Love is in the Hair

We’re taught by movies, music, and high minded relatives that love is eternal and should you be lucky enough to have found someone, you should express your love to them as often as you can. However, once a year we’re all convinced that you MUST show your significant other how much care about them, regardless of how you feel the other 364 days a year. Perhaps this one day in February represents the number of arrows Cupid needs to help each person find their one true love, or maybe it’s a completely manufactured holiday created by candy companies, but regardless Valentine’s Day is nearing and you should be prepared.

More so than any other holiday, Valentine’s Day is the one where guys most commonly find themselves in hairy situations. In this case though we’re not talking about you accidentally lighting that special someone’s drapes on fire with the romantic candles you purchased to set the mood or buying her completely inappropriate lingerie. No, in this circumstance we actually do mean hairy, as in how you’re presenting yourself to the person you’ll be spending this love and lust-themed holiday with.

Although these are good tips regardless of your current relationship status or lack thereof, this list is more for the guys that know they’ll be spending Valentine’s Day with their girlfriend or boyfriend, rather than a bachelor skimming through Tinder to find someone “looking to share a heart shaped box chocolates with and possibly more.” With that in mind, here are our grooming tips to get you ready for Valentine’s Day.

1. Clean Yourself Up & Smell Good

This should go without saying, but sometimes taking a little extra time to get behind your ears and making sure you hit all of the hard to reach places can go a long way. Everyone has his or her own personal level of cleanliness, but when it comes to a night due to be enveloped by intimacy, it’s best to surprise your partner with how great you smell rather than the opposite.

Take a little extra time in the shower, maybe throw on some of the cologne that they bought you, and base your level of cleanliness on what you expect out of them. Long story short, scent is important regardless of what day it is, but on Valentine’s Day smelling awesome is a requirement.

2. Trim Your Mustache

There are two types of mustaches out there: those that are obviously epic, well cared for, and would make even Sam Elliott envious, and then there are everyone else’s. For most of us, mustache maintenance falls by the wayside. Since we like to let our beards grow out as naturally as possible, we forget to tend to our mustaches until one day you’re eating a sandwich and you can feel your teeth chewing on hair. If you haven’t experienced this yet, beware.

For Valentine’s Day, unless you have some Lorax-esque roleplaying planned, do yourself and your significant other a favor and perform some mustache maintenance. You don’t need to do anything extreme, but make sure your lips are visible and the corners of your mouth aren’t completely covered by your whiskers, both of you will appreciate the quick fix.

3. Wash Your Beard

During the winter, beards can be testy. Every beardsman is different, but you have to find the right balance between how often you wash your beard, how much beard oil you use, and how much allowance to give Mother Nature in order to prevent dry skin and beard dandruff. However, when it comes to getting up, close, and personal with your main squeeze, it’s best to error on the side of freshness rather than greasiness when it pertains to your man mane.

When you’re showering before your night of passion begins, scrub a little beard wash through your beard and get that sucker feeling and smelling brand new. Rub some beard oil in to keep your skin moist and your face smelling good and voila, goddamn irresistibility achieved.

4. Look Out Below

Alright fellas, let’s not dance around the issue. Valentine’s Day is a celebration of many things, some of which will be celebrated in the buff, and in preparation of that it’s a good idea to clean yourself up in and around the groin, a little trimming of the hedges if you will.

By no means are we saying go full on prepubescent, that’s never a wise choice, but again, this is one of those times where it’s best to present yourself in the way that you hope your partner does. Be careful, take your time, and don’t do anything drastic, a little consideration goes a long way when it comes to that part of the body.

5. Put Yourself Together

We know, we know, it’s 2015, everything’s casual. Startup t-shirts, khaki shorts, and flip-flops rule, sure, whatever you say. However, when it comes to the “most romantic night of the year,” make a little effort and dress yourself up a notch or two. We’re not saying you need to pull out your rarely worn suit, although that’s definitely not a bad way to go, we just mean put on something a little nicer, something that shows you made a little effort, something that you know they will like.

Valentine’s Day is about reminding each other why you fell for one another in the first place, before sweats, gym shorts, and your favorite high school basketball jersey became standard wardrobe fare. You’re an urban beardsman, we know you have style, if there was ever a time to show it off, it’s definitely Valentine’s Day.

Photography by Tommy Cairns