Grooming and Status Consumption: How Groomed Body Act as an Object to Project Status

Grooming and Status Consumption: How Groomed Body Act as an Object to Project Status

Introduction

Grooming and personal care business has become a promising sector in the global business as it’s the most reacting industry for dynamic life styles and fashion of both men and women (Euromonitor International, 2012). The last two decades the global beauty market which comprises of cosmetics and personal care products has grown by 4.5% and the same phenomenon was visible in the local context by recording a sales growth of 4.8% (Nielsen Sri Lanka – Retail Audit, 2012/2013). This interesting observation made on the beauty market was further confirmed by the authors through a pilot study conducted among nine respondents in Colombo from different Socio Economic Classifications (SEC); A, B and C. The findings of the pilot study too emphasized that people are focusing on grooming more than before and it is much visible among the youth segment. Further, it was found that youth are engaging in grooming mainly to get highlighted among the peers, get acceptance in the social groups they live, imitate the lifestyles of the upper classes, and to finally to project their identity in the society to obtain a social status compared to others. According to these findings, ‘status consumption’ was highlighted as a suitable platform to study about the increasing grooming behaviour of young people in Sri Lanka.

The social differentiation and status has been linked to different facets in literature and the fashion was one of the most discussed areas (Scheetz, 2004). Fashion is directly linked with personal grooming because fashion done by using personal care and cosmetics products to improve the personal appearance is considered as the process of ...

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