Shadow Footprints

Link: http://lancearthur.com/

I was waiting for the next part, but Lance Arthur hasn't posted anything for weeks. He's written a series of articles about Grooming.

In Facing Facts he advises on how to care for the face and skin. He covers facial cleansers, facial exfoliators, shaving, toner and moisturiser, eye creams, and lip balms.

He also says how to test things out, and how the department stores can help without embarassment. He recommends several products designed for men.

Part two, Rock Your Body talks about the rest of your body and covers soap, skin scrubbing, mousturising, hands, feet.

He doesn't trust the gym supplied liquid soap, though since my gym upgraded the showers and installed individual dispensers I notice less guys bring their own stuff. (Not that my attendance has been great recently.)

Hair Apparent is part three. He covers shampoo, conditioner, product, colouring, and split ends.

He accepts use of combined shampoo and conditioner, though prefers to use separates. This is a sharp contrast to Kyan. Me, I use separates at home and combined elsewhere. A quick shampoo followed by plastering my hair with conditioner while I shave is my way. I make sure I use conditioner daily as I am likely to shower more than once a day. I seldom use product, and before my current flatmate I'd never seen someone with so many different types. Now I unserstand why straightacting.com askes about the number of products.

Finally, part four, Clothing Optionals, is about what you wear. The psychology of clothes, how to shop (men like hunting), high prices and high style, the basics.

How to shop includes trying things on, getting a second opinion, finding a salesman you trust, and stepping outside the box.

A few weeks ago I saw a good example of finding a salesman you trust. D and I were in the mall, and saw Strada. Prices are a bit higher than I like paying, but as neither of us intended to buy we wandered in to see what the current offerings were. Sale prices helped.

There was a kid (mid 20s) working there, casually folding clothes and straightening items; we thought he must just be doing a weekend job. D looked at a t-shirt and the kid suggested he try a grey lightweight jersey on and handed him one is a smaller size than D would normally wear. With the kid's casual handling of fabric it suddenly clicked, this kid knew fabric (and is straight). D tried both sizes and the kid was right.

The kid then handed him a light coloured leather jacket to try with it. It looked great. A pair of perfectly fitting jeans followed (he never asked about sizes.) The jacket was half price (to do with the change of the store label from Politiks. It turns out the kid makes the things, and just does a day in the shop on Saturdays. D bought the jersey and jacket, leaving the jeans for a later date.

If I need to buy an exceptionally smart outfit for something, that'll be my first port of call, but only if the kid is on.

Still to come from Lance Arthur: Shoes, Pants, Shirts, One Perfect Suit, Things you should never wear, and the Successful Accessorizer.