GROOMING - RENAISSANCE MEN

Gentlemen of style have three new reasons to reaffim that the well-groomed life is the only way to go

- JARED PAUL STERN

For a while there this spring, before most barber shops and hair stylists were able to reopen for business, the state of men’s grooming was seemingly in dire straits. With “quarantine beards” the new normal, pundits predicted that men would embrace this enforced slovenliness; CBS New York even went so far as to air a segment titled “Experts Predict Long Hair, Beards Back In Style By Summer.” Of course, men proved more resilient than that, unwilling to abandon their perfectly-trimmed facial hair and precision fades. Nor did they decide to forgo fine grooming products simply because there was no one around to appreciate them.

The timing in fact proved fortuitous as two new luxury grooming lines were in the nascent stages, while one of the country’s coolest highend barber shops expanded its offerings and locations. With a return to normalcy we expect them all to do very well, as grateful men return to the grooming regimens that help define them as gentlemen of style.