February 8, 2012 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS
“Grooming”
02/06/12
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Current Affairs

Does Mitt Romney Use Hair Product? A Critical Investigation

We’ve never been afraid to ask the tough questions.

It started when the personal stylist of one Willard Mitt Romney swore the candidate has never touched hair product. But Mr. Romney’s impeccable coif suggested otherwise, and from the campaign, there was only an eerie silence… as if there were something they didn’t want us to know.

So on the heels of Romney’s Nevada victory, we conducted a thorough investigation into the apparent styling habits of the Republican front-runner. The results may shock you.

We’re calling it pomade-gate. This one could go all the way to the top.

The shocking, secret truth about Mitt Romney’s hair»
 

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02/03/12
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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…»
 

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02/01/12
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High and Tight

A Gentleman’s Guide to Smelling Like a Barbershop

You know the scent: that first whiff of razor dust and talc that hits you on your way through the barbershop door, along with a certain lemony tonic smell. It’s the same in nearly every shop, and every time it puts us in the same nostalgic mood.

The good news is, they bottle it.

It’s called Pinaud Clubman and it’s been occupying an unassuming corner of your local drugstore for two centuries now. And while we’re usually interested in the more modern end of the fragrance world, it’s hands-down one of the most classic scents in the world of man, combining a strong hit of alcohol with lemon, jasmine and all manner of unobtrusive odors.

In short, it smells like a freshly shaved man (200 years of incidental aromatherapy tends to leave an impression). And since it’s about as expensive as shaving cream, it’s also good news for anyone stretching his grooming budget.

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01/31/12
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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…»
 

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01/26/12
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High and Tight

Buzzing the Tower: Top Gun Grooming

Maverick, Iceman, Goose, Viper, Slider: egos writing checks that bodies couldn’t cash. If they screwed up just this much, they’d be flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong. The Navy called it Fighter Weapons School. The fliers called it Top Gun.

And we call it the apex of High & Tight grooming…»
 

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01/25/12
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High and Tight

The Hairstyles of Newt Gingrich

We’ve been thinking a lot about Newt Gingrich’s hair.

Possibly too much.

It’s easily the best hair of the 2012 candidates—even though Romney gets all the press—and like Newt himself, the coif has shown remarkable evolution over the years. From its origins in ’60s flair, Newt’s hair has shown the influence of some of the most controversial grooming trends of our time, always evolving but retaining its essential Newtness.

So in the interest of helping Florida voters with their upcoming decision, we’d like to take a look at Speaker Gingrich’s hair through the years, beginning with a young man who bears a striking resemblance to Jermaine from Flight of the Conchords…

The hairstyles of Newton Leroy Gingrich, in five easy pieces»
 

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01/23/12
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High and Tight

The Return of the Mop

The haircuts of Paris Fashion Week are always a bit outlandish, but we noticed a heartening trend this time around: the return of the mop-top.

Granted, it never really went away, but this year saw a proliferation of mops unlike anything in recent memory. Scanning models, we spotted the McCartney cut on gentlemen at Lanvin, Paul Smith and every last model at Kenzo. (Balmain is close, but that’s really more of a Bieber.)

The lesson? The era of the awkwardly named Hitler Youth cut is coming to a close—and the mods are filling the void. We couldn’t be happier.

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01/20/12
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High and Tight

Avoiding Hat Hair

The groundhog is still fast asleep, and it’s only getting colder out there. As the winter gears up, you may notice more and more disarray in your usually well-ordered coiffure. It’s the affliction known as hat hair, currently ravaging scalps across this great land of ours.

We couldn’t just sit back and let the widespread mussing go unchallenged, so we’ve consulted the experts and developed five steps to keep your ’do intact under even the most stifling of hats. Ladies and gentlemen, your guide to defending against hat hair…

Our five tips for beating hat hair»
 

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01/12/12
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High and Tight

“Pencil Thin Mustache”: A Glossary of Terms

We hesitate to spend too much time parroting in and around Margaritaville these days, but we’ll say this for Jimmy Buffett: he knew his mustaches.

