An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

In the list of priorities on how to dress well, your shoe laces should be near the bottom. Take care of the style fundamentals first. But once you’ve got those down and would like to add a bit more panache to your outfit, you can start thinking about the smaller details of style, like adding a dimple to your tie, and, as you’ll find illustrated above, lacing your dress shoes in what sartorialists consider the proper fashion.

Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon.

The post Skill of the Week: Properly Lace Your Dress Shoes appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

There’s nothing like the experience of getting your hair cut at a quality barber shop. The smell of talc and hair tonics is evocative. The feeling of a hot towel on your face is relaxing.

Another thing that adds to the pleasant experience of a barbershop is the unwritten code of etiquette that should prevail there. Understanding and following these guidelines can make your visit to the shop more enjoyable and allow you to develop a positive relationship and rapport with your barber that can last for years to come. 

To get the lowdown on barbershop etiquette, I hit up AoM’s resident barber, Thad Forrester, co-owner of Hudson / Hawk Barber & Shop. Thad has been my go-to consultant for content related to hair for years, ever since we made some videos together back in 2016 (check out “Shave and a Haircut,” “How to Get a Side Part Haircut,” and “How to Talk to Your Barber“), and I liked Thad’s haircuts so much that I’d sometimes drive all the way from Tulsa to his Hudson / Hawk location in Springfield, Missouri just to have him cut my hair. This was particularly true after I grew my hair out; cutting my long, thick, poofy hair is tricky, and I couldn’t find anyone locally who did it well. So I’m really excited that Thad has added to the Hudson / Hawk locations in MO and AR by opening a shop here in T-Town. If you live in the Tulsa area, make sure to check it out! You’ll likely bump into me there getting my Sam Elliott hair trimmed. 

Wherever you go to get your hair cut, here are some rules to follow to do so like a gent:

Be punctual. Respect your barber’s time by punctually arriving to your appointment. Most barbers schedule back-to-back appointments. One late client can throw off their entire day.

Cancel well in advance. If you have to cancel an appointment, do so with as much advance notice as possible — a couple of hours beforehand at a minimum — so that the barber can try to fill that spot. 

If you accidentally no-show for your appointment, the generous and gracious thing to do is call your barber and pay for the haircut you didn’t get. This will obviously pain you, but by not showing up, you basically robbed your barber of a paying client who could have filled your spot. So if this is a barber with whom you want to maintain a positive, long-term relationship, pay for the missed haircut.

This is a problem you can avoid by keeping your appointments.

Communicate clearly. Know how to talk to your barber. Clearly communicate the style you want and any specific requests or concerns. If possible, let your barber know the kind of haircut and haircare you want when you make the appointment, so he can allot an appropriate amount of time for completing the service.

Stay still. Keep your head still and follow your barber’s instructions to ensure a clean and precise cut.

Put away your phone. Texting, scrolling Instagram, and talking on the phone won’t allow you to stay still, which makes your barber’s job harder. Also, when you’re on your phone, it prevents you from interacting with your barber: answering questions he might have about your cut and making the kind of friendly chit-chat that builds increasingly comfortable rapport. 

Practice good hygiene. Make sure your hair is clean and freshly washed before your appointment. Barbers don’t appreciate having to work on filthy/sweaty/greasy hair. 

If your barber will be washing your hair at the shop before he cuts it, your hair doesn’t have to be clean-clean, but it shouldn’t be so dirty that your barber will be reluctant to put his hands in it.

Don’t put product in your hair before your cut. When your hair is full of creams and gels, it turns your barber’s job into a sticky mess. 

Respect other clients. Keep your voice down and avoid disruptive behavior and controversial topics to respect the experience of other clients. 

Be politely assertive when you see a problem with your haircut. If you see your barber doing something with your hair that you don’t like, let him know right away so he can course correct. 

If you aren’t satisfied with the finished product, don’t mumble “It looks great” when the barber asks you what you think and then go and leave a negative review online. Try discussing the issue with the barber first. As Thad says, “A good shop and barber will appreciate hearing how they can do better. We all make mistakes. The measure of a good shop is how we address them and try to make them right. Going direct to the business owner or barber shows mutual respect and is more well-received and likely to be considered seriously.”

