This article was in the Wall Street Journal and thought some might find it interesting:ByEllen ByronFeb. 1, 2020 9:00 am ETDo we need his and hers razors?For more consumers today, the answer is no. As shoppers increasingly question the value of gender-differentiated products, more consumer goods makers are eliminating gender traits from their marketing.On Monday, Bic plans to launch gender-neutral grooming products including facial moisturizer, body lotion and shaving cream. Last year the company debuted a line of genderless razors. This Tuesday, vitamin company Care/of plans to launch a line of unisex beauty supplements. They join other unisex personal-care products catering to changing tastes, including Non Gender Specific, a skin care line sold in Bloomingdale’s and Credo stores, and Malin + Goetz’s unisex products.Young shoppers especially have become skeptical about the need for gender-differentiated products amid a growing conversation about gender more broadly, consumer researchers say. At the same time, busy families looking to simplify their lives want to streamline the variety of products they buy.Bic's Made For You line includes unisex razors, shaving cream and lotion. Photo: BIC“They’re saying, ‘I’m decluttering and I don’t want to have five shampoos in the shower,’ ” says Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, a brand-consulting firm. Among young millennial households, he says, “in general they are looking to create an egalitarian home—if it’s too feminine or too masculine it doesn’t feel right because their mind-set is that it’s all one.”Some 30% of adult beauty-product consumers aged 24 or younger currently use or have used genderless beauty products and 39% said they are interested in trying them, according a 2019 survey by market researcher Mintel.Fewer adults of any age say that gender designations influence their toiletries purchases. Last year 4% of consumers said that hair care positioned for their gender influenced their purchase, down from 9% in 2016, according to market-researcher Euromonitor . Last year 6% of consumers said that gender influenced their skin care purchase, down from 8% in 2016, the company says.The changing preferences are part of a wider discussion around gender identity and equality. In the toiletries industry, these issues caught fire when a 2015 study commissioned by New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs found that on average women’s products cost 7% more than similar products for men, and the highest price difference was found in the personal-care category, where women pay 13% more for products. Nicknamed the Pink Tax, the study is still widely shared on social media and brought new scrutiny to gender-specific products.Care/of's new line of beauty supplements target men and women. Photo: Emily Kinsolving PhotographyFor Bic’s North America general manager Mary Fox, two research points stood out: 75% of consumers under the age of 34 said they were interested in a razor marketed to both men and women and 69% said they wanted companies to create more unisex personal care and beauty products, according to a Bic-commissioned survey of 1,005 adults in the U.S.The new products are part of Bic’s Made For You brand, which aims to unite the highly segregated shaving category, which long has emphasized femininity or masculinity. Made For You’s grooming products pledge to help achieve “whatever your best may be—smooth, silky, scruffy, bushy and anything in between,” the bottles say. The razors were launched in partnership with Amazon, where the products are exclusively sold.Spiros Gratsias, vice president of Bic’s global development center, compared the logistics of male and female shaving and found surprising similarities. Navigating a razor around an ankle resembles shaving a chin: Both require the handle and blade to pivot smoothly around the skin’s topography, Mr. Gratsias says. Shaving an underarm is like shaving under the neck because many people reverse their blade strokes to move against the direction of the hair’s growth. “When we say let’s make a tool that can do all of this, then gender goes away,” Mr. Gratsias says.Ms. Fox says Bic isn’t at risk of cannibalizing its sales by offering products that men and women can share. “They’re already doing it anyway so we’re going to give them a much better experience and really show them that we understand how they want to shave,” she says. The same is true for the Made For You lotions and shaving cream. “In the end they will just go through it faster and replenish,” she says.Women switching to Bic’s Made For You razors from the company’s female-targeted Soleil razors will actually end up paying 15% to 20% more, Ms. Fox says. “Made For You is a better overall experience with a handle that lasts as long as you want it to,” she says.Years ago, some personal care products emphasized superior performance instead of gender designation. Pert Plus’s neutral green bottles suited any gender and heralded the convenience of shampoo and conditioner in one bottle. Sure deodorant’s slogan “Raise your hand if you’re Sure” featured ads of both men and women with their arms raised overhead.Sure deodorant's slogan 'Raise your hand if you're Sure' targeted men and women. Photo: Procter & GambleIn the 1990s, culture celebrated commingling between young men and women, including hit shows like “Friends,” “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Grunge fashion was largely androgynous. Calvin Klein in 1994 introduced a gender-neutral fragrance, CK One, and its edgy ads featured men and women.Since then, products became much more segregated, largely for business reasons. Product makers have long banked on slight variations to tempt customers to try something new and generate more sales, and gender-specific packaging, fragrances and designs offered ways to create new versions. And as consumer-research advanced, companies could identify more consumer nuances and develop products that more precisely catered to specific concerns.In the 1990s, hit shows like ‘Friends’ highlighted young adults of both sexes commingling. Photo: Warner Bros. Television/Everett CollectionA CK One ad promotes the unisex Calvin Klein fragrance that launched in 1994. Photo: Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagesBut now, amid growing consumer skepticism that the differences are actually significant, gender segregation is under scrutiny. “Today when brands launch a gendered product, there’s a potential downside of not seeming inclusive,” says Care/of Chief Executive Craig Elbert. “It feels like there is a conscious choice that brands now need to make.”This week, Care/of plans to launch a line of unisex ingestible beauty supplements that aim to improve skin and hair, goals that both male and female customers say they have, says Mr. Elbert. The top two skin concerns among men and women are the same: dry skin and breakouts, he says. “We see there are certain products that can serve either gender and so we don’t see a need to gender those products,” Mr. Elbert says.