We’re thinking of Mr. Buffett’s 1974 “Pencil Thin Mustache,” in which the narrator looks back nostalgically on the suave, caddish heroes he aspired to be as a child. We’ve been fans of the tune for a long time, and yet have always seemed to struggle, like Passat drivers do with “Rocket Man,” to understand some of the references. Buffett assures us this is typical of our generation. “The thing about writing a song like this is that the older you get, the more people there are who need an explanation of the characters in the song.”

So we thought we’d provide just that…

Today we present “Pencil Thin Mustache”: A Glossary of Terms»
 

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01/09/12
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High and Tight

The Kempt Guide to Winter Skin Care

Winter’s a tough season for your skin.

You may have already noticed a little wintry dryness creeping up, now that you’re splitting your time between frozen streets and furnace-heated offices. Stick with your regular routine and you’ll be in sorry shape by the time February rolls around—so we’ve put together a quick playbook to protect your skin against the dry chill of winter.

Gentlemen, your guide to winter skin care…»

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12/01/11
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High and Tight

Coming to America: A Grooming Montage

Alert the rose-bearers and shake up your Soul Glo: today we celebrate one of the most iconic men’s grooming movies of all time: Coming to America.

The year was 1988 and, similar to The Cosby Show on TV, for the first time a predominantly African-American film was accessible to—and beloved by—young white adolescents.

Grooming had a lot to do with that: black people’s hair was different than white people’s hair, and it was okay to laugh at that. Black barbers were imposing forces who didn’t actually cut people’s hair, and it was okay to laugh at that. Topless women manually cleaned the genitals of African princes, and… well, every kid in America wished he had a royal penis.

Watch every crucial grooming moment in Coming to America»
 

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10/31/11
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High and Tight

Out With The Pink, In With The ‘Mo’

Maybe it’s because there were five Sundays in October (NFL’s breast cancer awareness month), but it’s hard to remember a time when professional football players weren’t wearing pink.

It’s an important cause. Women should get yearly mammograms. Men should help them do so. We’re totally on board.

It’s just… well, after five weeks of our supposedly fearsome football stars looking (and in some cases playing) like Barbie dolls, we’re thrilled that Movemeber – a month in which mustaches are grown to raise awareness for men’s health issues – is upon us.

That said, our first nominee for Movember Athlete of the Month is not in the NFL…»
 

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10/27/11
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High and Tight

Be All That You Can Be (But Get a Haircut)

On the heels of last week’s (relatively) successful resolution in Libya, President Obama’s announcement on Sunday that all troops will be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of the year signifies the beginning of what is likely to be the steepest drop in active service men and women in recent US history.

And the perfect time, according to Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond Chandler, to tighten up grooming standards.

“I believe that we can better visualize to the American people and the Army what it means to be an American soldier than we’re doing now,” Chandler told Army Times. “Those can be done through personal grooming standards and standards of appearance and the uniforms we wear and how we choose to wear them. I think we can do better. Now’s the time to take a look at it.”

How high and tight is the Sergeant Major looking to go?»
 

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10/20/11
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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»
 

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10/18/11
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High and Tight

Granddaddies of Grooming: The Mohawk Indian Tribe

It seems Mr. T, Travis Barker and a whole bunch of 1980s antiestablishment teens have the indigenous people of the Iroquois Confederation to thank for inventing the Mohawk.

As the story goes, in preparation for war, the Mohowaùucks of upstate New York (translation: “Man Eaters”) would shave the sides of their heads, don war paint and create an overall terrifying appearance.

There was indeed reason for terror, according to The Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Volume 1, which states that the Mohawks were known to “roast their prisoners dead before a slow fire for some days and then eat them up. The common people ate the arms, buttocks and trunk, but the chiefs ate the head and the heart.”

Here’s a little more to chew on…»
 

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10/13/11
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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…»
 

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10/10/11
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High and Tight

Name That Eyebrow

The eyebrow. A curious body part.

