Why are men still so resistant to ideas of facial decoration? “Well, they’re told to be,” says Glen Jankowski, lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. “Despite claims of increasing metrosexuality, gender norms for men are still strong. Analyses of toys marketed to boys, for example, show that the messages are still to be strong, brave and uninvested in your appearance. For girls, beauty is key.” Understanding the divide came as a shock to the transgender make-up artist Joseph Harwood.

“I was the tiny kid with glittery gel pens,” he remembers. “I didn't appreciate how powerful conditioning could be until the people who mistook me for female told me what was wrong with my skin. It became evident that the boys and girls had different expectations – and I didn't fit with either. Men are often praised for flaws; a broken nose is rugged, chapped skin is war-torn [but] there’s a full-blown campaign from the start of a girl’s life that involves images on magazines that are overly retouched.”