IT'S official... guys now spend longer than the girls sprucing up their appearance!

A man can spend up to 75 minutes every day washing, shaving and styling themselves, says a survey by Socked.co.uk This compares with the 70 minutes that women spend on their beauty regime.

"This is superb news for the British gentleman," said Mark Hall, Gentleman Creation Officer at Socked.co.uk, "At last they're paying more attention to their personal image, and mankind will be all the better for it."

"Once men start to take care of themselves, they also start caring for the people and things around them. They turn from mere 'men' into 'gentlemen'."

Further figures obtained by Socked.co.uk show the lengths to which the gentleman will go to maintain his image:

85% of men admitted to spending more than half an hour on hair styling

42% said they owned a hair dryer

36% said they owned hair straighteners

88% said they groomed their private parts once a week

98% said they planned at least two days in advance what they were going to wear

76% said although they had planned, they would try on different looks before settling.

According to the survey, the average man owns four pairs of shoes, five pairs of jeans, 17 shirts, and 11 pairs of socks of varying quality.

"The funny thing is," said Hall, "despite spending longer to get ready, it's still solely the male experience to be ready and waiting at the front door on a night out."