The rapidly evolving facial-hair canon.

By Nick Burns (Published Jan 31, 2010 in New York Magazine)

The Mutton Man

Model: Terry Richardson

Nothing says “I’m a wilderness buff with artistic tendencies” quite like muttonchops, especially when accompanied by a fast-plummeting mustache (not a goatee, mind you; the chin stays bare). Works best on extroverts with narrow faces.

The Chin Curtain

Model: Abe Lincoln

Not to be confused with the chin strap, the pencil-thin strip favored by David Ortiz types. This is more of a backwoods look, with up to an inch-and-a-half-long “curtain” descending from the jawline. Flattering for less-prominent chins.

The Garden Gnome

Model: Brad Pitt

When Pitt really lets himself go, this is what he ends up with: a scraggly upside-down pyramid. Best for men with straight or wavy whiskers and square or angular (not round) faces. Consider rubbing Clubman wax into your mustache to hold the pointy shape.

The Hollywoodian

Models: George Clooney, Jon Hamm

A mountain-man classic, often appropriated by stars looking for a quickie image shift. The thicker the coverage, the more authentic the man. Trim occasionally and clean up the neck, lest one end up with…the Van Winkle.

The Van Winkle

Model: Joaquin Phoenix, circa Letterman meltdown

The full monty as far as facial hair goes; takes months, if not years, to harvest. To counter its sex-repelling qualities, condition it a few times a week and run a comb through it now and then.

Nick Burns is the co-author of The Bearded Gentleman: The Style Guide to Shaving Face (May 2010, Arsenal Pulp Press).

Illustrations by Justin Bryan Nelson

Read more: The Urban-Woodsman Primer – The Rapidly Evolving Facial-Hair Canon — New York Magazine

BY NICK BURNS

TRIPS to the colorist every six weeks are not a matter of ego or vanity for Tony Hayman, a film editor living in Burbank, Calif.

Restoring his mostly gray locks to a comely mix of salt and pepper is a matter of survival.

“In my business, if you’re over 40, you’re too old,” Mr. Hayman said. “I passed that age a while ago, so it can be hard to get a job with younger producers.”

His solution? Mr. Hayman’s colorist introduced him to Color Camo by Redken for Men, a product offered only in salons that is said to add subtle ash or gold tones to gray hair so it blends in with the remaining natural color. About 60 percent of Mr. Hayman’s locks have gone gray, but Color Camo reduces his silver to a few modest streaks, he said, explaining that “I can choose how much gray remains and it looks natural.”

Time was when tackling gray used to be a matter of blanket color—solid black, say, or totally brown. The available dye jobs had all the subtlety of a cup of deli coffee.

Now, with improved salon treatments and at-home kits, men can order up cappuccino flecked with cinnamon. They can decide how far back to turn the clock with discreet color that diminishes gray without covering it completely.

“Men want to control gray, but they don’t want to look dyed,” said Chad Murawczyk, the founder of MiN New York, a men’s hair color company. “Before these products, it was all or nothing. You either dyed it completely, or you left it alone. Now, men have more options.”

In the last four months, at least two new products in the battle against gray have made their debuts. In April, Just For Men added to its line a five-minute at-home treatment called Touch of Gray. In January, MiN New York started selling Pepper; applied at home or in salons, it has a pretreatment gel that prevents selected strands from absorbing dye.

A growing number of men have booked salon appointments for Color Camo, which was first offered four years ago. Last year, 995,000 Color Camo treatments were performed the United States, up from 860,000 in 2004, according to Redken.

Such interventions offer discreet solutions for men who aren’t ready for Anderson Cooper’s trademark snow.

Many men “want some gray but not a lot of it,” said Losi, a men’s hairstylist who goes by a single name, works at the Serge Normant at John Frieda Salon in the meatpacking district of New York and is a spokeswoman for Touch of Gray. “Men just want to look more like they feel—a few years younger.”

Within the last few years, salt and pepper hair has gone from distinguished to desirable, thanks to the likes of George Clooney, Richard Gere and Robert Downey Jr., whose short gray-touched beard and hair adorn the cover of the May issue of GQ.

For men, gray hair is not as stigmatized as it is for women. Historically, it has been linked with wisdom. But it has also been associated with death, health problems, diminished mental abilities and loss of sexual potency, said Victoria Sherrow, the author of “Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History.”

