Manscaping for your mental health
It seems men de-stress as they de-stress just as much as women do
Text: Christian Barker
Paralleling the renaissance in classic men’s tailoring, in recent years, old-school male grooming has undergone a major resurgence. Just as they did a century ago, men are once again flocking to traditional barbers for painstaking scissors-only haircuts, straight-razor shaves, beard trims and various other time-honoured tonsorial treatments.
A proper shave and clipper-free haircut can be rather time consuming. What prompts a man to take a couple of hours out for a visit to the barber? “Today, it’s one of the few places where a gentleman can switch off and find a sense of sanctuary,” explains Brent Pankhurst, the barber British GQ calls London’s best.
Therapeutic fix
Currently in the process of expanding his business into Southeast Asia, Pankhurst has offered his services by private appointment to customers in Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore since early 2019, and will open permanent premises in these cities shortly. He says that while it’s important that a top-tier barbershop be aesthetically pleasing, and vital that the customer emerge with a fantastic haircut, there’s much more to a spot of male pampering than that. Many men consider their time at the barber a form of mental health therapy.
“Our clients are mostly CEOs, entrepreneurs, senior figures in media, men who work in finance — they’re under a lot of stress,” Pankhurst explains. “When they visit us, they know they can totally relax. You build a trusting relationship with your barber, where you’re confident you can discuss whatever you want and it will go no further.”
Deprived of their therapeutic barbering fix during the lockdown, Pankhurst’s customers have been making up for lost time. “Many clients have been coming in every two or three weeks, rather than every four to six as per usual, because they’d really missed that experience during lockdown and loved feeling fresh again,” he says. “For a lot of men, the barber experience is a very, very important part of their lives.”
While Pankhurst focuses purely on above-the-collar services, he says many of his customers today are exploring an array of ‘manscaping’ and ‘mampering’ options. “In the 1980s, guys didn’t really go for manicures, pedicures and whatever,” he says. “Now, men are completely unashamed of the fact they’re getting facials, mani-pedis, having their eyebrows professionally shaped, and going for hair removal on their legs, backs, chests and nether regions.”
Below the belt
One avant-garde barbershop offering many of these services is We Need a Hero. This salon in Singapore’s chic Tiong Bahru district opened in 2013, aiming to satisfy not only a growing demand for quality men’s hairstyling and shaves, but to also provide more intimate and intensive follicular ministrations.
Head barber Janice Kok says around a decade ago, she began to feel there was a gap in the marketplace for a barbershop that went above and beyond — and sometimes, below the belt. Before the opening of We Need a Hero, she says, Singapore’s men “didn’t have a lot of options” with regards to taming their body hair, being forced to awkwardly visit female-focused beauticians.
In a reassuringly masculine setting, We Need a Hero purveys waxing of any and every surface, nook or cranny where a modern man might desire silky smoothness. Those in possession of the wherewithal may upgrade to the more permanent — and substantially more expensive — hair-removal solution of Advanced Fluorescence Technology (AFT), which employs beams of light to weaken follicles, delaying or in some cases, preventing regrowth altogether. It’s a costly undertaking. Full-arm deforestation, for example, costs about the same as an entry-level Rolex.
Kok says services like hair removal, as well as eyebrow sculpting, hair colouring and facials (which We Need a Hero also offer) are now totally normalised for guys. There is no longer a stigma attached to a man primping and pampering himself. “In this age, where guys are more into health and working out, being groomed from head to toe is just seen as part of personal hygiene,” she says.
“Men today want to look good and feel good,” Kok believes. They’re paying greater attention to their appearance and investing more time and money in its upkeep. That doesn’t necessarily mean going hairless, of course. Many men are perfectly content to rock Connery-esque chest foliage — and often, their romantic partners prefer it that way. For those averse to having a more substantial swathe of body hair removed, Kok suggests trying a simple nostril wax. She guarantees, “It’ll be a breath of fresh air.”
