THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 A GANNETT NEWSPAPER 50 CENTS
A SHINING MOMENT
When Howard Brauner of Manalapan embraced his baldness, a product line was born
By Dennis P. Carmody
ASSISTANT BUSINESS EDITOR
Howard Brauner started losing his hair when from Brooklyn wanted to take lying down, dent, to start
he was 17 years old. and so Brauner fought it by sporting a comb- Bald Guyz, a line
Being sentenced to a lifetime of male- over. of moisturizers,
pattern baldness was not something a kid But that did nothing to stop his hair's sunscreens and
retreat, and so, by the time he was 37, comb- shampoos
ing and spraying those few remaining designed for the
strands over his scalp took him up to a bald man. Since
half-hour of primping a day. But a starting the busi-
sizzling day at an out-of-town ness a year ago,
business meeting finally did he's managed to
him in. The baking sun just get his products
about melted all the goop on into 16,000 “No one talks to the bald
his head and gave him the stores across the man except to tell him
ultimate bad hair day. country, includ-
ing drug-store
how to grow hair.”
He came home, chains such as – Howard Brauner, founder of Bald Guyz
drove to the barber, Eckerd, Rite Aid
had him cut the and Drug Fair, and supermarkets such as
comb-over hairs off Acme.
and braced himself
for his return to work "No one talks to the bald man except to
and his acknowledg- tell him how to grow hair," Brauner said.
ment that his scalp had About $1.7 billion is spent annually on
finally beat him. But various hair-regrowth products, Brauner
much to his said, and about 35 million American men
delight, the recep- sport the classic horseshoe-shaped male-
tionist greeted pattern baldness, while perhaps another 3
him with a happy million to 5 million shave their heads volun-
cry of, "You look tarily as a matter of style.
great!" "We created a category that didn't exist,"
Embracing said Brauner, a veteran of consumer-product
his baldness has development. "We have a huge consumer
led Brauner, a 49- base that no one's been speaking to."
y e a r - o l d Men's grooming is a growing business,
Manalapan resi- according to the NPD Group Inc., a retail
analysis firm in Port Washington, N.Y. For In the beginning Shore boardwalks this year. He's run adver-
example, consumers spent $59 million on tisements for the wipes in men's restrooms
men's skin care in 2004, up 25.5 percent His contacts in consumer-product with the tag line, "Did you wipe yet?"
from 2002, according to NPD. development helped him get started. He
Brauner thinks he's been helped by the
worked with a designer to develop packag-
Brauner and some limited partners fact that it's fashionable for men to shave
ing, and a cosmetic chemist helped him
invested "in the mid-six figures" to get the their heads entirely now.
develop herbal formulas for the products
company started last year. It's formally "Imagine if I could get someone like
he wanted to sell. He said the standard for-
called BG Products LLC, but it was an idea Vin Diesel to be a spokesman," he mused.
mulas are generally too harsh on bald
he had been kicking around since that bad "When I started losing my hair, I couldn't
scalps and the hair bald men retain on the
hair day about a dozen years ago. shave my head. The only people who did
sides of their heads.
Brauner had built a career developing that back then were skinheads or neo-
He experimented on himself and on
a variety of consumer products, including Nazis."
bald friends and family members and
over-the-counter reading glasses and
eventually narrowed his product line down Profitable already
appetite suppressants.
to five items — a sunscreen, a cleanser, a
In his spare time, he looked into the shampoo, a moisturizer and a head wipe. Brauner would not say how much rev-
market for bald men and found they had He hired manufacturers and sent out the enue the company has taken in, but said
needs that were not being addressed. For first shipments last April. Prices range from the company already is in the black.
example, on a trip to Europe, he found a $4.99 to $9.99. He's working on ideas for the future,
Swiss company made wipes that worked including Christmas and sports-themed
Since then, he has used his salesman-
very well to remove the oils on a bald scalp. gift packs, as well as soft-bristled hair-
ship and contacts in the retail industry to
Eventually, with the encouragement of get Bald Guyz into stores. brushes. In the meantime, he's enjoying his
his family, he decided to turn his dreams success.
He's used unorthodox techniques to
into a business. "I've never had so much fun, and I've
get the word out. He hired pretty models to
"I've been working for entrepreneurs hand out 3,000 samples of head wipes to never worked so hard," Brauner said.
my whole life," Brauner said. "It was time bald men walking through New York City
for me to take the risk." and plans similar offerings along the Jersey