Manly Monday!

Happy Manly Monday, fashionistas! I am so pleased to welcome back Darius Eslami, a seasoned guest blogger on Fab-YOU-lous. So without any further adieu, here is Darius with his take on smelling good...

Hello, ladies, look at your email, now back to this blog post, now back at your email, now back to this blog post. You’re in a room with fabulously scented men. What’s in your hand? It’s a mouse. Now click it. Double click it. Outside your window is a bed of roses being planted by a man that looks Ryan Reynolds. Look again ladies, it’s Manly Monday.

As many of you know, scent is a killer sense – often making or breaking first impressions. Now, I’m not here to talk to you about cologne; I am here to divulge my insights into the great Axe versus Old Spice debate. For purposes of this posting (and aside from the intro paragraph), let’s ignore all marketing efforts from each brand and focus on what matters – the way you smell after application. Also, this isn’t really a debate (by all means – debate in the comments with me!).

My personal opinion is that Old Spice is the way to go. I use the Fresh Scent dry deodorant because it has the perfect mixture of keeping you sweat-free, smelling delightful, and having a touch of mountain man musk. Now, there are clearly different scents you can try – Old Spice is just what I have been using recently. Back in the day, I was an Axe user following mainstream culture. Mentally, I started to feel it was covering up smells instead of block them. If you walk by someone, you might make a comment, “He smells like Axe.” I don’t think that is necessarily a good thing. However, Axe does make more sense if you are dealing with the extremes like biking, shredding asphalt, lifting weights, or wrestling bears. Take that as you will.

I think the ideal situation is to use Old Spice as your main deodorant, but so we don’t neglect Axe – make it your spray. In a quick pinch, bust out your mini-can and mark a typical ‘X’ across your chest to at least make you smell differently than perspiration. In fact, I highly recommend the Axe shower scrub too (Snake Peel is chock of us cactus and opens your pores).

Regardless what you feel, you have plenty of options: High Endurance, Classic, Red Zone – and those are broken down even further. After trying various brands though, I always come back to Old Spice. Maybe it’s nostalgia. Maybe it’s my subconscious desire to be a manly pirate. Pirates need to keep fresh, too.

Thanks for the awesome post, Darius! I hope you all smell fresh and fabulous all day :) 

Stay Fabulous xoxo

~Miss Glamour Giirl

Manly Monday

Hello, fashionistas, and welcome to yet another 'Manly Monday'! I am so excited that this Monday tradition has been keeping up, and I have quite a few new and exciting guest bloggers lined up for the coming weeks. I am thrilled to have the amazing Darius Eslami back with us this week giving us his ideas about a very fun and manly accessory piece- So without further adieu, here is the fabulous Darius!!

Cowboys got it right- Dusty leather boots, just enough scruff, and bandanas. Bandanas are BIG. For me, it started as a costume piece, but with my hair getting longer, it became necessary to hold it back – thus, the bandana came into the picture. Not only does it keep my hair from flying into my eyes, it pulls together my look and makes me look fly as well. Feel free to refute this.

When piecing together a bohemian style, the bandana adds a flair of retro for a guy while exuding a pinch of rugged edge. For all those Bear Grylls types – you can fold the bandana once and have it triangle style cover your hair; this is what I call the traditional look.

If you want a more subtle, 70s rock’n’roll look, fold it multiple times, then rock it like a headband. Or for a combo effect, fold your bandana, but leave it wide. Then, once it is around your head, swish it to one side and you have a really sick pirate look.

Between running, Jiu Jitsu, and yoga, I work up quite a sweat. Get over it. It’s manly. Whenever possible – wearing a headband is a great way to combine functionality with fashion. If I’m going out to a bar or club, I’ll put one on for two reasons: 1) to reduce the sense of heat in a crowded social area, and 2) for the compliments.

The fun part is that is primarily seen as a costume accessory, so the prints and styles could be viewed as hipster or ironic, depending on the situation. You have your traditional Western prints (blacks and reds), camouflage (desert and greens), and many more styles in between. A bandana is an inexpensive article that doesn’t hurt to have in your closet- Whether you’re backpacking up a mountain, opening your pores with Pilates, or grooving with aviators on, a bandana is not a bad way to go.

Worse comes to worse, your dog will look really cute wearing one, too.

Thanks for reading, everyone!! We hope you have an extra 'manly' Monday!

Stay Fabulous xoxo
~Miss Glamour Giirl & Darius Eslami

Manly Monday!

Hello fashionistas! I am so excited to begin Manly Monday- This will hopefully be a reoccurring blog event on Mondays for awhile, where I will invite a male guest blogger to FAB-YOU-LOUS and we can hear about fashion and trends from a guy's perspective! I'm so pleased to christen Manly Monday with a post by one of my dearest friends, Darius Eslami. Here he is:
Welcome one and all to …….. MANLY MONDAY! When it comes to my wardrobe, I tend to default towards a t-shirt. How exactly can you make such a common article like that into something fashionable? Easy – Threadless.
Threadless is an online t-shirt company where artists submit their designs and the online community votes for their favorites; the highest scorers get their shirt printed among other lavish incentives. I’ve been pushing this site for years now and it’s steadily gaining huge momentum. I don’t think it matters who you are – you can/will find a shirt you adore. Their catalog hosts a variety of designs: abstract, funny, political, slogans, animals, popular cultures… you get the picture.
They print the design on their own shirts, which are very light and fitting. You can search for an existing shirt based on size, color, and design type. There are limited quantities of each shirt, so nab them while you can! If you find a design you LOVE, but it is sold out – you can request a reprint and if enough people do so, BAM! It is reprinted.
Aside from the cool community and frequent contests presented by Threadless – they are pretty affordable. Now, if you know me, I don’t spend too much money and rarely on myself. Threadless shirts generally sell for $20, but they have a handful of sales a year where you can get shirts at discounted prices (typically $10) with a flat rate shipping fee of $5. As you purchase more shirts, you can gain ‘points’ by taking a picture of yourself wearing your purchase and putting it on the site! This is a great way for them to generate repeat customers and it kind of saves you some money on your trendy collection.
I have about 20 shirts from Threadless and I wear them pretty frequently. They work well for social outings as conversation starters (funny/clever designs) or just very cool patterns (abstract/pop culture designs). All in all – check them out. From a guy who tosses on t-shirts – you can definitely look the part you want to play with any one of these in your styling arsenal.

Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you enjoyed the first Manly Monday post- tell us what you think!

Stay Fabulous xoxo
~Miss Glamour Giirl & guest blogger Darius Eslami