The New Niche: Hair Care for Men Without

The same week a Los Angeles salon owner was pleading with Britney Spears not to buzz her head, barbers were laying tracks across the scalps of all sorts of men at the Aidan Gill for Men salon in New Orleans.

The HeadBlade, made by a man who was frustrated with the contortions required to shave his head.

“We have at least one man coming in for a head shave every day,” Mr. Gill said. “Had Britney come here, we’d have shaved her all the way down. She’d have looked incandescent.”

For most of recent grooming history, having a totally bald pate was a look most likely found among men with formidable personalities and names to match — Kojak, Yul, Ike, Warbucks, Clean. It wasn’t a look for John over in accounting.

But in the late 1980s, Michael Jordan shaved it all off. Soon, the world was examining the scalps of Bruce Willis, Andre Agassi, Moby and just about one token character on every TV show — not to mention a swarm of Oscar nominees and presenters this year, including Jack Nicholson (who had shaved his head for a role).

The response is a booming market of products being developed and sold specifically to the unhirsute — a new front in the nearly $5 billion onslaught of male grooming products in the United States.

There are gels and ointments to help with the shave, to enhance the shine, to reduce the glare, to help with dryness or oiliness, to block the sun. There’s even a rolling razor to make the daily upkeep less stressful.

“I’m a former comb-over wearer,” confessed Howard Brauner, founder of the two-year-old company Bald Guyz, based in Manalapan, N.J. “I would spend half an hour in the morning making it look right, and then finally I just realized it was ridiculous. Once I decided to really go bald, my wife would get annoyed at me for using her expensive shampoos. But I had to use something to clean my head.”

For that particular ablution, Mr. Brauner now uses a head wash that’s part of the line of products he developed in response to his wife’s complaints. Bald Guyz also puts out pocket-size individual head wipes, for use on the go. And there is a conditioner, to be used twice a week. “Your skin up there is either dry or irritated or oily,” he said.

Men also complain about oily sunscreens that run into their eyes. Instead, there are scalp-specific blocks, like Bald Guyz’s S.P.F. 30 sunblock gel. (About 2 percent of skin cancers occur on the scalp.) For men who have forgotten to block, there is an aloe-and-green-tea moisture gel for burns.

There is also Mission: Control Bald Head Balm, a creamy, nongreasy S.P.F. 15 sunscreen, introduced last year by Sharps (one of the first non-scalp-specific toiletry companies to market a product for bald heads in the same line as products for hair care), and an S.P.F. 25 Complete Head Care Lotion from the new scalp-care brand Matte for Men.

HeadShade S.P.F. 15 is a sunblock spritz by HeadBlade, a California-based company that sells products at CVS and Kmart, among other stores.

HeadBlade made its name developing a razor designed for head shaving. A yellow plastic-and-rubber handle loops onto the middle finger and is held in the palm. It resembles a snowmobile, with a razor on the front and two small wheels on the back, which ride on the scalp, keeping it steady.

There are two types of hairless men buying these products: those who do it as a simple antidote to hair erosion and those more diehard types for whom hairlessness is a way of life.

Those in the latter group, who have not experienced hair loss at all, call themselves B.B.C. or Bald by Choice. (There’s even a Web site, BaldlyGo.com, that allows visitors to send in their photos to be retouched for a preview before they slather their heads with Barbasol.) The goods are being marketed accordingly.

Bald Guyz targets the average guy who’s made a choice to adopt this look, either because it’s easier than creating the illusion of hair (if he doesn’t have it) or dealing with hair at all (if he does).

The products’ packages feature photos and mini-bios of “real bald guys.” The Head Wipes box shows Shawn, a goatee-wearing researcher from Texas who enjoys jazz and R&B, and Keith, a toothy Long Island firefighter who “puts his life on the line every day, making him a very special bald guy.”

“We’re for the guy who is saying, ‘This is just what nature handed me. This is who I am,’ ” Mr. Brauner said. Many of these bald men might even have some very short hair in spots.

HeadBlade products, however, are aimed at more hard-core baldies. Photos on its Web site suggest that if you use their products, you are likely a martial artist, a drag racer, a pro wrestler or Howie Mandel. For these men, there’s a world of difference between a scrim of head hair and no hair at all. Sure, this lot might not be able to grow a full head of hair even if they wanted to ... but they wouldn’t want to. There’s also a divide in the nomenclature. Bare-headed folks like Abe Minkara of Dallas, founder of the new scalp-care company Bold for Men, never use the word “bald.” “I prefer being called ‘bold,’ ” he said.

HeadBlade’s founder, Todd Greene, who also avoids the b-word, said he developed the HeadBlade razor in the late 1990s after feeling frustrated with the hand and arm contortions involved in using a regular straight-handled safety razor on his head.

“The HeadBlade is like riding a small car on your head; a regular razor is like riding a unicycle,” he said. “It makes for a faster shave because you can feel your head while you are shaving in order to see what you’ve missed.”

While the HeadBlade has its fans, a sampling of a dozen barbers and head shavers suggested that Gillette’s Mach3 is the most popular razor, although Gillette has never marketed to that specific niche.

Mr. Greene thinks that might change soon.

“There’s a huge head care market that’s been ignored for years,” he said. “Large companies are starting to say, ‘We’ve maxed out the female skin care market, we need to educate men in order to sell them, too’ — and part of that should mean selling to men who shave their heads.”

When it comes time to actually get out the razor, there are several options besides regular foam shaving cream (which head-shaving barbers usually slather on top of a layer of baby oil). Bold for Men has a dry shave gel, which was included in Oscar gift bags this year. The gel is supposed to be used with a wet razor on a dry head. It was developed in part as a way to avoid the foamy mess that head shavers often make on the sink and bathroom floor.

HeadBlade also makes HeadSlick, a nonfoaming mentholated shaving cream, which Mr. Greene suggests using after exfoliating with his company’s gritty HeadShed scrub, and before a post-shave ClearHead salicylic acid formula to help prevent ingrown hairs.

Some, though, forgo razors altogether in favor of using the scalp-specific Magic Shave depilatory, a product produced by a division of L’Oréal USA.

Not having hair does not necessarily mean room in the medicine cabinet where styling products used to be. HeadBlade has two kinds of HeadLube grooming lotions — glossy for those who like the way the sun looks reflected off their heads, and matte for a more understated look. There’s also “Bald & Bold” by Duke, which is supposed to “tone” the look of the head. And for the bald man who does not want to forgo accessories, HeadBlade has temporary head tattoos.

But there are two areas that no company has addressed. One is how to draw attention away from the shadow of hair around many a dark-haired, pale-skinned head only hours after a close shave.

“I hate that,” said Zev Swiller, a Los Angeles teacher. “I’ve thought about maybe waxing to try to keep from getting it. I’ve gotten to the point where I wish I’d just lose the rest of my hair so I wouldn’t have to deal with that look.”

The other need? A product to address head bleeding — because even the most adept shaver occasionally nicks himself.

But, said Mr. Gill, the New Orleans barber, wearing a Band-Aid on the scalp is an indignity that the average head shaver probably doesn’t mind. Even with all the cosmetic products at hand, a bald man is usually a confident one.

“If you get to the point where you’re shaving your head,” he said, “you’ve gotten to the point where you don’t give a damn.”