Brandon Nicholson, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, tries hard to keep his dark secret from his girlfriend.
"It's getting to be a problem, and I'm afraid she is catching on," he says. "Every time I take a shower, I have to use her body wash that smells like chocolate. It's like I'm addicted or something."
A 6-foot-9-inch, bald-headed wall of muscle isn't the first person you would picture lathering up with a soap that smells like hot cocoa, or hiding the fact that he enjoys it from his girlfriend, who happens to work at Bath and Body Works. But Nicholson isn't alone. Seven out of 10 men use some product meant for the opposite sex as part of their grooming ritual, according to men's Web site groominglounge.com.