The Manual’s Grooming Awards Are Open for Submissions

I was a failure … the facial hair equivalent of a 90-pound weakling. It wasn’t so much that I couldn’t grow a beard; it was more that whatever facial hair I did grow felt like a Velcroed-on Brillo pad: super uncomfortable and leaving my skin itchy and broken out. As Movember and No-Shave November came and went, I made two separate attempts at beard growth … each ending with a sprint into the bathroom when I could stand it no more, trimmer in hand, welcoming back the clean-shaven face I know so well. It wasn’t the first time I’d given up on hirsute happiness. 

When December rolled around, I decided to pay attention to an email I’d gotten for something called The Beard Club, a subscription service for beard care products. The Club’s premise was “helping first-timers as well as seasoned hirsute gentleman to up their grooming game.” I couldn’t resist and threw down the gauntlet. Could they help even me? After all, the site’s tag line is “Don’t Grow it Alone.”

The way you smell is the message you send before you even open your mouth or shake a hand. When someone meets you for the first time, your style can give them a great first impression from a distance. But then your cologne will be the storyteller up close. Smelling good is one of the main points of men’s grooming. Soaps, shampoos, lotions, all fragrant and elevating your attractiveness, and ultimately, your memorability.

That is why popular men’s colognes become, well, popular. These are the scents that stand the test of time. The ones that linger on your shirt when you leave, and your girl wears it to bed. The kind that stays around in the office (subtly, not drifting throughout the office because you take a bath in it) after you have gone. And the kind that sparks memories of great dates in the past when she smells it on you before leaving the house. Of course, the best of the best sell like the best of the best. And these are the colognes that sell better than any other year in and year out.

A couple of years ago, I took a flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines to meet with a hair transplant expert. It wasn’t for my scalp; it was for my beard. Stress-induced alopecia had ravaged one side of my face, and I was horribly self-conscious about it. Even images I took for my articles here on The Manual I would limit to the right side of my face. Ultimately, I got the transplant on the left side and went home happy. Now my right side is following suit, and I am considering the same thing again.

But what if I didn’t have to do all of that? What if there was a better way to treat hair loss? The secret is to get out in front of it early. Don’t wait. That doesn’t mean book a ticket on “Turkish Hairlines” and start going under the knife (dramatic, but you get the point). Instead, there is a better way to start early. Red light therapy. But, guys don’t always have the time. So the fix is in GroWell’s red light therapy hat. Who said wearing a hat causes you to go bald? That old wives’ tale is a thing of the past.