At one time, men were prone to upbraiding women for dilly-dallying in front of the mirror - but now studies backed by the health and beauty industry have found that more men spend just as long preening and primping.
One consumer study in Britain found that men now spend four minutes longer than women in front of the mirror. That's 83 minutes of shaving, moisturising, nostril hair trimming, exfoliating, dressing and accessorising before that special masculine look is achieved: almost the time it takes to play a whole game of football.
The market for masculine cosmetics and cosmetic treatments has been a major growth sector for many years. Nearly one in five of all cosmetic surgery performed today is carried out on men, according to figures released by The Harley Medical Group, Britain's largest cosmetic surgery provider. City of London bankers accounted for much of the demand by spending part of their bonuses on 'Boy-tox' or Botox treatments.
Alongside an ageing face, the other key focus of male vanity is hair - or rather, the loss of it. New medicines and treatments have stimulated huge growth in the market.
Dr Sharon Keene, chief medical officer for HairDX, a company that has devised the world's first system to test DNA for genetic predispositions to hair loss, stresses that, as with the skin, prevention is the key to success.
'There is no therapy that repopulates lost hair follicles. Once follicles are dead, they can't regrow. People have a tendency to notice they're losing hair, but then to wait and hope it will grow back. By the time you notice that hair is thinning, you've lost 50 per cent of the hair in that area. The advantage of the DNA test is that it allows you to identify pattern hair loss at a time when it is most effective to treat.'