Trends in men’s grooming, fashion and…motorbikes from Celebrity Hairstylist, Pearson Knight.
Many years ago men were known for  getting groomed, talking trash, and hanging out at Barber Shops whether urban or suburban. In more recent years, the metro-sexual movement and the boom in hair and fashion reality TV shows have given everyday men comfort and being drawn into salons world wide. This may have been a bit annoying for the ladies in their own temple of feminine freedom. I mean how are they supposed to talk about how their man screwed up AGAIN with the neighbor’s husband in the chair next to them? Not cool.
There is hope! A new trend we are seeing and will continue to see boom, is the return of barber shops. The reason for the movement to salons was the variety of style and education on new trends that most stylists were equipped with. The old school barber just wasn’t ready for David Beckham. The modern barber shop, from the ones I have gone on site to check out, are designed with style and masculinity. They are equipped with salon education as well as old school straight razor shaves, manicures, and grooming. I am very excited to see these launch and become a cultural influence once again. I am personally working on some training on the art of men’s hair and participating as a guest artist periodically on my travels at www.gentcg.com in MPLS. I have the luxury of splitting my men and women being a guest artist at lounge.smartandchicbeauty.com in MPLS, as well.
In regards to men’s hair, I am currently participating in the look of the high fashion man ranging from a sleek Mad Men to the untamed pompadour. The modern pompadour can be completely clean and groomed or have variation of texture and size. I think James Franco shows this well with the sides being a bit unruly and the top wavy in texture. I recently had the honor and excitement of being on the other side of the lens during a shoot with the talented Miami based photographer www.facebook.com/ALisaRaunerPhotography. The theme for the shoot was late 1960′s James Dean feel. We used a 1964 Lincoln Continental just like Drama’s from Entourage. It was so fresh, my favorite part was cranking it up and driving it a bit. Along with the movement of hair change, we are even taking long men’s hair and shorting it up a bit. This reminds me about facial hair. Not so much on the long beard and crazy handle bar mustache (although I participated in this for years!) We are taking it to a clean shave and groomed low cut mustache to a 5 o’clock shadow. We are still working that facial hair but just cleaned up all around.
Speaking of cleaning up, men’s fashion has been and will continue to be versions of the geek or nerd if you will. This means tucked in plaid shirts with mismatched pattern ties, sweater vests, leather belts and suspenders. Color schemes this fall are going to lean a little more towards lavender or hues of magenta and away from honeysuckle pink from spring etc. For more visual explanation this can be researched in any current Details or GQ magazine. The main interest this fall is boots, any boot. I am talking mid/low/high cut boot, motorcycle, Doc Martens you name it. As far as me personally, I have been inspired and will not be looking as put together and clean as most. I am totally inspired by Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars and Han Solo in Empire Strikes Back. I am wearing utilitarian style pants and shirts with a color scheme of desert tan, light brown, off-white cream, olive to army green, different light greys, and hints of orange. I will be topping it off with some Harrison Ford from Raiders of the Lost Ark. That means the more distressed and dirtier the better. I am pulling out all of my stained white undershirts full of motor grease and dirt. All of the pants that should have become a garage rag by now and flexing them like they’re fresh~!
Motor oil? Garage rags? That is an easy chance to mention this motor oil fans…put away your Super bikes and Harleys and get some fresh fall air on a new Cafe Racer. This can also be achieved by stripping down your sport bike and tossing on a straight bar if don’t want to part with your honey or add more to the entourage in the garage. I am seeing a ton of these race around my home based neighborhood in Miami. I almost thought I was in Europe or something. Some seemed to be tricked out and custom, some new, and some straight up real vintage. This is a ton of fun. I love helmets and going too fast~!!!