Tip generously. A good rule of thumb is to tip 20% of the cost of your service. If you appreciate the service and experience, take care of your barber, and he will take care of you!

Show appreciation. Say thank you and show your barber your appreciation for their work. A positive attitude and a smile go a long way in creating an enjoyable barbershop experience. 

The post A Guide to Barbershop Etiquette appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

Synthetic workout shirts were supposed to represent a great leap forward in performance wear.

Unlike cotton shirts, which soak up your sweat and become wet and heavy, synthetic fabrics, typically made of polyester, wick away moisture, keeping you cool and dry.

Unfortunately, this advantage comes with a significant downside: they can smell terrible. Terrible. This isn’t just anecdotal observation: sweaty synthetic shirts have been scientifically proven to smell worse than sweaty cotton ones. 

There’s something special about the way body odor mixes with polyester that makes for a particularly repugnant scent.

While polyester repels water, it attracts bodily oil and the smelliest kind of bacteria. And while this stinky grime doesn’t get pulled into the fibers of synthetic fabric, it winds up trapped between them, where it becomes stubbornly hard to remove. 

This is why your synthetic workout shirt can still smell even after you’ve put it through the wash. And why even if it doesn’t smell coming out of the dryer, it almost instantly starts to stink again when you begin your next workout. The bacteria was never fully washed away in the first place and got reactivated as soon as you started to sweat. This phenomenon is evocatively known as the “rebloom effect.”

Your regular wash routine isn’t sufficient to get the stubborn stink out of synthetic workout shirts. It requires a special HIIT-level effort.

If you prefer to wear synthetic shirts when you work out, but don’t want to knock over fellow members of your running club with your odor, here’s the field-tested cleaning method we recommend:

Buy a week’s worth of workout shirts. Washing your workout shirts requires a special, and especially aggressive, method that isn’t needed or desirable for your other clothes. So you’re going to be washing your workout shirts in their own dedicated wash. Given that you don’t want to do this special wash every few days, buy a week’s worth of workout shirts to batch this chore. This doesn’t have to be a pricey investment: all synthetic shirts pretty much function the same, so you don’t need to get a name brand; even Amazon Essentials’ shirts (2 for $18) work fine. Getting inexpensive shirts will also help you feel better about engaging in the aggressive wash method outlined below.

Keep your dirty shirts in their own ventilated hamper. Because moisture breeds bacteria, experts often recommend hanging up your dirty workout shirts after you take them off to give them a chance to dry out. But the average person is not going to hang up their sweaty workout tops. It still isn’t a good idea to crumple them up in a plastic hamper, though, where their moisture will molder, and their stink will get on your other clothes. So adopt a compromise position: put dirty shirts in a well-ventilated mesh hamper where they’ll at least get some air. Drape your most recently used ones over the outside edges of the hamper so they can get max airflow and dry out faster.

Turn your shirts inside out before washing. This will maximize contact between the shirts’ most soiled areas and the water and detergent.

Use the washer’s heavy-duty hot-water cycle. The manufacturers of workout clothes recommend washing their garments in cool water and drying them on low heat in order to preserve their structural integrity. They warn that hot washing/drying can damage their shirts — causing them to shrink, stretch, or lose their shape. So if you wear expensive, premium workout gear, you may want to heed this warning and treat your shirts delicately.

However, we’ve found that even when using a special detergent designed for workout clothes, a cool cycle just isn’t as effective for stink-removal as a hot one, and a hot wash/dry doesn’t seem to do much damage to synthetic shirts. They still last for years and years. Plus, if you’re already wearing the bargain kind, you may not care if their longevity is slightly diminished. 

Set the washer to the hot heavy-duty cycle + presoak + extra rinse.

