February 7, 2012 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS
“Beards”
02/03/12
·
High and Tight

“Brother, Can You Spare a Razor”

ROW ONE: Caleb Followill, Kings of Leon; Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes; Jim James, My Morning Jacket; Justin Vernon, Bon Iver
ROW TWO: Ray LaMontagne; Kyp Malone, TV on the Radio; Tyler Ramsey & Ben Bridwell, Band of Horses
ROW THREE: Samuel Beam, Iron and Wine; Dan Auerbach, The Black Keys; Devendra Banhart; Alex Ebert, Ima Robot

The bearded indie rock frontman is hardly a new phenomenon. Guys like Will Oldham, Chris Robinson and Jerry Garcia blazed that trail long ago (literally). Given the above collage, though, it appears the trail has been transformed into a well-paved thoroughfare connecting Coachella, Bonnaroo, SXSW, Glastonbury and wherever else present-day introspective rockers gather to perform before thousands of similarly bearded hipsters.

What’s behind the scruff…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
01/31/12
·
Bad Idea/Good Idea

Facial Hair Is Not a Treadmill

A reminder: it’s best to think of facial hair as an accessory. Ask too much of it and, like a loud pair of shades or an overused pocket square, it will eventually let you down. To that end, we respectfully offer:

Four things facial hair can’t do…»
 

ALL Bad Idea/Good Idea
TAGSTags
ADVERTISEMENT
01/24/12
·
High and Tight

Beard Freedom in Disneyland

We’ve always believed that every American has the right to let their facial hair flourish. But despite our follicular freedoms as Americans, Disney has used its muscle as an employer to keep the Magic Kingdom an entirely beard-free zone… at least, until now.

As of February 3, Disney employees will be allowed to cultivate a beard, mustache or goatee—provided they keep it well-groomed and under an inch in length.

It sounds like good news, but we don’t quite see it that way. Sure, it’ll be great to see a few ’staches wandering the grounds of Epcot, and it definitely counts as a win for beard respectability worldwide—but as long as the Disney brass continues to play Steinbrenner, we’re going to have a problem with it. There’s nothing sadder than being a man forced to shave his sideburns by a shift supervisor—especially if the supervisor in question is dressed as Mickey.

And if it’s good enough for Merlin…

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
01/05/12
·
High and Tight

Robert Pattinson’s Holiday Beard

Anytime you’re away from the office for a week or so, there’s a tendency to let your off-duty stubble grow into a full-scale beard—and judging by this recent snap, that’s just what Robert Pattinson did.

The result is worth a look, if only because it does most everything we want a beard to do. He looks older, has a bit more Victorian dignity (at least above the neck) and enjoyed an extra layer of protection against the English winter.

Our only complaint is that it’s a bit on the Galifianakis side, but that’s nothing a trimmer can’t fix.

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
01/04/12
·
High and Tight

The Bearded, 241-pound, Game-Winning Placekicker

With the game tied at 20 in overtime of last night’s Sugar Bowl, Michigan’s 241-pound placekicker lumbered onto the field with the swagger of Denis Lemieux and the biker ’stache of Goose Gossage: decidedly un-kicker-like.

That is, until he drilled a 37-yard field goal dead center through the uprights to win the game.

This was likely Brendan Gibbons’s second greatest moment on the football field. The first came back in high school, when he kicked an 80-yard punt before saving a touchdown by nearly decapitating the returner.

Have a look…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
ADVERTISEMENT
01/03/12
·
High and Tight

Granddaddies of Grooming: ZZ Top

ZZ Top

It’s not easy to get a beard named after your blues rock band.

First of all, you’re going to need a beard so outlandish that no similarly bearded person has ever become famous—except for a few Talmudic scholars. Then you’re going to need a hit album, a memorable car and, if possible, some kind of distinctive hand gesture.

All of which is how Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill got the straight-cut, floor-sweeping chin curtain canonized forever as “The ZZ Top Beard,” to the point that it’s now being used to identify bank robbers.

For grooming your own ZZ, Gibbons offers only this advice: “A good conditioner is advisable. Treat it with respect and it will do the same for you.”

Truer words were never spoken.

A closer look at the best beards in rock and roll»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
12/26/11
·
About

The 2011 Kempt Awards – Part Two: Moments

Sleep No More

Click Here for Part One: The Gentlemen of 2011

Part Two: The Moments of 2011
What’s in a 2011 moment? Certainly a few things we never thought we’d see: Charlie Sheen’s crack-induced webcam vlog, a Facebook-inspired revolution in Egypt, a Seal Team Six smackdown on Osama Bin Laden, the discovery of another earthly planet…

And just like that, the moments passed»
 

ALL About
TAGSTags
12/08/11
·
High and Tight

Granddaddies of Grooming: Frank Zappa

Ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes on the “Zappa.”

