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By Natasha Khan | Photography by Elizabeth Coetzee/WSJ

Men's brands are having a moment. From beard oil to body wash, companies are ramping up their messaging and speaking directly to male consumers in more fun and frank ways.

Sales of men's grooming products grew 6.9% to reach $7.1 billion in the U.S. as of June this year, according to market-research firm NIQ. The percentage of men who said they would spend on products that help with antiaging rose from 43% to 60% over the past decade.

The Wall Street Journal spoke to founders and executives about how their companies are navigating the growth in male grooming. In their own words, here is what they told us:

Men want products made for men

Jeff Raider started Harry's in 2013 after co-founder Andy Katz-Mayfield got ripped off shopping for razors at the drugstore.

What do your male customers want?

Guys are looking for innovative formulas that target specific concerns and are made for men, not unisex. Eighty percent of men shopping for skin care are looking for products that are formulated for them.

Part of that is guys getting more educated on what's unique about their skin, and why their needs have to be addressed differently (their faces are physiologically different from women's because of thick hair and thicker skin).

The men we talk to think of grooming not just as a "job to get done," but as an experience they enjoy, and a way to express their style and identity out in the world.

What about Gen Z guys?

All the trends we're seeing in men's grooming are even more amplified in younger generations.

Cologne in particular gets a lot of fanfare with younger guys. My 13-year-old has a medicine cabinet full of cologne and was way more excited about our new Harry's fragrances than any other product we've made.

Men are buying scents as a small luxury

Jean Holtzmann is chief brand officer at the division at beauty company Coty that makes Boss fragrances.

Why are fragrances so popular right now?

Fragrances are benefiting from a structural shift toward affordable luxury, what many are calling "treat-onomics." Consumers are increasingly choosing fragrances as accessible ways to treat themselves, even in uncertain times.

In 2024 alone, about 11 million people started wearing fragrance. Many even wear it while working from home, which shows how scent has shifted from being an occasion to part of daily life.

Why are Gen Z men in particular scooping up scents?

They want to be noticed, but in their own way. Fragrance is how they say, "This is me today." They mix high and low, layer and experiment. They are drawn to authenticity and individuality, not perfection. They have built their own language around scent — compliment factor, projection, signature scent — and it is playful and personal.

Men want you to talk to them — without the poetry

Jo Dancey is global brand president at fragrance maker Jo Malone London. The Estée Lauder-owned brand has recently ramped up its efforts to appeal to men.

How did you hook men on fragrances?

Our fragrances have always been genderless, but in reality, the significant percentage of our consumer base was female. The male customers we did have were gifting to females, typically. We knew we were underpenetrated in terms of male consumers, but we weren't breaking through.

So we said: We have to have a more direct conversation with men. We appointed Tom Hardy — both a man's man and a female's man — as a brand ambassador.

Men are walking into our stores and saying, "I want the Tom fragrance."

We are now also joining with the New York Giants and activating at the Super Bowl again in February. We're going to have multiple partnerships across touch points in the stadium and bring people into the Jo Malone London male world. It's very much about talking to the American male consumer directly.

What is the key to communicating with men?

Simplicity. Very, very direct communication. We are a brand that is very poetic, and for certain scents, we talk about the story behind the scent. But now, we have really refined down the descriptors — we haven't taken the poetry out of it entirely; we've simplified it.

Also, our male customers love, love sets. They want the hand wash, the hair wash. Once they're in, they're in. And even though we're seeing a really rapid growth in small sizes for fragrances, our male consumers value large sizes. Again, they want to make one purchase. They want to commit to that purchase.

And they like to be in on the joke

Freddy Bharucha runs the Procter & Gamble division that makes Old Spice.

How do you compete with all the emerging brands?

We stay relevant by connecting with our consumers authentically, through things like humorous scent names. For example, we have a new line of Holidudes scents — Lumbersnack, Pumpking and Snickerdudel. That's all in the name of bringing a little humor to what would otherwise feel like a very utilitarian part of his daily routine.

Men want a personal connection

Boxer Jake Paul founded a line of shower and deodorant products called W in 2024, taking on big legacy brands.

How do you make a sale?

Male consumers need to feel connected to a product and to a brand, to be interested in a story and to be inspired by it.

Also, people are very specific about their products. We have to truly give them the best — from lower price points to sourcing ingredients — then still be able to maintain a business.

We're not in the era of TV commercials anymore. When I was a kid, I didn't know who made the deodorant I smelled in the supermarket aisle. But now people know the owners and know that it's me — there's literally a personal connection.

I can DM and talk to my fans and ask them for their feedback, what products they want, what scents are their favorite, all these things.

They want the product to work

Josh Friedman is the chief executive of Dr. Squatch, a maker of products like Bay Rum soap and Pine Tar "Odor Squatching" deodorant, which was acquired by Unilever this year.

How do you hold on to your customers?

Guys are not a monolith. There are lots of different ways of being a guy and they could be looking for different things, but I think we want to keep things relatively simple — our approach is to make sure the products work very well.

Is the male consumer changing?

Over the past decade, there has been a void among leading brands showcasing men expressing their masculinity in ways that feel safe and inspiring. We've seen a shift in interest in that coming out more and bringing that energy back.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Write to Natasha Khan at natasha.khan@wsj.com