Don’t overdo the detergent. You might think that using extra soap will make the wash extra effective at removing grime. But using too much detergent will actually backfire, as it creates residue that traps more of the odor-causing bacteria in your shirts. With doing laundry generally, you can often use 30-50% less detergent than the detergent manufacturer calls for and still have your clothes come out clean. So when you’re washing your workout shirts, rather than using more detergent than the bottle suggests, use a little less.

There are special detergents made for washing workout clothes, but we’ve found that a standard detergent works fine, as long as you pair it with the next step:

Presoak the shirts with OxiClean. OxiClean is the secret sauce in getting the stink out of workout shirts. Depending on load size and level of shirt-stink, add a half to full scoop and let soak for four hours. You can soak longer, but then the hot water will cool before the wash cycle starts; you want to strike a balance between soak time and maintaining water temp.

As mentioned above, use the extra rinse function on your washer with this wash to better eliminate residual grime, detergent, and OxiClean.

Dry on high heat. Again, the manufacturers of synthetic workout shirts don’t recommend this. But while a hot dry cycle may or may not get hot enough to kill bacteria outright (it depends on the particular dryer), it will ensure your shirts get thoroughly dry and don’t retain residual, bacteria-breeding moisture. And we haven’t noticed any damage in drying workout shirts this way. But if you’ve got nice shirts you’re worried about, dry them on low heat or air dry.

Don’t use dryer sheets. Dryer sheets work by depositing a softening, static-reducing chemical compound on your clothes. This coating not only reduces the moisture-wicking ability of synthetic shirts but also traps odor-causing bacteria in the fabric. 

Instead of using dryer sheets, we use these wool balls in all our loads. They don’t reduce static to the same degree as dryer sheets, but their natural nature, reusability, and workout-shirt-compatibility are a plus.

Whew, just considering all these steps feels like a workout in itself. You might want to make peace with those soggy cotton tees, after all. 

The post How to Get the Stink Out of Synthetic Workout Shirts appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

The Half-Windsor is the first necktie knot men should learn. While the Four-in-Hand is the easiest knot to tie, the Half-Windsor looks more symmetrical and formal, while being less bulky than the Full Windsor. It’s a very versatile knot, appropriate for all occasions, and goes well with nearly every collar type, except narrow collars.

Once you’ve mastered the Half-Windsor, branch out and learn how to tie other necktie knots, and the bowtie as well.

Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon.

The post Skill of the Week: Tie the Half-Windsor Necktie Knot appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

Shaving is one of those daily rituals that most men take care of as part of their morning routine. It makes sense. Shaving in the morning allows you to start the day looking as fresh as possible and ensures you look clean-shaven longer throughout your waking hours.

But I’ve personally been a night-shaver for several years now and love it. Below I share a few reasons you might consider adopting this practice as well.

You Can Take Your Time With Your Shave. If you’re like most guys, you’re rushing to get ready in the morning. But you don’t want to rush a shave. That can lead to cuts and uneven stubble removal. 

When you shave at night, there’s no rush. You can take your time, ensuring you get a close, comfortable shave without any nicks or razor burns. 

Moreover, slowing down your shave makes the experience more enjoyable and relaxing. When you shave at night, you have the time to make yourself a barbershop hot towel. You’ve got the time to create a nice, warm lather with a badger brush. When you shave at night, you can make shaving more of a ritual and less of a chore.

Shaving at night also gives you the margin to try your hand at a more traditional shaving method: straight razor shaving. Time is your ally with straight razor shaving, especially when you’re first starting. You don’t want to rush the process. 

It Saves You Time in the Morning. Even if you’re a pro at shaving, it still takes time. If you shave at night, it’s one less grooming chore you have to do upon waking. Use the extra time you save in the morning to catch some extra ZZZs or engage in a short session of meditation. 

It Gives Your Face Time to Heal. This is a big reason why I switched to the nighttime shave. When you shave, you’re scraping a sharp piece of metal across your face. No matter how careful you are, you’ll have some irritation and even some nicks. When you shave in the morning, there’s a chance your face is going to look red and irritated as you go to work. If you’ve nicked yourself, you’ll likely have a little scab on your face or maybe even a bit of blood on your shirt collar. Not a good look. 

