CHARLES HUTCHINSON puts the man into manicure and enjoys an afternoon of pampering.

DO you know your aftershave from your eau de toilette, and where each should be applied? The answer is the face and body respectively, and yet a quick survey of the men in the office produced shrugged shoulders and blank expressions.

However, such attitudes to the finer points of skincare and grooming are changing. In the past five years in Britain, the sales of men's toiletries and fragrance products have risen by more than 40 per cent.

Tips and features are now commonplace in men's lifestyle magazines; Carlton Books has published Grooming Essentials For Men, "every modern man's definitive guide to image, wellbeing and health", and next month, the lads' mag Loaded launches the Loaded Grooming System range at Boots.

There was a time when Old Spice ruled the waves; a man could travel with nothing more than a comb, a toothbrush and a throwaway razor, and washing, waxing and polishing involved only a car on a Sunday morning. Yet why shouldn't a man be pampered or look after himself in these stressful times, or at least be volunteered as the office guinea pig?

Seeking groom for improvement, on the cusp of 40, I was sent to Fenwick, in Coppergate, York, for an afternoon make-over, involving hands, face and hair.

Putting the 'man' into manicure, it was fingernails first in the Clarins Beauty Studio. Being invited to lie down by a woman in crisp white is usually associated with a visit to a hospital or the dentist or a teenage dream perhaps, but here there was light, airy, instrumental music, cuticles, lotions, hand massages and buffed-up nails. Maybe such attention to fingers and hands would be useful for pianists, but my head kept filling with mother's advice of a good scrubbing brush and sharp scissors.

More mellow music accompanied the welcome by Clinique grooming expert Lesley Murray to the facial session. Clinique has a computerised system that calculates the facial treatments suitable to your skin type. Once the skin was assessed - 'oily face and slightly pink on the forehead from sunburn' were the not-so-flattering ingredients fed in - kaolin for the brow and cucumber for the cheeks and nose were duly applied. How soothing, how cleansing, how 21st century man.

Lesley took time, too, to outline Clinique's three-step programme to facial skincare: "Use a facial soap without a detergent; then apply a scruffing lotion to exfoliate the dead skin and unblock pores, to prepare the skin for shaving. Then apply a moisturiser after shaving." Now, chaps, is that too much to ask each morning?!

Not surprisingly, Lesley recommended the Clinique Skin Supplies for Men: Facial Soap, £11 for 150g, Scruffing Lotion, £10.50 for 150ml, and M Lotion moisturiser, £14 for 50ml or £19.50 for 100ml.

Clinique, by the way, will be holding facial sessions from October 10 to 14, and while there has not been a stampede of men in the past, Lesley would be more than happy to see more.

Next, it was the haircut and head massage in the futuristic Regis salon, where all the girls were blonde and wore black. "We're not clones," they said, not all at once, mind you. "Coffee?" No, thank you. Hair was washed, then a conditioning treatment that looked like a yoghurt dip was applied to counteract summer dryness. The scalp was massaged - very nice, more please - and heaters were switched on. "Coffee?" No thank you. Four minutes, lightly cooked. "Coffee?" No, thank you. Hair was then trimmed with a flourish and teased with sculpting wax.

For a man thinning on top and more used to a £4.50 short back and sides, and shortly back outside, this was new, indulgent territory but at £24 for the gents' haircut and £5.50 for the treatment, all that extra attention seemed thoroughly warranted.

Then again, maybe that is just the self-conscious, no-nonsense, inner older man talking. According to fine fragrance department manager Carol Lumley-Holmes, men in the 18 to 40 age bracket are increasingly comfortable with splashing out more on skincare and grooming, not least on designer labels such as Paul Smith, Ted Baker and Jean-Paul Gaultier. The over-40s, by contrast, are yet to be so responsive.

However, don't be dazzled by the array of lotions and moisturisers at Fenwick. Stride boldly to the men's fragrance section where Joyce Gamble will dispense advice. New Man grooming won't hurt you...except in the wallet, maybe. But try it, because you're worth it.

PICTURE: Charles steps out as a new man after a day of pampering at Fenwick in York which included a Clinique facial