Its primary evolutionary purpose is threefold: 1) To prevent moisture from entering the eye. 2) To strengthen expressions of emotion, particularly with regard to confusion and disdain. 3) To assist in the process of facial recognition.

Expounding on #3, a recent MIT study revealed that 50% of participants were unable to identify celebrities whose eyebrows had been digitally removed. As we’re prone to do here at Kempt, we’ve turned MIT’s study on its ass and, below, have provided you with only celebrities’ eyebrows.

While we’re offering neither a prize nor penalty nor compelling reason to participate in our study, we hope you will…»
 

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10/07/11
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High and Tight

What’s in a Musk?

The word “musk” gets thrown around a lot when people talk cologne—kind of like “oaky” with wine—but surprisingly few people know where the fragrance actually comes from.

Hint: it concerns the sexual glands of Asian deer…»
 

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10/06/11
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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…»

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10/06/11
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High and Tight

Grooming on Film: Rounders

A great shave can work wonders.

And if you’re in the middle of a five-day poker binge—with no time for sleep—it might be the best thing to keep you on your feet.

That’s the premise behind one of the more charming moments in Rounders, when Matt Damon and Edward Norton pause in their relentless pursuit of a $15,000 bankroll, and stop by a barbershop for an old-school shave.

Let’s just take a moment to savor it…»
 

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10/06/11
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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…»
 

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10/06/11
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High and Tight

Great Moments in Grooming: Salvador Dalí

A man with courage and strong follicles can accomplish just about anything. So we’d like to take a moment to honor some of the greatest moments in grooming history. This time, the gentleman in question is Salvador Dalí.

Everyone knows the crazy mustaches of Dalí’s late period, but he was pretty sharp in his younger years, too—as anyone who’s seen Midnight in Paris can attest. This snap finds a young Salvador with two impeccably sculpted mustache-clefs on his upper lip.

It’s still surreal—but in a suave-surreal way instead of a bizarre-surreal way. The stache is all the more impressive since he must have managed the whole thing with a straight razor. He was a painter, after all.

We’ll assume the bedroom eyes were intended for the photographer.

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10/06/11
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High and Tight

Introducing High & Tight

High & Tight

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s finally here.

No, not the iPhone 5. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be seeing something new on Kempt. It’s called High & Tight, and it’s Kempt’s grooming-minded little brother, covering the vital stubble-related topics shaping our world today—with a little help from our friends at Braun.

High & Tight will be taking over the site all day tomorrow—tackling Al Gore’s failure beard and the finest mustaches in baseball, among other things—and you’ll see High & Tight posts popping up three times a week after that. You can find them on the High & Tight homepage, but also on the main page of Kempt. So keep an eye out… and as always, stay sharp.

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08/24/11
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LinkOut

Joi Lansing Cannot Be Contained

Joi Lansingvia WBE

The Go Bag: Valet concocts the perfect grooming first aid kit, in case you don’t have time to stop at home before your after-work date. [Valet]

The Talented Mr. Greenleaf: The Eye dissects the style of Jude Law from The Talented Mr. Ripley. Just watch out for emotionally charged boat rides. [GQ]

The Bass and the Movement: Jeremy Kirkland breaks down the difference between quartz and mechanical movements. In general, you want the latter. [Esquire]

The Big Time: The jackpot for a movie-optioned magazine piece might not be quite as lavish as you thought. [WWD]

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08/03/11
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Dept. of Corrections

In Defense of Eye Cream

Men’s grooming

Men’s grooming guides follow a simple playbook. You stake out the basics (the barber, the nail clipper), the adventurous flourish (beard oil, anyone?) and the forbidden zone where any self-respected heterosexual man dare not venture.

We’re not complaining—or lining up for pedicures, now that you mention it—but we’d like to make the case for a certain oft-maligned product that usually gets short shrift, most notably in Esquire’s latest ode to grooming.

Gentlemen, it’s time to reconsider eye cream.

Wait, wait, just let us explain…»

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