Скачать или смотреть Londoner's halal beard products are growing strong

(17 Apr 2017) LEADIN:
Whether he's a hipster, conservative or sportsman, the Muslim male faces a challenge: how to look good and stay halal.
A number of companies are now exploiting this niche in a seemingly ever expanding halal beauty industry.
STORYLINE:
Beard oil for the discerning gentleman.
These products are designed to keep London's beards in perfect shape - and they are all halal.
Abrar Mirza created the London Beard Company because he couldn't find any halal products to take care of his beard.
Instead, he decided to make what he wanted himself.
"There was like a revival of the beards amongst Londoners, a lot of men were keeping beards. I've had a beard for quite a while, coming from a Muslim background, but there weren't many products to look after the beard. I remember having to use hair products for my beard just to give it a little bit of a shine, a little bit of a glossy look," he says.
Mirza saw a gap in the market for beard oils that are halal, or permissible under Islamic law.
This means they are made without using animal or alcohol products - common ingredients in many mainstream beauty products.
He says the ethos of the London Beard Company is to keep the products natural, halal and ethical, so he also avoids using chemicals and preservatives.
"We use all natural ingredients. We use a blend of argan oil and olive oil. So it works as like a skin moisturiser and a beard conditioner. And the ones that are scented, again we don't use fragrance, so we use essential oils," he says.
Most of Mirza's ingredients are from UK suppliers, while the argan oil comes from Morocco. He says all are vetted to ensure they meet ethical standards.
What started off as a cottage industry about two and a half years ago has grown into a business that ships to Hong Kong, Denmark, Spain, Italy, and Germany.
Business has been so good that Mirza has been able to open a boutique called Cove 17 in London.
Here he sells the London Beard Company's five types of beard oil, four of them scented, with names such as 'Eastern Spice', 'Velvet Wood' and 'Citrus Blend'.
He also stocks walnut wood and ox horn combs and has set up a barbers in the back of the boutique's premises.
"We've had quite a lot of growth. Starting off from in the house, in the kitchen, and now we have a workshop, and a shop as well, a retail space. So in the space of two, two and a half years, we have grown significantly," Mirza says.
A small number of other firms are catering to Muslim men too, for example, Elegance Beard in Canada, and the UK's Pure Halal Beauty Products has a male range.
Several years ago halal beauty products were a niche market for a few businesses, mainly in Muslim countries in Southeast Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Now market research analysts at Technavio say they expect the global industry to grow in value from 26 billion US dollars in 2016 to 52 billion US dollars by 2021.
And because halal beauty products typically use natural ingredients, they are attractive to non-Muslims too, particularly as mainstream consumer demand for natural and organic products grows.
Mirza says he has deliberately positioned the London Beard Company to have universal appeal.
"We're quite a generic brand. Yes, we are Muslim, but our branding is very generic. We haven't kept it solely being Muslim based. So it's a wide range, we get a wide range of customers."
He expects the demand for male grooming products to keep on growing and halal beauty items in particular in Muslim majority nations such as the United Arab Emirates.
One of Mirza's regular customers is Hakam Erol.

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