Who Fights To Get To The Mirror In Your House?

Ladies, are you fed up with your man saying you spend too much time in front of the mirror. Getting ready to go out, do you get the usual sarcastic looks of boredom and a constant chivvy up, to get a move on. Well pay attention, it's time to let your man know that on average men admire themselves more often in the mirror each day, than ladies do, in fact 23 times compared to women glancing only 16 times.

Research conducted by the Yorkshire-based men's lifestyle website Avaj,  quizzed 1,000 Brits on their grooming habits and the results strike at the heart of the stereotypical views that many men have held over generations about the time women spend in front of the mirror. Commenting on their research findings, Tracey Denison, Managing Director at Avaj, said, "Surprisingly, unlike women, men are more likely to spend time in front of the mirror admiring the parts of themselves they are happy with – suggesting vanity is the real purpose behind the time spent looking at reflections."

"The trend for even those men who opt for a more rugged look ensuring they are well groomed – investing in beard care kits and the like – further reinforces this idea."

Ms Denison blamed the results on the rise in camera phones. "It's also possible that the selfie trend is partially driving this rise in male vanity, as people become more used to celebrating their appearance. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have seeped through to women as much, and they still seem to be the more self-conscious sex."

The research found that men tended to look at their appearance to 'admire' themselves, while women tended to to focus on the body parts they felt more self-conscious about. With 10 minutes being the average time men spend each day looking in the mirror, that amounts to a whopping six and half days a year admiring how they look.

Of course with averages, habits can vary significantly, so not all men will gaze admiringly at the mirror for so long. On the other hand some of the men surveyed said they actually gazed into the mirror more than 30 times a day. Perhaps this shows that time is changing in the clothing department, a whopping 82% of men now agreeing that maintaining a good personal appearance was important. That is certainly the case for a male friend of mine, who, commenting on this research said, "As a fella, your appearance in important, in fact, I have been brought up with a particular saying, which is 'image maketh the man'. In 35 years of working life, I have to say I have seen many examples of that being true."

So ladies, what are the guys looking at when they admire themselves in the miirror. Well, dominating the list of body parts men were most happy with was arms (76%), followed by legs (54 per cent), smile (49 per cent), eyes (43 per cent), and hair (38 per cent).

The survey also found that two thirds of men (67 per cent) revealed they had three or more cosmetic products. A further third of the men who took part (34 per cent) confessed to using a female friend or family member's cosmetic products at least once, whilst one in 10 (9 per cent) said they used cosmetic products targeted at women regularly.

Far from being critical of the findings, I am pleased that the research suggests more and more of our fellas are taking pride in how they look.