Malaysian women don't like it rough

Malaysia – Marketers hocking products to the metrosexual demographic may just see an increase in sales once Malaysian men catch on that clean-shaven, fresh-breathed and nice-smelling fellas are the ones that cut it with Malaysian women.

Almost all the women (80%) said they preferred men without stubble and close to half believed that a handsome, good-looking man is someone who carries himself with confidence and possesses good hygiene, as well as fresh breath.

A total of 54% agreed men who splash on cologne and after-shaving have more sex-appeal than those who don’t.

Women said they were not too concerned about good dressing, physical appearances – including a full head of hair – and physique but the men themselves defined a good looking man as someone with confidence, who dresses well and looks physically fit with bulging muscles.

The results were contained in the Malaysian section of Synovate’s global ‘Male Vanity’ survey involving over 1,000 men and women between the ages 15 and 64, across all income levels nationwide.

The survey looked into consumer attitudes and perceptions towards physical appearances and male beauty product consumption and it found 56% of the women polled admitting that men who use beauty products are more masculine than men who don’t, said Steve Murphy, managing director, Synovate Malaysia.

“In fact, 55% Malaysian men and 61% Malaysian women acknowledged that men using beauty products are a more confident lot,” he adds.

The most popular beauty products for men are facial wash creams, hair care products, whitening toothpaste and deodorants while the least most popular products included body moisturisers, whitening soap, sun cream and lip balms.

A whopping 72% of Malaysian men admitted that their looks were important to them.

Some 64% gave in that their motive for looking good was for self-gratification and a quarter admitted that it was to attract a potential partner.

The use of beauty products, good hygiene and breath factor was the common favouring factor which bridged the gap between women across the global borders.

“Half Malaysian women found body odour to be the most unattractive attribute when choosing a potential partner and that’s certainly good news for deodorant companies,” Murphy said.

The survey also found close to two-thirds of the men bought their own beauty products while 16% said theirs were bought by their significant other.