Gillette Mobile App Helps Answer Timeless Question: 'Should I Grow a Beard?'

What fellow, too fearful to try, hasn’t pondered how hot he would look with a handlebar moustache or, perhaps, a purple goatee?

Gillette, a company that makes possible those styles — and just about any other form of facial hair experimentation — is sponsoring a new application for iPhone and iPod Touch that lets the curious see how they look with different facial hair.

The app, developed for Gillette by BBDO and Proximity, BBDO’s interactive marketing and CRM network, is called “uArt.” Downloadable from iTunes to an iPhone or iPod Touch, uArt allows users to begin with a photo and add or erase hair of various shapes and colors.

The app promotes the Gillette Fusion razor. Users add hair, selecting from a number of different colors and styles. Then, using their fingers to guide the virtual (and vibrating) Fusion, they can remove the follicles in any way their heart and ego desires.

“Create a chinstrap, handlebar moustache, lambchops or design a totally brand new facial hairstyle all without having to take the time to first grow it,” says the iTunes page where uArt is found. Double-tapping lets users zoom in for close detail work.

The finished creation can be given a name, saved to the user’s library and e-mailed. Jack Neary, worldwide creative director at BBDO for Proctor & Gamble, said future updates will allow similar creativity with head hair and there are plans to have an app that allows people to display their faces on a computer screen and virtually shave using an iPhone or iPod Touch.

“We’ve been having this ongoing conversation with young guys in their late teens and early 20s around the idea of self-expression,” Neary said. “We wanted to create a fun way to pass time and invite them into the brand in an involving and entertaining way.” He noted there is a similar grooming experimentation application on Gillette’s main Web site called “Facial Styler.”

Neary said there are no plans to offer uArt for other mobile devices. “We know that this particular target generally is an iPhone friendly group,” he said.