The Return of Analog Grooming: Why Slow Beauty Is Outperforming Fast Formulas

The global beauty market reached an estimated $571 billion in 2023, according to McKinsey's annual beauty report, with men's grooming representing a growing share — Allied Market Research valued the men's grooming segment at $81 billion in 2022, projecting compound annual growth of 8.6% through 2030. Within this expansion, the most interesting story is not the mass-market growth but the parallel surge in what industry insiders call "analog grooming": ritualistic, often ingredient-minimal approaches to skincare and grooming that prioritize process and provenance over efficiency and novelty.

Aesop: The Original Slow Beauty Counter-Narrative

Aesop was founded in Melbourne in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis, a hairdresser who wanted to sell products whose formulations he could stand behind intellectually. The brand's early identity — plain amber glass bottles, Latin botanical names on labels, store environments designed by architects rather than retail fit-out firms — was not primarily a marketing strategy but an expression of Paphitis's actual aesthetic convictions. That authenticity has compounded into one of the most distinctive brand equities in contemporary beauty.

Natura &Co acquired Aesop in 2012, and L'Oréal completed a full acquisition in August 2023 for approximately $2.53 billion — the largest acquisition in L'Oréal's history, reflecting the premium placed on brands with genuine heritage and unconventional positioning. Aesop's Moroccan Rose hand wash, retailing at £37 for 500ml, regularly sells out at UK stockists including Liberty London and the brand's own standalone boutiques. The product contains damask rose, geranium, and ylang ylang, and the brand's refusal to introduce "hero ingredients" borrowed from trend cycles has become a competitive advantage rather than a limitation.

For men specifically, Aesop's B & Tea Balancing Toner (£28) and Parsley Seed Anti-Oxidant Intense Serum (£75) have developed cult followings among grooming-interested men who distrust the overtly masculine packaging and simplified formulas of conventional men's skincare. The brand's gender-neutral positioning preceded the broader industry conversation about this approach by nearly a decade.

Le Labo and the Ceremony of Scent

Le Labo, founded in New York in 2006 by Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, built its reputation on a single provocative idea: fragrance should be mixed fresh at point of sale, labeled with the customer's name, and purchased with the same consideration one brings to a significant object rather than an impulse buy. The brand's refusal of advertising, its deliberately sparse retail environments, and its rotating city-exclusive fragrances (Gaiac 10 was Tokyo's exclusive; Vetiver 46 belonged to Chicago) created a model of scarcity and ritual that has been widely imitated but rarely replicated with the same conviction.

Estée Lauder Companies acquired Le Labo in 2014 for an undisclosed sum, and the brand has continued to operate with significant autonomy, maintaining its made-to-order model. The grooming line — Shower Gel, Body Lotion, and the Dry Shampoo — uses the same fragrance profiles as the perfume range, creating what the brand calls "an olfactory wardrobe" rather than disparate product categories.

For men engaging with analog grooming rituals, Le Labo represents a specific kind of investment: the shave oil (£38) paired with a badger-hair brush and a safety razor creates a ten-minute morning ritual that requires attention in a way that a pressurized foam canister categorically does not. It is this quality of required presence — the grooming equivalent of pour-over coffee versus a pod machine — that drives the brand's particular appeal.

Byredo: Fragrance as Memory Architecture

Ben Gorham founded Byredo in Stockholm in 2006 after a career in professional basketball. His background as a half-Indian, half-Canadian mixed-race person who grew up between cultures became the conceptual engine for a fragrance brand that treats scent as a medium for exploring memory, identity, and belonging. Byredo's Gypsy Water, one of its founding fragrances, reportedly took three years to develop, with Gorham working with perfumer Jérôme Epinette to construct something that smelled of "departure rather than arrival."

Puig, the Spanish fashion and fragrance group, acquired a majority stake in Byredo in 2022 for a reported $1 billion valuation. The brand's grooming products — hand creams, body washes, hair perfumes — have expanded Byredo's presence from specialty fragrance retail into grooming departments at Selfridges, Harrods, and Nordstrom, without the brand modifying its minimal, text-forward aesthetic.

Byredo's Super Cedar body wash (£45) uses vetiver, musk, and cedar in a formula that performs as both cleanser and brief scent experience. The product's popularity among men who might otherwise avoid "body wash" as a category reflects how packaging and conceptual framing affect purchase behavior — the Byredo bottle sitting on a shower shelf reads differently from a Dove Men+Care bottle, and that visual identity contributes to the ritual quality of use.

The Safety Razor Revival and Its Implications

One of the most concrete expressions of analog grooming has been the return of double-edge safety razors. Merkur, the Solingen-based manufacturer operating since 1906, reported sales increases of over 40% in European and North American markets between 2018 and 2023. The Edwin Jagger DE89 (£29.95), manufactured in Sheffield, became one of the best-selling grooming items on Amazon UK for multiple consecutive years in the early 2020s, remarkable for a product that requires more technique and time than cartridge alternatives.

The economics of the switch are genuinely compelling: a pack of 100 Astra Superior Platinum double-edge blades costs approximately £8, compared to £15-20 for a ten-pack of Gillette Fusion cartridges. But surveys conducted by grooming publication The Wet Shaver consistently indicate that cost is rarely the primary motivation — the ritual, the craft, and the connection to a pre-disposable material culture are cited more frequently.

Barbershop Culture and the Third Wave

The barbershop revival that began in major cities around 2010-2012 has matured into a stable sector within the broader grooming economy. Truefitt & Hill on St. James's Street, London — founded in 1805 and recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest barbershop — now operates alongside newer establishments like Ruffians (founded Edinburgh, 2011) and Murdock London (founded 2006), all of which offer hot-towel shaves, cut-throat razor services, and grooming product retail.

These spaces function as something more than service providers: they are environments where the analog grooming philosophy is embodied spatially. The leather chairs, the strop, the lather bowl — these objects communicate a set of values about patience, craft, and masculine self-care that the algorithm-optimized DTC brands cannot easily replicate.

The $81 Billion Men's Market and Its Analog Subcurrent

Allied Market Research's projection of the men's grooming market reaching $166 billion by 2030 is driven largely by skincare adoption in Asia-Pacific markets and the expansion of mainstream brands into male-targeted product lines. But within this growth, the analog segment — natural and minimal ingredient profiles, ritualistic application methods, artisanal and heritage brand positioning — represents the highest-margin and fastest-growing subcategory in North American and European markets.

Mintel's 2023 Men's Grooming report identified "ritual and routine" as the top purchase driver among men aged 25-44 who spent more than £50 monthly on grooming products, overtaking "effectiveness" for the first time. This inversion — where the experience of using a product matters as much as what the product does — is precisely what analog grooming brands have been building toward for two decades.

Sources & Further Reading

  • McKinsey & Company, "The Beauty Market in 2023" — mckinsey.com
  • Allied Market Research, Men's Personal Care Market Report 2022 — alliedmarketresearch.com
  • L'Oréal press release, Aesop acquisition, August 2023 — loreal.com
  • Mintel, Men's Grooming UK Report 2023
  • The Wet Shaver, annual user survey 2022 — thewetshaver.co.uk
  • Truefitt & Hill official history — truefittandhill.co.uk
  • Puig Group, Byredo acquisition announcement, 2022