What we have here are two distinct types of facial hair—a slightly longer “imperial” up top and a slightly wider “soul patch” down below. Put them together and you’ve got one of the most memorable mustaches in rock history.

As you might expect, there’s a rebellious origin story. “I had a mustache when I was 11,” Zappa told Simpsons creator Matt Groening in a 1992 interview. “Then in high school I added a ‘Genghis’ [below his bottom lip].”

Displeased by Zappa’s appearance, the principal offered him two options: write a 2,000-word essay about proper grooming or be suspended for two weeks. “So I took a two-week vacation. I showed up back in school with a list of all my R&B records by artist and label, and a list of all the ones that I thought I was going to buy for the next three or four months, and that was my 2,000-word essay. I laughed at them.”

See the Zappa over the years…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
12/06/11
·
High and Tight

Santa Gone Bad

You’ve been tapped to play Santa Claus this year, the most beloved bearded man on the planet.

This is not a responsibility to be taken lightly. Properly projecting the triplet of “Ho’s” will require core strength. Properly responding to a kid who’s just asked you to save his house from foreclosure requires a good excuse to take a five-minute break. Parents and children alike are depending on you. (As are the 12 “little people” you hired as elves.)

To help with your preparation, we’ve drawn up a few rules and provided real-life cautionary tales of what happens when those rules aren’t followed.

Let’s begin with a mall Santa in Florida whose beard got tangled as he repelled down five flights to a horrified crowd of pint-sized onlookers.»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
11/15/11
·
High and Tight

3 Grooming Products We Can Do Without

We’re all for ingenuity when it comes to grooming.

Anything having to do with minimizing back hair, for example, is good by us.

But there are three products currently on the market that we’d just assume go away (along with the men using these products.)

Let’s begin with The Goatee Saver, pictured above…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
11/14/11
·
High and Tight

The Longest (and Creepiest) Beard Ever

Longest Beard

To all you Movember men: You’re supporting a great cause, but don’t get all cocky about the length of your ’stache after two weeks.

Not without first meeting Hans Langseth, aka “King Whiskers,” whose 17-and-a-half-foot beard remains the longest facial hair ever grown by a man. (Vivian Wheeler of Wood River, Illinois, grew hers to 11 inches, God bless her soul.)

See the beard in all its glory…»

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
11/08/11
·
Big Picture

On the Waterfront

Here’s another face of well-dressed winter, courtesy of the UK’s Buttery store. Time to grow a beard, buy a nautical sweater and tattoo the word “fashion” on your neck.

ALL Big Picture
TAGSTags
10/20/11
·
High and Tight

How Strong Is Your Beard?

Strong BeardSee it full size.

Your facial hair is a lot of things. Rugged. Warm. Splotchy, yet sexy. But it is nowhere near as strong as Antanas Kontrimas’s beard which, bearing a strong resemblance to 30 packs of steel wool, has lifted ladies, towed Land Rovers and taxied planes.

The Lithuanian has been lengthening and strengthening his facial hair for over 30 years, which explains how it recently lifted a 140-pound female model nearly a foot off the ground for five seconds—a new Guinness World Record for “The Heaviest Weight Lifted by a Beard” (besting his own previous record set in 2007).

We’ve prepared a highlight reel featuring Kontrimas’s beard lifting things on a variety of bizarre, non-English-speaking television programs»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
10/13/11
·
High and Tight

The Second Annual Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships

Things got real hairy at the Second Annual Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships held last Saturday at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. As is the case with most beard and moustache championships, tensions ran high right from the get-go, with many contestants opting out of Friday night’s Meet-the-Amish Dinner and the Whiskerinas Ladies Fake Beard and Moustache Competition.

A total of $5,000 was on the line in Saturday’s main event, comprised of five categories: Moustache, Partial Beard, Full Beard (Groomed), Full Beard (Natural) and the fan-favorite, Freestyle.

We couldn’t be more excited to present you with the champions…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
10/06/11
·
High and Tight

Failed Experiments: Al Gore’s Beard

A beard should be a triumph, a chinward celebration of masculine virility at its finest. But sadly, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Take, for instance, the case of Al Gore circa 2001…

A critical consideration of Al Gore’s beard…»

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
10/06/11
·
High and Tight

The Steinbrenner Look

We’re with George Steinbrenner on this one: baseball players should maintain a conservative, athletic appearance on the field.

Just as a physician might second-guess the notion of spray painting his untamed beard with discarded motor oil, so too should the ambassadors of baseball consider their appearance and alter that appearance when it resembles that of an Exxon Valdez-afflicted pelican.