When you shave at night, you give your skin time to heal from the scraping and cutting. Instead of looking irritated, your face will look nice and healthy.

If I Shave at Night, Won’t I Have Too Much Stubble in the Morning?

Some guys might be reading this and objecting to the idea of nighttime shaving because they’ll wake up in the morning with stubble or a full-blown five o’clock shadow (a 5 a.m. shadow, in this case).

This is a legitimate concern. If your facial hair grows fast and thick, the nighttime shave might not be for you.

However, if your facial hair grows slowly, you can still shave at night and look fresh in the morning. 

I’d say my facial hair grows at an average rate. When I shave in the morning, I’ve got some stubble by the end of the day. But I’ve noticed that when I shave at night, I have less stubble after waking from eight hours of sleep, than I do eight hours after I shave in the morning. 

There might be a reason for this. Hair growth is driven by our circadian rhythm, and studies have shown that hair grows faster in the morning than at night. This might explain why I’ve noticed that I don’t have too much stubble in the morning when I shave before bed: hair doesn’t grow as fast at night.

So if you have a fast-growing beard, you still might try the night shave. You may discover that you’ll wake up with less stubble than you think.

More relaxing shaves, more time in the morning, a more handsome and less irritated face. Yes sir, there’s a case to be made for shaving at night. 

The post The Case for Shaving at Night appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week.

Whether it’s an upcoming wedding, graduation, or simply another day at the office, a pair of shiny shoes can set you apart as a man who cares about the details.

Not only does shining your shoes add panache to your appearance, it is a necessary part of properly caring for and maintaining a nice pair of leather shoes or boots. The polish itself helps moisturize and waterproof the leather, lengthening the lifespan of your shoes.

All you need to get going is a soft cloth, a can of shoe polish, and a good shoe brush.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak

The post Skill of the Week: Shine Your Shoes appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

“Looks like I gotta go commando.”

We all know what that phrase means. 

It means you’re going to wear pants without underwear. 

But why do we call the act of not wearing underwear beneath pants “going commando”?

Did commandos actually go commando?

AoM investigates.

Where Did the Phrase “Going Commando” Originate?

Doing some sleuthing into the deep corners of the internet on sites produced by passionate amateur etymologists, I discovered a lot of debate about the origins of “going commando.”

The first theory is that the phrase started appearing on college campuses in the 1970s as young American soldiers returned to civilian life from Vietnam. According to this theory, the phrase can be traced to the fact that soldiers deployed to Vietnam faced hot and humid conditions. This was particularly true of special operators, or commandos, who had to crawl through water and hide in the jungle brush. Tight-fitting underwear would cause chafing and irritation and eventually develop into a fungal infection called “crotch rot.” One of the remedies for crotch rot (besides talcum powder) was ventilation. So off went the underwear. Commandos, and then rank-and-file soldiers too, started calling not wearing underwear under their uniform “going commando.” When they came home, they brought the phrase to their communities and colleges, and it spread. 

That’s one theory on the origin of “going commando” and the most popular one.

Another theory is that the term originated among Royal Marine Commandos deployed in the Falklands War of 1982. These special operators were tasked with making an amphibious assault on the Falklands Islands, and in the course of their mission, they ate some bad food and contracted some terrible diarrhea. To save a little time with the constant pants-dropping required to take care of their, er, business, the commandos stopped wearing underwear. One less layer to worry about. They started calling not wearing underwear “going commando.” The phrase made it back to the UK, crossed the Atlantic to the States, and found its way into common usage.

Another theory is that the phrase arose amongst the American and British commandos of WWII who had to navigate both water and land. Not wearing underwear would reduce the chafing and irritation that can occur when close-fitting underclothing gets wet. 

So we have three different theories on the origin of going commando. All of them conclude that commandos did indeed go commando and skip the wearing of underwear.

I’ve read many books about military history over the years, and some of those texts mentioned the phenomenon of soldiers forgoing underwear to avoid chafing and irritation. You see these references in books about the Pacific Theater in WWII and about Vietnam – history’s hot and humid battlegrounds. 

