US beard care products market revenue

The American man moisturizes his beard and SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 at nearly the same compounding rate (r = 0.959), a fact that between 2012 and 2022 has resisted every attempt at rationalization. One product is rubbed in by hand; one product shakes the Texas coast. Both are, in their own industries, described as 'growth categories.'

FAA-licensed commercial space launches climbed from 10 in 2012 to over 100 in 2022, almost entirely due to SpaceX's reusability breakthrough and the Starlink deployment campaign; beard care sales climbed from under $100 million to over $300 million in the same window, riding the Movember effect, the Brooklyn aesthetic, and the quiet realization that grooming a beard is less labor than shaving one. Both categories benefited from low-cost iteration: SpaceX's Falcon 9 marginal launch cost fell below $30 million, and a bearded-goods brand can go from Etsy to retail in under two years. Entry became easy; volume followed.

A rocket lifts from Boca Chica. A drop of beard oil warms in a palm. Different payloads, same decade.