Men's grooming routine in India: what's actually basic?

How big is India's men's grooming market, really?

Estimates sit between about USD 2.3 billion and USD 3 billion for the mid-2020s, and the organisations publishing them disagree. India Brand Equity Foundation, a trust under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, valued India's men's grooming market at about Rs 20,500 crore (US$2.3 billion) in 2024, and projects about Rs 38,300 crore (US$4.3 billion) by 2033.

Three commercial firms disagree: MarkNtel Advisors puts 2026 at USD 2.64 billion, IMARC Group at USD 2.62 billion, and TechSci Research puts 2024 at USD 3.02 billion. All three sell the full report and publish no free methodology, so each figure is that firm's own estimate.

IBEF also says haircare and deodorants hold the largest revenue share, that skincare and beard care are the fastest-growing categories, and that 30 to 35 percent of urban men's grooming sales happen online. Filings complicate any single growth story: Entrackr, summarising Registrar of Companies filings, reported one Indian men's grooming brand's revenue up about 24 percent to Rs 214 crore in the year to March 2025, and another's down 22 percent to Rs 73 crore, a second consecutive fall.

Do Indian men actually have a skincare routine, or is it just soap?

Interest is measured and real, but daily habit is thinner. In Mintel's 2023 India research, 30 percent of Indian men said they wanted to add more facial skincare products, rising to 35 percent among men aged 25 to 34, and 84 percent agreed they care about their appearance as much as women do.

The reasons were practical rather than about looking better. Among those interested in more facial skincare, the concerns named most were oil-free skin (56 percent), acne-free skin (53 percent) and scar-free skin (50 percent), all ahead of glow or complexion.

Wanting a routine and keeping one differ. PulseAI Research, the consumer-insights arm of a subscription beauty-box company, reported in April 2025 that 46 percent of Indian men who had taken up a skincare routine used it daily, and that 68 percent of non-users named lack of knowledge, safety concerns or doubt about whether products work. That is a company's own research with no published sample size.

What does the skin under a beard actually need?

The skin, not the hair. Anthony Rossi, a board-certified dermatologist writing for the American Academy of Dermatology, sets out a short plan for a healthy beard: a gentle cleanser daily instead of soap, gentle exfoliation for people prone to ingrown hairs, and a moisturiser, with sun protection while the hair is short. This is US patient education from one named dermatologist, and it says nothing about whether to have a beard.

• Wash the face and beard daily with a gentle cleanser suited to your skin type. Soap can dry the skin underneath and contribute to beard dandruff and irritation.
• Use a gentle exfoliating scrub if you are prone to ingrown hairs.
• While facial hair is still short stubble, use a moisturiser with broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher.
• Once the beard is fuller, use a beard oil, beard conditioner or gentle moisturiser matched to your skin type: acne-prone, normal to dry, or sensitive.

How much sunscreen should you use, and how often?

More at a time, less often than you might expect. The Indian Sunscreen Forum, a 2025 consensus of 14 Indian dermatologists, put the practical amount at about 45 mL, one shot glass, for the whole body, or one to two teaspoons for the face and neck, and the sources here disagree about how often to reapply, so this article gives no reapplication interval.

Their reasoning is that the familiar every-two-to-three-hours rule mainly compensates for people applying too little, and that reapplication is still needed after swimming, sweating or wiping. The panel recommends SPF 30 or higher, broad-spectrum, for melasma and post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, both more common in Indian skin types IV to VI. It is consensus, not a trial, and four of its eighteen authors are employees of a pharmaceutical company, declared in the paper.

The Indian Association of Dermatologists, Venereologists and Leprologists says on its public page that three steps are necessary, cleansing, moisturising and protecting, with exfoliants, serums and toners optional. The IADVL page gives general sunscreen guidance; it does not establish one level of protection for every person and every exposure. The two Indian sources differ on the interval, and that page carries no date.

Does a beard change how people see you?

It changes how people rate a picture of a face, which is not the same as advice. Gray and colleagues in 2020 asked 252 US and 280 Indian men and women aged 18 to 25 to rate images of one model with varying facial hair. More facial hair went with higher estimated age, assertiveness and physical strength, and lower friendliness.

Women in both samples preferred less facial hair on average. A separate 2023 survey of 509 men, by Jach and colleagues, found men preferred more facial hair on themselves than on other men, and judged more facial hair as more appropriate informally than formally, which the authors read as men adjusting a signal by context.

So what does a basic men's grooming routine in India look like?

Short, and yours to decline. The parts that recur across the guidance above are a cleanser suited to your skin, a moisturiser and sun protection, with the skin under a beard treated the same way, plus a beard trim whenever you want one. Everything past that is preference.

If you oil your hair, one Indian survey is worth knowing. Vendhan and colleagues, publishing in 2026, surveyed 1,200 people in southern India: 25 percent reported dandruff, 15 percent an itchy scalp and 10 percent hairfall, and most of those with scalp problems said they would change their oiling habits on a dermatologist's advice.

Frequency is the part no source here settles. We found no reliable survey of how often Indian men cut their hair or shave, so the interval is yours, set by how fast your hair grows. Booking a haircut at home is a convenience, not a schedule.

Where the evidence is thin

Three things here are weaker than they look. Every market figure above, IBEF's included, is the publishing organisation's own number with no free methodology, and the four do not agree. Mintel's come from a press release with no sample size or dates. The one measured hair care comparison we found, Nayak and colleagues in 2017, surveyed 240 Malaysian medical students, and its Malaysian Indian group was not reported separately by sex, so it is not data about men in India.

The facial hair study rated images of a single model, by people aged 18 to 25. It describes how a picture was rated, not what happens in a room.