In the war documentary Restrepo, you’ll find firefight scenes with soldiers wearing only a pair of PT shorts and some body armor. They were probably going commando. Since they were fighting in dry, sometimes cold Afghanistan, the soldiers going commando in Restrepo weren’t likely trying to avoid crotch rot. Going commando was probably more of a matter of convenience. 

While both the American and British militaries require enlistees to wear underwear as part of their uniform, the standards are loosened on the battlefront, where the exigencies of combat trump the stringency of dress rules. A soldier training at boot camp would likely get docked for going commando at inspection; a soldier going commando in the middle of an unexpected firefight in Afghanistan would probably get commended for his promptness and responsiveness to the attack. That famously happened to a soldier in 2009 who engaged in a firefight in his pink boxers. He didn’t get demoted; he earned praise from his superiors.

So it appears commandos did and do go commando. As did and do more rank-and-file soldiers. Civilians go commando as well, because some dudes just like how it feels not to wear skivvies sometimes. 

The post Did Commandos Go Commando? appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in February 2021.

The popularity of beards has waxed (the mid 19th century) and waned (the 1950s), and for the past decade or so has been on the definite upswing. Maybe you’ve tried growing one out yourself. Maybe you did it willy nilly, deciding on your beard’s length/style as you went along. Or, perhaps you took a more intentional approach and looked up the copious advice out there on which beard type was right for you.

And that’s likely when the trouble started.

Because most of the guides out there on men’s beard styles are terrible.

There are those which highlight categories like the “corporate beard” and the “short beard” as separate beard styles . . . but when you look at them, they look exactly the same. 

Or, these guides will give beard styles weird names that often just seem made up. If I were to go to a barber and say, “I want the ‘Garibaldi’ beard style,” would that mean anything to him, or would he just look at me like a weirdo?

To cut through all this noise, I asked an actual barber — Thad Forrester, owner of Hudson / Hawk Barber & Shop — for his take on the advice that currently inhabits this space on the interwebs. Thad said:

The guys who write those beard style articles have been playing too much Red Dead Redemption. While beard styles have names in cowboy video games, 99% of barbers would have no clue what you mean if you asked for a ‘Garibaldi’ beard.

Also, most beard style guides don’t actually guide you on how to pick a beard that will actually look good on your face. So you end up with guys seeing a beard that looks good on some guy on the internet, and trying to grow that same beard, but then end up looking ridiculous in the process. You’ve got to pick a beard style that works for you.

Fortunately, Thad followed up this critical appraisal with tips on how to do just that.

Below, he helps lay down a no-nonsense guide to picking the best beard style for your face. No silly names included. 

The Prerequisite: Grow Your Beard Out For a Month (Minimum)

Before deciding what beard style you’d like, you need to grow your beard out to see what you’re working with. Thad recommends letting things grow out for at least a month:

After a few weeks, you can tell what sort of beard a man will be able to grow just by looking at the density of the hair on the face and the hair texture on the face. Some guys will have really thick, full beards, and other guys will have more patchy beards like mine. The thickness of your beard growth will be a big factor in determining what beard styles are open to you. 

Make sure to check out our in-depth guide on how to grow a beard.

How to Pick a Beard Style That’s Right For You

After you’ve grown your beard out for a month, then you can start thinking about beard styles. 

When he’s consulting with a client on how to style his beard, Thad steers him to a style that will compliment: 1) the way his facial hair grows in, and 2) the shape of his head.

As Thad explains: “If a guy tries to grow a beard that looks good on a celebrity but wouldn’t compliment their own face and facial hair, they’re just going to look silly. You’ve got to work with what you got.”

Criteria #1 for Selecting a Beard Style: Facial Hair Thickness

If your beard is thick, you’ve got more styling options. If your facial hair grows in nice and thick, you’re going to have multiple choices on how to style it. “When you have a thick beard, you’ll be able to pick a style that’s closely cropped to your face or grown out,” Thad said. 

