Men’s Grooming: Is Shaving Dead by 2026?

By 2026, the world of men’s grooming looks completely different. For decades, the razor was king, but a flood of new hair removal techniques is changing everything. It’s a real threat to anyone still banking on the daily shave, and it makes you wonder: is the razor’s time on top finally over?

Just ask David Chen. He owns “The Gentry’s Edge,” a classic barbershop in Atlanta’s Buckhead area, right where Peachtree and Lenox Roads meet. For twenty years, David’s business was built on sharp haircuts and hot towel shaves. It was a place for tradition. But in early 2025, he felt a change. His regulars, guys who’d come in weekly for a straight-razor shave, started pushing back their appointments. A few even confessed they were trying other things. “I had one client, Mr. Henderson, a regular for fifteen years,” David told me last month. “He said he was trying something new, something that lasted longer. I just nodded, but inside, I was thinking, ‘what the hell is something new?'”

David’s problem isn’t unique. What we’re seeing is a huge change in men’s grooming, all because ideas about masculinity are changing and guys want better results with less hassle. The numbers back this up: a Grand View Research report projects the whole market will climb to $115 billion by 2028, growing about 6.2% a year. But inside that huge number, professional hair removal is growing much faster. I see it in my own consulting work with salon owners in the Southeast, where many are reporting a 15% year-over-year jump in male clients for these services. That kind of growth was just unheard of ten years ago.

The issue for shops like The Gentry’s Edge was that their entire business model was built on the razor. For a century, shaving was the only game in town. It was cheap, everyone knew how to do it, and it was just what guys did. But let’s be honest about the downsides: it’s a daily chore that causes razor burn, ingrown hairs, and stubble that’s back by dinner. Those annoyances used to be accepted as a fact of life, but men are now actively choosing services that solve these problems.

At first, David blew it off. “I figured it was just a fad, like those beard oils that came and went,” he admitted. He thought nothing could beat the ritual of a traditional shave, that moment of old-school indulgence. The thing he missed is that men still want that feeling of being taken care of. They just have a new definition of what that is. They want a polished look that lasts for weeks, not just hours, and they don’t want to spend every morning fighting their own face to get it.

That “something new” Mr. Henderson tried was professional body hair removal. These services work on a completely different principle from shaving. Instead of just cutting the hair flush with the skin, they pull it out from the root. The result is genuinely smooth skin for weeks, and because the hair grows back finer, you get far less of the irritation and bumps that come with shaving. For any guy trying to look clean and athletic or just sick of the daily upkeep, these methods are a pretty obvious upgrade.

David’s wake-up call was his balance sheet. By the third quarter of 2025, he couldn’t ignore it anymore: his monthly revenue from hot shaves had plummeted by nearly 20% from the year before. At the same time, he saw new, slick barbershops opening up in Midtown and West Midtown that were offering a whole menu of services he didn’t recognize. They were pulling in younger guys who couldn’t care less about a straight razor, and David knew he couldn’t just coast on his reputation anymore. He had to figure out what was going on.

My advice to him was to stop looking at other barbershops and start looking at what men were actually doing. This whole movement is part of a bigger cultural shift, guys have sophisticated skincare routines now, some use cosmetics, and you see athletes and celebrities everywhere with smooth skin. Men are putting more money and effort into their appearance, and they expect the results to justify that spend. That means they’re moving on from temporary fixes like shaving.

For David, or any business stuck in the old ways, the job was to understand why these new methods were so appealing. They directly solve the biggest complaints about shaving: the irritation, the constant regrowth, the time suck. Think about a pro cyclist who needs smooth legs to prevent chafing and make massages easier, shaving every day is a nightmare of rashes and cuts. A longer-lasting method is a practical need. Or what about a consultant who’s always on a plane? Not having to pack shaving gear and do it every morning simplifies everything.

So, David started doing his own low-key market research. He just started asking his remaining clients what they were doing and what they wanted. It was an eye-opener. A lot of them were just tired of the daily shave, complaining about five o’clock shadow and sensitive skin. They liked David and were loyal, but they were definitely curious about anything that promised a cleaner look with less work. One client, a software engineer out of Alpharetta, put it perfectly: “I spend enough time coding. I don’t want to spend another twenty minutes every morning fighting my beard.”

That was the push David needed. He saw that if he just clung to his straight razor, his business would eventually die. The answer wasn’t to get rid of his classic services, but to build on them. He started digging into professional hair removal techniques, learning the pros and cons of each. He talked to other pros in the field, hit up some industry trade shows, and even flew out to L.A. and New York to see what the high-end men’s salons were offering.

His research drove home a key fact: men were asking for hair removal on more than just their faces. Backs, chests, and even legs were becoming standard requests. This is about personal taste and comfort, not some attack on manliness. That old attitude of “real men don’t do X” is pretty much gone, replaced by a much healthier view of male self-care where guys just do what makes them feel good.

In the end, David invested. He brought in a trained specialist to introduce a menu of new hair removal services at The Gentry’s Edge, positioning them as an add-on to his classic cuts and shaves. He marketed them as the modern solution for smoother skin and less maintenance, and he created intro packages so his loyal customers could try them out without a huge commitment.

It took time, but the results were clear. Within six months, business was picking up again. His new services brought in a younger crowd, and a lot of his old-timers, Mr. Henderson included, came back to pay for these longer-lasting solutions. David learned a hard lesson: the men’s grooming business changes fast, and you have to adapt to stay afloat. The razor will stick around, sure, but its monopoly as the default grooming tool for men is broken for good.