ROOM TO GROOM
I caught up with a girlfriend recently. Because we are both quite time poor, we tend to coincide our meetings with a maintenance activity.
The maintenance activity in question was a pedicure. After the manicurist downgraded my feet by a full size (it had been a while between snips), we perched ourselves up at the drying bar. Gazing out the window, we were talking over the top of each other when we saw something that stopped us both mid-sentence.
A man walked past wearing the most unusual toupee I had ever seen.
It was like a perfect, long haired circle of fur had been glued to his head. The size of a dinner plate, it was perched proudly on his noggin.
Toupees, which I understand is French for “top” but I suspect is really French for “nasty”, were once worn by Julius Caesar who battled male pattern baldness prematurely. He eventually gave up and shaved his head, coining what I believe to be the first reference of the Give Up Haircut for men. That being totally follicle free!
The witnessing of the ridiculous toupee prompted a discussion between my friend, regarding personal grooming in males.
The thing is, as women, we have a myriad of tools at our disposal to help us with our aesthetic flaws. Got uneven skin tone? There are dozens of options to assist you. Hair where it should not be?
You can shave, wax, bleach, use electrolysis, depilate, thread or pluck without anyone raising what is left of their eyebrows.
But men, as a general rule, are expected to suck it up and get on with it, growing hair everywhere and getting about with dry skin.
Or do they?
Manscaping. Mrs Woog was delighted when Mr Woog took up moisturising.
Beauty salons for men are popping up all over the place, with a menu of specialty treatments designed to buff, wax, scrub and pamper your cares and epidermis away.
Men are now expected to take a little more care in their personal grooming beyond a squirt of deodorant and a clean pair of undies every day.
I fully embrace and encourage such activities and was delighted and surprised do discover that my own Mr Woog had taken to using moisturizer daily.
His product of choice? Clinique’s Moisture Surge, which is actually for ladies, but I dare not point this out to him. I don’t want to frighten him.
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10 Responses to this article
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SawHole September 26, 2012
I remember I took my ex to a day spa and he said: “Good on you, you have stripped every inch of masculinity away fro me.” score!
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Alex September 26, 2012
I agree Mrs Woog and if I remember correctly, so does Elaine Benes. Now you two can agree on something!
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Kyra September 26, 2012
Trimming toe nails and nose hair is about as far as it goes in this household! Or the occassional dig in his ear with a foreign object :-/
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Colin September 26, 2012
I believe men (straight and gay) are subject to issues of body image, just like women are. Adhering to trends and a certain sense of peer pressure can be the same for both genders. I hope though, that in most cases, things like bush trimming and general ‘beauty’ maintenance are done out of personal choice for self-satisfaction, rather than the appeasement of others.
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Harriet September 26, 2012
The Bloke has a grubby job, and used to have the associated grubby job issues of nasty zits. He was muttering and grumbling about it one day, so I shoved a bottle of something I wasn’t using into his hand and said “try that”. Fast forward a few weeks… and he returns the bottle to me and said “can you get me some more of that sort of stuff except maybe a bit less girly”. Side-win of this is that now the almost ten year old is having the odd zit himself, he’s perfectly comfortable and keen on the idea of face wash. Start ‘em young, hey!
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Aeron Winters September 26, 2012
My partner has been manscaping for years…not the waxing away all the body hair type (because I love the soft teddy bear thing he has going on)…but the ear, nose and brow trimming type. He hates the awful hair that started sprouting everywhere it wasn’t supposed to so I got him a trimmer and away he went, happy as a clam. He also moisturises and in fact the other day he said he wants something a little stronger because as he gets older it doesn’t quite work like it used to. He also loves the fact that many of those he works with can’t believe his real age because all the grooming and moisturising has kept him looking younger than his years.
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Nikki @ Styling You September 26, 2012
Mr SY is a man product whore. Quite frankly it distresses me because he takes up too much bathroom real estate.
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Lisa September 26, 2012
I wish my husband did more than put on deoderant and have a shower and clip his mo and his nails once in a while,he is so hairy and I have commented but to no avail,I only said to him yesterday ,you better trim your fur and got that”if looks could kill ” look ,from him,at least my son does grooming ,he has to share a bathroom with his sister and there is heaps of his products in there.
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The Huntress September 26, 2012
Hee hee, it was only the other day that I asked Mr. Huntress what it was like to be furry. Just because I was curious. But lucky for Mr. Huntress he seems to grow hair in a socially acceptable kind of way.
But as for products, Mr. Huntress has problems with the skin on his back, which have lately been aggravated by the fact his shoulders and biceps are now so muscular he can’t reach his back to wash it properly. I told him I could fix it and have started a sugar scrub/moisturising routine for him that he enjoys for both the attention and better skin. And the products are completely girly, but they work really well
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Rachel September 27, 2012
You go Mr Woog.