If your beard is patchy, keep your beard short. “If mother nature has endowed you with a patchy, sparse beard, your options are going to be limited on beard styles,” Thad said. “If you try to grow a long beard, it’s just going to look stringy and unkempt.” 

This doesn’t mean you can’t have any facial hair. For a guy with patchy facial hair, Thad recommends sticking to stubble or closely cropped beards. But keep things cropped along your natural facial hairline.

Thad has noticed that many guys with patchy beards go for the chin strap beard style that was popular in the late 90s. “Because guys with patchy beards have a hard time growing facial hair on their cheeks, they’ll just keep their cheeks clean-shaven, but let their beard grow along their chin,” Thad explained. “It’s a pretty dated style and has been declining in popularity for the past few decades or so. I never thought it was a good look even when it was popular twenty years ago.”

If the only way you can keep your beard trimmed to your natural facial hairline is to do a chin strap beard, having a beard at all may not be for you.

Alas, here we have the so-called “Matthew effect” in action: to he who has more beard, more beard will be given, but from he who has little beard, even that which he has will be taken away.

Criteria #2 for Selecting a Beard Style: Consider the Shape of Your Face

Click here for details on how to figure out your face shape.

After looking at whether you have patchy or full facial hair, Thad recommends looking at your face shape when determining your beard style. “The goal is to make your head look as oval as possible.” In aiming at an oval shape, you increase your head’s overall symmetry and proportionality.

This means you need to consider how long your beard goes below your chin and how wide it grows out from your face. “Some face shapes will look better with a beard that grows long beneath the chin but is kept cropped, so it doesn’t grow out wide. Or you may have a face shape [where the beard] would look better shorter and closer to the chin, but grown out a bit wider to give your face width,” Thad told me.

When choosing a beard style, you also need to consider your hairstyle. As Thad explained in our article about choosing the best haircut for your face shape, “If you have a long rectangle face, having a haircut with height plus a long beard is going to make your head look even longer, like Beaker from the Muppets. You don’t want that.”

Below we get into the specifics of what types of beard styles go best with different types of face shapes; they’re described in simple terms — short/wide/long — that you should be able to readily understand yourself, and communicate with your barber if needs be.

Oval Face. If you have an oval face, your beard options are limitless. “Short beards, long beards, full beards. All look good on a man with an oval face,” Thad says.

Round Face. If you have a round-shaped face, you want to pick a beard and hairstyle that will give some length to your face. A longer beard will do just the trick. “Avoid really short beards or stubble if you have a round face,” Thad advises. “It just highlights the fact that you don’t have a chin.”

Oblong/Rectangle Face. “With a rectangle face, you’ve got to be careful with a few things because the face is longer than it is wide,” Thad says. “You want to avoid hairstyles and beard styles that make your head look longer and skinnier” — i.e., the Beaker effect.

To that end, Thad recommends that those with rectangular faces choose shorter beards. Don’t let it go too far below your chin.

If you have a really thick full beard, feel free to let your beard grow out (not in terms of vertical length, but literally out); the thickness will give some needed width to your face and make it look more oval. 

Square Face. The square-shaped face is a classically masculine face shape. You want to avoid beard styles that make your face look wider. “Guys with square-shaped faces can’t go wrong with keeping their beard and hairstyle closely cropped. Think Jason Statham: buzz cut and stubble. It’s a really good look,” Thad says.

Diamond Face. Men with a diamond-shaped face have wide cheekbones but narrow jaw and brow lines. “A nice full beard can expand the skinny jawline on a diamond-shaped face,” Thad told me. “Combine that with a haircut that adds some width to your forehead, and your diamond-shaped face is starting to look more like that ideal oval.”

Triangle Face. Triangular faces start with a wide jawline, narrow a bit at the cheekbones, and then narrow even more at the forehead. Thad recommends that men with triangle-shaped faces avoid beards altogether. “A beard will just make your already wide jaw look wider and make your forehead look even more narrow and pointy,” he says. If you want facial hair, just go with some stubble. 

