With the end of the pandemic insight, dating should return to some form of normalcy in 2021. The last year of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many Americans to embrace online dating as their primary way to meet new singles with in-person dating being several limited.
Kingsmen Beard Club recently released a new study just in time for Valentine’s Day to highlight some of the biggest dating app trends in 2021. In the study, they analyzed more than 3,500 Tinder profiles of men living in 31 of the biggest American cities to learn more about single men in America and what the typical dating profile looks like.
They focused their attention on the main profile picture compiling insights into more than a dozen characteristics, including smiles, facial hair, attire, selfies, kids, and cars.
Highlights include:
- 71% of men wear casual attire in their main profile picture. 20% dress like a slob and only 9% wear formal attire.
- 61% of men’s profiles have some sort of facial hair, while 39% are clean-shaven.
- Surprisingly, 53% of men hide their bodies in their main picture.
- Smiles go a long way to making a first impression, however, only 51% of men smile in their main picture.
- Top cities for single men: 1. Denver 2. Washington D.C. 3. New York 4. Indianapolis 5. Nashville.
Let us further explore what they found in their analysis.
The Fundamentals
Naturally, they looked at facial hair first. Sixty-one percent of men who were analyzed have some sort of facial hair, while 39 percent are clean-shaven. They seemed to take a very liberal view of what exactly constitutes facial hair. They included everything from a couple of days of chin stubble to a full on mustache. Since they included many types of facial hair, they categorized facial hair in two categories “heavy facial hair” and “light facial hair”. In order for facial hair to be classified as “heavy facial hair”, it had to be full coverage and something so thick that you could run your fingers through.
The next part of the analysis looked at smiling. A smile can go a long way for both men and women. Many women like a guy who smiles as it can make them seem approachable and trustworthy. In the analysis, Kingsmen Beard Club found a mixed bag between men who smile and those who do not in their main dating profile picture. They found that 51% of men smile in their main profile picture, where 49% do not smile.
Anyone using a dating app in 2021 is probably going to make a snap judgment on swiping left or right based on what they see in the main profile picture. Because of this it makes sense for many people, both men and women to try and show off to make a lasting first impression. When it comes to men, more men choose to hide their body in their main profile picture than not. The analysis found that over 53% of men do not clearly show their body off in their main profile picture.
The next part of the analysis looked at how men dress in their dating profiles. Kingsmen Beard Club found that a majority of men dress very casually in their main profile picture. This may be as a direct result of the pandemic, but the numbers were surprising. 71% of men had a casual look in their profile picture, where 20% were dressed like a slob and only 9% had formal wear in their main picture.
The last consideration among the fundamental part of the analysis looked at men taking selfies. Selfies are convenient and during the pandemic, they are more prevalent than ever. They found that 47% of men used selfies as their main profile picture, where 53% did not.
Other notable trends
It additional to the fundamentals listed above, they noticed some other notable trends in men’s dating profile pictures.
- 9% of men use a selfie taken in their car.
- 9% use a selfie taken in the mirror.
- 5% of men go shirtless in their main profile picture (we thought it would have been higher!)
- Only 4% pose with a dog.
- 3% pose with a group of friends.
- 2% pose with their can or a motorcycle.
- Only 1% post with their children.
- Men posing with cats, guns, and fish show up in less than 1% of all dating profiles.
The top cities for single men\
Kingsmen Beard Club ranked the top cities for single men based on the highest number of men’s profiles that they deemed as the “Total Package”.
They defined the “Total Package” as smiling in their main profile picture, showing their body, not a slob, not using a selfie picture, not shirtless, not posing with a group, not at the gym, not in a car, not posing with a car and not using a mirror selfie. Overall, they found that only 17% of men in the U.S. met the standard of being a “Total Package”.
Listed below are the top cities with the % of men defined as the “Total Package”:
- Denver (26%)
- Washington D.C. (26%)
- New York (25%)
- Indianapolis (23%)
- Nashville (23%)
- Austin (21%)
- Philadelphia (21%)
- Columbus (20%)
- Minneapolis (20%)
- Atlanta (19%)
- Phoenix (19%)
- San Francisco (19%)
- Seattle (19%)
- Boston (18%)
- Detroit (18%)
- Baltimore (16%)
- Chicago (16%)
- Cleveland (15%)
- Memphis (15%)
- Portland (15%)
- San Diego (15%)
- San Jose (15%)
- Dallas (14%)
- San Antonio (14%)
- Charlotte (13%)
- Cincinnati (13%)
- Los Angeles (13%)
- Jacksonville (12%)
- Las Vegas (12%)
- Miami (11%)
- Houston (10%)
Methodology
Between December 18-31, 2020 Kingsmen Beard Club analyzed the first profile pictures of 3,100 heterosexual or bisexual men between the ages of 24-35, living in one of 31 American cities. For each city, a sample size of at least 100 men was used.
The analysis was completed used a premium Tinder account with no history and a verified profile. In order to not bias or our analysis towards certain characteristics, we exclusively swiped left on all 3,100 profiles.
**** This study was provided by https://kingsmenbeardclub.com/
