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Women spend thousands on beauty maintenance every year while men get by with drugstore shaving cream and hair gel. Even if we’re climbing the corporate ladder faster than ever, we’re still always one pedicured step behind.
Wanna save an extra $5,000 a year? Become a man.
Seriously, I could be rich (or at least get richer faster) if I gave up my beauty routine. Currently, my daily self-prepping involves the following: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, face wash, toothpaste, body lotion, face moisturizer, blusher, a bit of glimmer for my cheeks, eyeliner, mascara, lip gloss, and perfume. And I’m a basics kind of gal. Most American women also add in regular salon and spa stuff like spray tanning, waxing, highlights, haircuts, manis, pedis, microdermabrasion and Botox.
When I asked a few men about their morning beautifying rituals, the picture was slightly different: Deodorant, for sure. Shampoo, lotion, and shaving cream, most likely. Hair gel, maybe. Even the most metrosexual of men spends a fraction of what women spend to just bathe and beautify. It's no wonder women —- even corporate-climbing women with male-equivalent incomes —- are more financially unstable than their male counterparts. Of course it's important to note that men still make more on average than women, but the women most likely to be shelling out a lot for products —- that is, urban professionals —- are also the ones closest to parity with their male counterparts.
Quite simply: It costs more to be a woman.
So, how much are we spending exactly? It's a little scary, so I'll ease you in with a recent figure for British women: $6,000 to $8,000 a year on beauty and maintenance. U.S. women? Ahem, $12,000 to $15,000 every year spent on products and salon services. Look at that number. Think about it. Try not to throw up. That could pay off your student loans, cover your past or future wedding (as long as you’re not, say, TomKat), give you a down payment on your first home, or —- better! —- it could start a sizable investment account, which could yield thousands more if invested properly. Ah, but that's just it. Not only do women spend too much, but we pretty much suck at managing money, too.
Yeah, it's tough to hear (and if you're an exception to this rule, we salute you!) but the evidence is incontrovertible. When it comes to retirement saving, for example, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that in 2005, fewer than half of all working women in the United States contributed to or had some kind of retirement plan. Fewer than half. Where’s it going? You might want to check the till at Sephora.
We also dominate as consumers despite the fact that we still earn less than men do and spend less time in the workforce over the course of our lifetimes. And, speaking of lifetimes, we're also more likely to live longer (hence: more non-income-earning retirement years). It's a tough financial landscape we're facing, ladies, but apparently we’re more worried about our future wrinkles than our financial security. (Men do, of course, spend more on wooing us, and surely they have their own special indulgences, but that doesn't change that examining our beauty budgets could be the best way for many of us to save.)
If only we could give up some of these luxuries, right? But the truth is, regardless of what kind of financial pressure we may admit to feeling, most of us just like to look/smell/feel good. We splurge. We impulse buy. We go for the top of the line, even if we can't quite afford it. And we justify it by telling ourselves: "I need it."
And maybe we do need it. But we also need to get our financial shit together. Men are doing it, so why the hell aren't we? I know what you're thinking: "It's so unfair! So much value is placed on women's appearances, and men can get away with looking like crap if they want to!" There's truth to that, certainly. Guys definitely have less pressure to look good, and it's unreasonable to expect women to maintain the same simple maintenance routine as men. But men have their own extra expenses, too: paying to woo, date, and marry us, for example. So that $500 you dropped at Sephora, he spent on theater tickets and a five-star
