It was Sunday morning, the first day of the "Ambush Hits the Road" trip. My wake-up call was at the un-Godly hour of 4:45 a.m. After a few minutes of listening to my clock radio, which I had purposely set at a hideously obnoxious radio station, I stumbled out of bed to my coffee machine. It literally takes less than a minute for the coffee to brew, but as I waited for my cup of java it seemed to take forever. I took a few sips and felt myself coming to life. After one, two--okay--three cups of coffee, I was in fast-forward mode.
My packing lunacy finished, and I ran to the bathroom. At that moment, I thought about how grateful I am that I am a man, and that getting ready would only take a few minutes. All I had to do was floss, brush my teeth, shave, shower, whip on my clothes and run out the door. That's really not that hard to do. At the same time, I thought of the women getting ready for the same trip. They were probably blow drying their hair and applying makeup to get ready for our extra-early start.
But then, as I started to shave, I noticed my sideburns looked a bit grey. They definitely looked too grey to be on TV. I found my coloring stash, mixed it together and placed it on my sideburns with a Q-tip so I could continue shaving while the greys were being covered.
Getting ready was going to take a few more minutes than planned. And, it made me realize that the days of shower, shave and out-the-door are finished. The world has changed. Metrosexuals no longer make up only a small percentage of the male population. All guys are expected to look good. And, looking good takes time. The responsibility of looking good is no longer exclusive to women. But, there is a difference between a man's grooming strategy and a woman's beauty routine. A woman can look like she made an effort to look good. A man should never look like he did. His grooming should always look effortless. Today's guys' grooming guide is even more complicated. From eyebrow grooming to man-pedis, check out these tips on my Hair and There Blog at iVillage.
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