And not every man has the skin tone to pull off a battleship gray or silvery white mane a la Mr. Cooper. “Guys with some color in their skin, whether it’s a nice tan or an olive complexion, can pull off an all-gray look best,” said John Henry Hanses, the owner of Hair Concepts in Nevada City, Calif., who uses Color Camo on clients and himself. “If you’re pale, gray hair will make you even paler.”

Thin-haired men should note that restoring some original hue can offer an illusion of fullness. “Gray hair is translucent, so it looks thin,” Mr. Hanses said.

Before Color Camo, Mr. Hayman struggled with drugstore dyes and pricey salon color. “No matter what I tried, it was too dramatic of a change,” he said. “My hair looked heavily colored and I felt like I wore a sign on my head saying, ‘I color my hair.’ ”

Part of the problem, Mr. Murawczyk said, is that most full-coverage hues are designed for women. “Women’s colors are usually too warm, too bright and too rich for men,” he said.

The all-over dyes work best when the hair still has some pigment, said Shawn Stearns, Redken’s director of testing and technical development. Without natural pigment, he added, the result “can look flat.”

It’s a balancing act, said Rodney Cutler, the owner of namesake salons in Midtown and SoHo. “If you go too light, you’ll look like Donald Trump, and if you go too heavy, you’ll look like Wayne Newton,” he said.

The idea of leaving in a bit of gray is, of course, nothing new. In 2000, the Clubman line of men’s grooming products introduced Color-Comb, a mascaralike dye that is brushed through gray and lasts until the next wash. Youthair, a leave-in color dating back to the ’50s, uses lead acetate and sulfur to oxidize hair and create a gradual color change over four to six weeks.

“The color was kind of dull and you have to use it a lot to get the color you want,” Paul Galloway, 42, a computer consultant in Sacramento, Calif., said of Youthair. “With Color Camo, I have more control over the color and the results are immediate.”

Before a recent family gathering, Gene Gagliardi, 57, of Chatham, N.J., tried Touch of Gray. “I was nervous about it looking obvious,” Mr. Gagliardi said. “When I saw my family, everyone kept saying how good I looked, but couldn’t figure out what was different.”

FOOLING THAT THIEF, TIME, WITH A CHANGE OF LOCKS

PREPARE “Choose a color that’s two shades lighter than what you think you need,” said Gabriel Garay, a colorist at Cutler. Spread a thick moisturizer on skin along the hairline and ears to prevent stains, a giveaway for D.I.Y. dye jobs.

APPLY First apply dye evenly to areas with the most gray, usually temples and hairline. Roy Ardizzone, 30, is shown in this four-picture sequence using Touch of Gray. The dye stops working after five minutes, allowing him to take his time, a feature he appreciated.

WAIT Ensure that those strands you wish to color are saturated root to tip. Sit tight until every strand has had its five minutes of dye time and then head for the shower.

RINSE Once the water runs clear, use a gentle shampoo created for color-treated hair. “If you want to go a little darker, apply Touch of Gray again,” said Losi, a hairstylist who goes by one name, and is a spokeswoman for the product. “For a subtle change,” she said, “wait a week between applications.”

(Originally published in the New York Times on May 8th, 2008. Photos by Suzanne DeChillo and Lars Klove for the New York Times)

By NICK BURNS

MOST men consider shaving a chore worthy of Sisyphus, who was damned to push a boulder up a mountain only to have it roll back down. No matter whether your five o’clock shadow shows by lunchtime or you need a razor only once every 48 hours, shaving can be hell.

“It’s a wonderful irony,” said Eric Malka, a founder of the Art of Shaving, a national chain of barbershops. “Young people can’t wait to do adult things, and see shaving as a rite of passage into manhood. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to avoid it.”

At 29, Anthony Pilowa is already fed up. “It’s a repetitive, daily frustration,” said Mr. Pilowa, a manager of clinical trials at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. “I really look forward to the weekends when I can have a couple of days without the shaving.”

What man doesn’t? Shaving has its perils: ingrown hairs, irritation, razor burn and bumps. And like death and taxes, facial-hair growth is unavoidable for men. But that hasn’t stopped companies like Clarins and Lab Series from offering ways to delay the inevitable.

