking, men always used fairness beauty products which were directed at women but this never came out in the open,” says Abhinav, a market research analyst. Anish, an IT professional, adds, “Every other guy in my college used a fairness cream.
The advertisements for these were targeted at women but they were used by men too.”
The behaviour could partially be explained from the buying behaviour of a family, where earlier, women were the main purchasers of beauty products. Eventually, men ended up using them too.

“I don’t know about the earlier scenario but as far as my knowledge goes, there are a lot of companies developing these products. So they must be in wide use,” says Adithya, a teacher. And the segment is large indeed, because 25 per cent of fairness creams are used by men across the country.

“Tall and dark men are preferred but if the complexion is too dark, then people do get conscious and try to improve it,” says Gaurav, a student. So what is their take on the recent onslaught of multinationals trying to make the average Indian male fair?
 “If these products are promoted well, I don’t see any reason why they should not work,” says Gaurav.

Looking good helps everywhere, whether in a job interview or marriage, so it’s no wonder that even men feel the need to look good. “Go to a salon and look at the men’s queue for facial, massage or some beauty treatment and you would get the point,” says Abhinav.

“In Indian society, beauty is directly associated with fairness for women and also to some extent for men. And how much ever men deny it, they always want to look fair,” says Adithya.

But while some use it to improve their skin tone, there are a few men to whom the fairness doesn’t hold much importance. “I just have to use any moisturiser. Anything to put on my face after a bath would do,” says Jomon, a professional.

“I only use creams that provide shield from sun. Of course, I don’t have a dark complexion, so there is no pressing need. But had I been dark complexioned, who knows what my answer would had been,” says Abhinav.