Steinbrenner’s rule was as follows…»
 

ALL High and Tight
TAGSTags
07/07/11
·
Ad Rock

Sponsored Post: Conair i-Stubble

conair

We’re strong believers in the power of the five o’clock shadow. But if you’re going to do it right, you need a little technical help. That’s why Conair developed the i-Stubble, a hi-tech trimmer designed to keep your bristled chin perfectly groomed. You’ll have 15 precise length settings to choose from—so you’ll be able to calibrate your look to anything from “light shading” to “gentleman lumberjack,” depending on your tastes.

ALL Ad Rock
TAGSTags
04/26/11
·
LinkOut

Lee Cropper is Slipping Into Something Even More Comfortable

Lee Croppervia Fashion Copious

The Standby: It turns out Kent Wang makes a pretty solid polo. [Dreams of Perfection]

The Boys of Summer: The latest from Saturdays, seen in the ideal setting: the beach. [Inventory]

Between the Buttons: A factory tour of an English button maker, and your daily dose of machinery. [S. E. H. Kelly]

Take It On the Chin: A rapper and a roots-rocker rate musicians’ beards by gnarliness. Rick Ross comes out on top, of course. [Vulture]

ALL LinkOut
TAGSTags
04/13/11
·
Icon

The Icon: Kris Kristofferson

kristofferson_crop.jpg

Aging is hard. But like the tax code, it’s something all men eventually have to deal with—some more gracefully than others.

So we thought we’d bring your attention to one of the more graceful examples: Mr. Kris Kristofferson, who’s managed to grow steadily more grizzled over the past few decades without ever looking like anyone other than himself. As for how he pulled it off, we’ve got some ideas…

The secret of the Kristofferson, after the jump»

ALL Icon
TAGSTags
12/03/10
·
Big Picture

Portrait of a Beard

beardportrait_crop.jpg

We’re glad to see this year’s National Geographic photo contest including a promising new genre: beard portraiture. Tragically, the beard in question was destroyed immediately after the photograph was taken.

ALL Big Picture
TAGSTags
07/26/10
·
Scene

Kempt Man of the Hour: Michael Sheen

mothmichaelsheen_crop.jpg

The surprise beard can be a powerful move if properly executed (see Hamm, Jon), but it requires a certain amount of artful dishevelment alongside it—especially if you happen to be at Comic-Con, the national center for dishevelment, artful or no.

This week’s lesson comes from Michael Sheen, caught at the Tron Legacy panel. To be perfectly honest, we didn’t know he had that kind of whisker in him. More importantly, he manages to work it into a desert-island look casual enough not to threaten the Comic-con crowd but gentlemanly enough to impress any style bloggers who might be passing by. That means those peak lapels are small enough that nobody but those who care will notice, to say nothing of the effortless off-white shirt. Well done, Mr. Prime Minister.

ALL Scene
TAGSTags
07/16/10
·
Classic

The Hemingway Beard: A Users Guide

HemingwayBeard_crop.jpg

This is the latest installment in our heroically gruff series on Hemingway Days, examining the charms of spare prose, sport fishing and all things Ernest.

Look at that beard. Just look at it.

It’s quite possibly the gold standard of over-50 facial hair, the envy of salty gentlemen across this great land of ours. To that end, we’ve put together a quick guide on how to cultivate a glorious muzzle of your own. Gentlemen, start your follicles.

Here’s what you do»

ALL Classic
TAGSTags
06/17/10
·
Ad Rock

Overgrowth

elevatorbeard_crop.jpgvia NotCot

Our favorite ad of the day: To promote the Gillette Mach 3, the company covered inside of a Brazilian elevator in beard. Unfortunately for Gillette, this just reminds us how awesome beards are.

ALL Ad Rock
TAGSTags
04/21/10
·
Big Picture

The Beard Index

beardindex_crop.jpgvia NotCot

Now that there’s new info on the trustworthiness of bearded men, some kind soul was good enough to put the findings in infographic form to save us the trouble of reading the damn thing. Check out the full image here, listing 23 facial hair configurations in order of honesty. Afterwards, you should be able to properly assess any philosophers, werewolves or amateur wrestlers you may come across. (We’re guessing you already knew about John Waters.)

ALL Big Picture
TAGSTags
04/15/10
·
LinkOut

Gemma Arterton Wears High Heels to Bed

gemmaarterton_crop.jpg

Merry, Olde: Gemma Arterton is having quite a moment, particularly among the Britons. [GQ UK]

Night at the Museum: One video can now take you through every painting in the Museum of Modern Art in two minutes. And to think I almost walked there. [Josh Spear]

Grow a Beard, Young Man: Facial hair now makes you more trustworthy. Is there anything it can’t do? [GOOD]

A Singular Experience: The robot invasion has begun, through an oversized Mousetrap game. [Bits]

ALL LinkOut
TAGSTags