In the last two years, a bevy of after-shaves and night treatments that promise to slow the appearance of stubble have hit the market. They don’t help shavers kick the habit, just reduce how often their four-blade must be used.

Some hair retardants have sold well. Sales of Clarins Men Skin Difference, which promises to slow beard growth and improve skin texture, have increased by 10 percent since its January debut, and the oil now ranks third among the company’s 16 men’s products. Another beard-slower, Origins for Men Fire Fighter Plus after-shave, accounted for an 11.4 percent boost in sales of the Origins nine-product male line in 2007.

Others have yet to find their footing. Released in 2005, Clinique Skin Supplies for Men Post-Shave Soother Beard Control Formula still isn’t a top seller, a company spokeswoman said.

Still, many of the hirsute are clamoring for a reprieve. “A number of men come into our stores requesting ways to slow beard growth,” Mr. Malka said.

Three weeks after slathering on Clarins Men Skin Difference, Mr. Pilowa, who suffered from ingrown hairs and prodigious growth, said it improved his skin. “My five o’clock shadow shows up around 10 or 11 at night,” said Mr. Pilowa, who also has fewer ingrown hairs.

Steven Horn, a director of international merchandising for Converse, said Lab Series for Men Triple Benefit Post-Shave Remedy was a face-saver on long overseas flights. “When I land 20 hours later, I don’t look like I need a shave,” Mr. Horn, 36, said. “I used to have to shave again once I reached my hotel and that was irritating to my skin, but now I can just go.”

The products rely on plant extracts that interfere with the growth in the follicles that produce facial hair, manufacturers say. One common ingredient, saw palmetto, an extract of the dwarf palm tree, inhibits the enzyme responsible for converting the hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, which regulates hair growth.

“The funny thing is that saw palmetto actually promotes hair growth on the head,” said Tom Mammone, the executive director of research for Clinique. Blocking the hormone in the follicles on your face can slow hair growth, while having the opposite reaction if applied to the scalp, Mr. Mammone explained.

Palmatine, a plant extract, is another common ingredient in hair-growth delayers. Its exact function is unknown, but product developers like Clarins suggest it slows the division of cells responsible for creating hair.

The new slew of hair-slowing potions don’t impress some dermatologists. “There is a lot of discussion involving these products and little actual scientific research to substantiate the claims,” said Dr. Neil Sadick, a clinical professor of dermatology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York.

“Saw palmetto is a weak enzyme inhibitor, so theoretically it might slow hair growth on the face,” Dr. Sadick said. “But it has never been proven to work that way.”

And palmatine? If in fact it does hamper the division of cells responsible for hair growth, then, Dr. Sadick said, it would be similar to Vaniqa, the only prescription medication of its kind approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Vaniqa is usually prescribed to women with unwanted facial hair.)

Dr. Bradford Katchen, a cosmetic dermatologist in SoHo, remembers a male patient who applied Vaniqa to his beard and experienced patchy hair growth. “Hair-growth-slowing treatments can’t block 100 percent of the enzyme, so a guy’s facial hair wouldn’t have a uniform look,” he said.

Patchiness aside, there’s little harm in men using these products, said Dr. Debra Jaliman, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “It’s an inexpensive technology compared to other treatments like laser hair removal, and seemingly benign,” she said. “Guys with sensitive skin, thick beards or just those who don’t like to shave a lot might like it.”

From New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer:

The brains behind MMK Brands Intimate Apparel clearly knew what the phrase “Bungalow 8 Underwear Party” would conjure up. George Clooney clad only in boxers? Paris Hilton in panties (for a change)? But at last night’s fete for the company, undie-shaped cookies were as racy as it got. “This is my first underwear party,” admitted designer Rebecca Minkoff. “I’ve been to a pajama party, but it was all women so you could only have so much fun.” Guests quickly emptied the vases brimming with “Passport Panties”—individually wrapped candy-colored bikinis and thongs that ickily included a cleansing wipe as a Cracker Jack prize. Co-host and club queen Amy Sacco, having just returned from partying with Diddy and attending the MAGIC tradeshow in Las Vegas, told us: “These packets are going in my Walk of Shame Prevention kits,” she said. And what kind of underpinnings does Sacco prefer? “I wear a lot of black thongs or boy shorts, but every once in a while, I love a naughty red pair.” There’s no shame in that. —Nick Burns