If You Want a Fancy Beard, Show Your Barber a Picture of What You Want

With the guidelines above, you’ll be able to pick a beard style that will look good on you. As with most things in life, you can never go wrong with keeping it simple.

But if you’re not satisfied with a simple beard style and want something fancy that you’ve seen on the internet, Thad recommends just showing your barber a picture of what you’re going for: 

Most barbers have no clue what a French Fork or Verdi is, so just show them a picture of it. And if they’re a good barber, they’ll let you know if that style would even look good on you.

There you go. How to pick the best beard style for you. Save the weird names for Red Dead Redemption, which, by the way, is a dang cool game.

_______________

Thanks to Thad from Hudson / Hawk Barber & Shop (locations in Springfield, Columbia, and Kansas City, MO, and Bentonville, AR) for his tips.

The post Your No-Nonsense Guide to Choosing the Right Beard Style appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Sunday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in January 2015.

To be a well-groomed man, it’s not necessary to be hyper-concerned about your appearance and scent. You want to strike a balance between over-fastidiousness and looking/smelling like you live with bears. Achieving this balance is easy when you set yourself a reasonable grooming schedule. Just like your home needs regular maintenance, so does your body and hair. Above you’ll find a handy checklist for making sure you’re a presentable gent.

For tips related to performing the above tasks, check out these resources:

• How to trim a mustache and beard
• Best old-school drugstore aftershaves 
• Best natural deodorants for men
• How to make flossing a habit
• How to trim ear and nose hair
• Archive of haircut articles
• Archive of shaving articles

Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon.

Illustration by Ted Slampyak

The post A Handy Dandy Men’s Grooming Checklist appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

Way back in 2010, I bought a vintage wool mackinaw cruiser on eBay. 

Boy, was it a handsome jacket. 

I got a great winter season of wear out of it. 

When spring arrived, I put my mackinaw in the coat closet and forgot about it. 

When we had our first cold snap the subsequent fall, I opened the closet door and took my mackinaw off the hanger, only to notice several holes scattered throughout the coat. 

A pack of wool-eating moths had savaged my poor jacket.

If you want to prevent your clothing from facing a similar fate, read on for some clothes-saving tips.

Clothing Moths: Know Your Enemy

If you see moths flying around your house, they’re probably not the kind of moths that eat clothes. 

The two species of moths that eat clothing material are case-bearing (or casemaking) clothes moths and common (or webbing) clothes moths. They’re tiny (about 1 cm) and like to stay in the dark, which is why you probably won’t see them eating your clothes. 

Both moths prefer snacking on clothes made from materials that originate from animals: wool, leather, feathers, and fur. You know — the kind of materials that make up your nicer, more expensive clothes like cashmere sweaters . . . and mackinaw cruisers.  

Clothing moths are snooty; they generally avoid plant-based fabrics like cotton and steer clear of synthetic fabrics. Only the best, protein-rich fibers for these babies.

Clothing moths damage your clothing when they’re still tiny larvae. The larvae munch on your clothes like caterpillars on cabbage leaves. All that delicious animal material prepares them to metamorphosize into mature winged moths. If you do get a chance to see a small, winged clothing moth flying in your closet, it’s probably already eaten its way through your clothing.

Besides clothing moths, another potential clothes-destroying insect to be aware of is the carpet beetle. They’re bigger and easier to see, and you can often kill carpet beetles before they start chewing through your clothes. Like clothing moths, carpet beetles like to eat clothes made from animal products. 

How to Protect Clothing from Moths

Clean clothes before you put them away (both daily and for the season). The heat from the hot water cycle on your washer and a tumble in the dryer will kill moths in your clothes. But most clothes that are susceptible to moths (sweaters, suits) are more delicate in nature and shouldn’t be given the washer/dryer treatment. Instead, when you take these garments off for the day, spot clean them to remove any hair or food particles, as these things will attract moths. Give your suit a brushing before you hang it back up; this will remove the aforementioned debris, as well as skin cells and pet dander, which moths also like. A good brushing will help your suit last longer anyway.

