Grooming and Status Consumption: How the Groomed Body Acts as a Project Status ObjectIntroductionThe grooming and personal care industry has become an industry promising in global trade as it is the most responsive industry for dynamic lifestyles and fashion for men and women (Euromonitor International, 2012). Over the last two decades, the global beauty market, which includes cosmetics and personal care products, has grown by 4.5% and the same phenomenon has been visible in the local context by recording growth in sales by 4.8% (Nielsen Sri Lanka – Retail Audit, 2012/2013). ). This interesting observation made in the beauty market was confirmed by the authors through a pilot study conducted with nine respondents in Colombo from different socio-economic classifications (SEC); A, B and C. The results of the pilot study also highlighted that people are focusing more on grooming than before and this is very visible among the youth segment. Furthermore, it has been found that young people engage in grooming mainly to get noticed among their peers, to be accepted in the social groups in which they live, to imitate the lifestyle of the upper classes and finally to project their identity in society in order to obtain social status. status in relation to others. According to these findings, “status consumption” was highlighted as a suitable platform to study the growing grooming behavior of young people in Sri Lanka. Social differentiation and status have been linked to different facets of literature and fashion was one of the most important. areas discussed (Scheetz, 2004). Fashion is directly related to personal hygiene, as fashion achieved by using personal care products and cosmetics to enhance personal appearance is considered the process of...... middle of paper ... ... site. Retrieved from http://www.case.edu/artsci/dean/elf/documents/scheetzreport.pdf.Shilling, C. (2012). The body and social theory. Sage. Shukla, P. (2010). Status consumption in a transnational context: socio-psychological, brand and situational antecedents. International Marketing Review, 27(1), 108-129. Simmel, G. 1997 [1905]. The philosophy of fashion. In D. Frisby and M. Featherstone (Eds.), Simmel on culture: 187-206. London: Sage. Thompson, C.J. and Hirschman, E.C. (1995). Understanding the socialized body: A poststructuralist analysis of consumers' self-conceptions, body images, and self-care practices. Journal of Consumer Research, 139-153. Wattanasuwan, K. (2005). Self-consumption and symbolic consumption, Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Wax, M. (1957). Themes in cosmetics and health care. American Journal of Sociology, 588-593.