“ Men’ s skin isn’ t just a thicker version of everyone else’ s. Hormones influence oil production, hydration and inflammation in ways that change how skin behaves— and how it should be treated. That shift— from assumption to specificity— matters. The science caught up. The products and services now need to follow.”
Visibility replaces permission And perhaps the biggest shift: He’ s no longer alone in it.
He sees other men engaging in these behaviors— online, in culture and in his peer group. Not always through conversation, but through visibility, normalization and repetition.
The isolation that once defined male self-care has started to dissolve. It hasn’ t fully matured into a support
Questions for Spa Leaders
l Does your menu explain results clearly? l Do your retail displays make men feel invited to browse? l Are team members trained to speak directly about outcomes, routines and concerns? l Do your design cues signal wellness broadly, or do they unintentionally code the experience for one guest profile? l Are men represented in your imagery, service descriptions and membership messaging? system many women have long had, but it no longer needs to. The behavior itself has become the signal.
What spa leaders should see clearly now
The evolution of the male spa guest did not happen in isolation.
In 2008, many of the professions shaping health, beauty and wellness— including nursing, esthetics and spa services— were overwhelmingly female, as was the core spa consumer. Those demographics influenced not only who delivered services, but also how environments were designed, how experiences were communicated and what assumptions were made about the people being served.
Today, esthetics remains one of the most female- dominated professions in the workforce: For every 20 practitioners, only one is a male. By comparison, men comprise more than one in 10 registered nurses in the U. S. workforce, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing( Nursing Workforce Fact Sheet, 2024, updated 2026).
While both professions remain predominantly female, these workforce realities help explain why many spa environments, service models and communication styles were historically developed through a predominantly female lens.
Culture has often been defined simply as“ the way we do things around here.” Culture shapes behavior long before strategy. The spa and wellness industries were built on traditions that largely coded the experience as feminine— who it was designed for, what it offered and who delivered it. Those cultural anchors have shaped consumer perceptions for decades.
While the industry continues to evolve, this remains one of the most consequential blind spots in spa and wellness today. The modern male guest is no longer questioning whether he belongs. He is evaluating whether the experience was designed with him in mind.
The 2008 male guest needed permission. The 2026 male guest expects relevance.
The gap between those two expectations represents one of the largest untapped opportunities in modern spas— and it is exactly where Part 2 will begin in the November Pulse. n
MICHAEL BRUGGEMAN is an entrepreneur, organizational development practitioner, author and CEO of One Well World, a portfolio of wellness, skin care and purpose-driven brands. Bruggeman holds an M. S. in organization development from Loyola University Chicago and has more than four decades of leadership experience helping organizations navigate transformation, innovation and growth. An avid outdoorsman, he draws inspiration from nature’ s living systems, which inform his work, writing and leadership philosophy.
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