When your delicate, moth-vulnerable clothes become more soiled, get them dry-cleaned; dry-cleaning will kill any eggs or larvae embedded in them.

Be sure to also dry-clean your garments before putting them away for the season. This will keep your clothes from smelling musty when you take them out of storage, but more importantly, dry-cleaning will kill any moths lurking in your clothing. 

Store clothing when not in use. Your best bet in protecting your clothes from moth damage is to store them in airtight plastic bags and tubs when you’re not using them for the season. 

This was my fatal mistake with my mackinaw. I just hung it up in a dark, musty closet — the kind of environment in which clothing moths thrive. 

For coats and suits you wear in the colder months, store them away in garment bags once winter is over. Make sure to duct tape off the hole at the top of the bag that the hanger goes through. Clothing moths will take advantage of any crevice to get to your tasty, tasty garments.

Compression bags are great for storing winter sweaters. They keep moths away from your clothes and save space. 

Use cedar and lavender if you wish, but not exclusively. One common tactic to repel moths is using cedar (in the form of hanger blocks, balls, and chests) and lavender (in the form of flower buds tied up in a sachet). Cedar has natural oils that kill clothing moth larvae, but don’t work against eggs or adults. Lavender doesn’t kill eggs or larvae, but the scent does seem to repel adult clothing moths. 

The effect of cedar and lavender fades with time. You must keep replenishing your drawers with new cedar balls or lavender bags. 

Given their lack of full, egg-to-adult efficiency and their expiring nature, experts don’t recommend relying solely on cedar and lavender to prevent moth damage. 

By all means, hang a lavender bag or cedar block in your closet (they smell nice, if nothing else), but make sure to keep your wool clothing in appropriate containers for long-term storage. 

What About Mothballs? 

When you think about protecting your clothes from moths, you probably think of mothballs. Your grandparents may have used mothballs, and when you catch a whiff of them today, the smell instantly transports you back to their house.

Back in the day, synthetic clothes (and carpets) hadn’t made their debut yet, so folks had more woolen items for moths to lodge in and feed on. So moths were a bigger issue for our grandparents than they are for us, and to protect their clothes, they reached for an effective, if odoriferous, solution: mothballs. 

While mothballs are still around today, they’re not an ideal strategy for dealing with moths.

Mothballs work by releasing a gas that kills moths in all their developmental stages. You put some in with clothes inside a sealed container, and the balls fumigate that container and the clothes within it. 

When you use mothballs, you shouldn’t be too exposed to their fumes because they’re released inside a sealed container, and when you go to remove your clothes from it, you should do so in a well-ventilated area, let the clothes air out for a few days, and then wash them before wearing. But even though you can minimize your exposure and there are newer formulations of the product that are less smelly, mothballs are still a chemical pesticide associated with ill health effects. 

So only consider using mothballs if you have a severe clothing moth infestation and nothing else has worked to keep your clothes from getting munched on. They also work against carpet beetles. 

What to Do If You Have a Clothing Moth Infestation

Storing and cleaning your clothes regularly will go a long way in preventing moth damage. 

If you do find clothing moths have hit your wardrobe, you’ll need to do some clean-up to prevent further damage:

Throw away clothing that’s been significantly damaged. First, you can’t use that clothing anymore because moths have chewed a bunch of holes in it. Second, that garment likely has clothing moth eggs that will hatch into clothing moth larvae that will eat the rest of the clothing in your closet. To prevent that, throw away your damaged clothing. 

Launder and dry-clean the clothes you keep. We’re trying to kill any lingering eggs and larvae to prevent further damage. 

Thoroughly vacuum closet. Again, we’re trying to eliminate moths in any state that will be the source of more damage. 

Use mothballs as a last resort. The above should do the trick in cleaning up a clothing moth infestation, but if it doesn’t, bust out the mothballs. Continue keeping your clothes and closet clean.

The above also works for carpet beetles. 

There you go. How to protect your clothing from moths. 

Vintage mackinaw cruiser that I bought on eBay . . . your death was not in vain! The sacrifice of your handsome garment life will help save another’s. Rest in peace, my friend. 

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