For at least the last ten years, the emphasis on appearance has grown to an all-time high. A large part of that is due to the explosion of social media; and maybe more specifically, Instagram. Being a model has been a real job for a long time, but never before could someone do it from the comfort of their own home—or, at the very least, on their own time—and still earn a paycheck substantial enough to be their only source of income. The emphasis on appearance has reached such heights that we’ve incorporated filters to give us a desired look. Sometimes those filters are plainly to aesthetic or color correction, and other times they are so whacked out that you can meet someone in-person and they look nothing like they do online because of the kind of filters they’re using. That goes for men and women both, too. To be clear, it’s not a knock on them because if you’ve found a way to make end meet using the talents you have, then God love ya. But in a (mad) world where everyone is a model, how does one approach their grooming and appearance without compromising their manliness and/or masculinity?
Giving a shit about my aesthetic
To get to the bottom of that I feel like we need to consider three different historical periods and how your dress/grooming said something about who you were.
Historical Period—Everything from WWI, back. From Civil War generals all the way back to tribal societies.
Classic Period—From the 1920’s through the 1960’s. This era covers everything from the smoothness of the prohibition era, on to greasers, through the 1960’s businessmen.
Modern Period—Ranging the 1970’s through today. Where you have been free to express yourself as you see fit to put your best foot forward and tell everyone who you are without saying a word//
Defining your own personal style can be weird. Of course, you’re going to do what you want to do—but let’s not be so silly as to say that you don’t draw inspiration from someone in one of those eras as who you model your look from—because you do. Then comes the topic of grooming—how much too much and what’s right for me? For that I reached out to Jeff at Rugged Legacy . If you know Jeff, you know he’s a no nonsense guy who speaks his mind and often does for the blue collar working man. He’s a guy I’d have a beer with. But more than that, he’s a creative mind that set out to make his own brand of grooming products with the emphasis of making men proud to be men. So I asked Jeff a couple of things about fixing up and looking sharp in today’s modern world.
Jeff Putnam, Man, Creator, Writer, Business Owner, Digital Marketer. and founder of Rugged Legacy Grooming
Personally, I don't think that there is any one particular era of men that resonates most. For me, I have an affinity for the Post WWII era (late 40's and early 50's). I think this was a time when we started to see a bit of a revolution in men that had just come back from the war as well as the children of those men who were born before the war and were just coming of age as the war ended. We saw the rise of the "greasers" who grew out their hair into these giant pompadours and were never without a comb as they tuned up their cars and chased poodle skirts. It was the birth of Rock and Roll and young men began fine tuning their aesthetic as much as they did their cars. They knew how much their appearance and the way that they carried themselves made an impact on the world they lived in and I think that men today could take a lesson from that.
-Jeff at Rugged Legacy
As men, we look to make an impact—that’s part of our duty—and looking the part matters. In tribal warfare you’re more inclined to side with the guys who look like they’re capable of being barbarians than you are to join forces with a group of nerds. Similarly, you want to project who you are and what you’re capable of with your personal appearance. Today we joke a lot about beards and how they have gone from being once considered to be the mark of manliness to now being worn by guys who can’t change a tire. Clearly, Jeff knows a few things on the subject so I thought I’d float that notion past him.
I don't know if I wear mine like a license. To me, my beard is merely an extension of my own personal aesthetic. Sure there are a lot of those that seem to think that their beard is an extension of their masculinity but that's just plain silly. As far as guys with beards who can't change a tire or fell a tree, I feel no different about them than I do their clean shaven counterparts. The man makes the beard, not the other way around.
-Jeff P. at Rugged Legacy
Your own personal aesthetic is one of my favorite parts about that quote. We have a lot of resources to draw inspiration from, then combining that with the direction you want to go in life can help shape that personal aesthetic. You know, the ol dress for the job you want, not the job you have adage. Part of dressing for you is grooming though. Hair products are one thing, but then you factor in skin care products like aftershave, shave butter, and beard balm, and it can start to feel a bit … less masculine. But the fact of the matter is: no one wants to look like a piece of shit. Some of you may in fact look like a piece of shit, but I trust you’re on the quest to change that. Part of not looking like a turn in jeans is giving a shit how you look. That’s what makes Rugged Legacy Grooming and Jeff’s vision my go-to for those kinds of things. Jeff understands what it’s like being a modern man in a society that demands that he drink coffee from a ceramic mug and not from the skull of his enemies.
Whether modern society likes to admit it or not, we are all going to be judged by how we look and we are all constantly judging others by how they look. Any man worth his salt is going to have enough self respect to put himself together in a fashion that shows that he not only respects himself, but demands that others respect him as well.
-Jeff P. at Rugged Legacy
As men, we have to care what you look like. That means everything from taking care of our body (because if that thing stops working then this whole operation is FUBAR) to taking care of our appearance. We have to give a shit how we look. That might sound more feminine to you, but I have known many mohawked punks, shaved skins, and long-haired thrasher who gave a shit what they looked like before they left the house and would wipe the floor with most of your guys saying you’re “too manly” to care about how you look. In his book “Wooden Leg: A Warrior Who Fought Against Custer” the native namesake Woodenleg tells the reader how his tribe of Cheyenne would grease and braid their hair before battle, how they would dress in their best garments, and then paint their face so that they would look their very best as they went out into battle. Trust me, you’re not as hard as you think that you are.
To put it simply, modern man isn't a modern man at all. He's a traditional man trapped in a modern world. He can either embrace the modern model of what a man is or he can listen to his soul and allow who he is at his core to shine through. My inspiration for Rugged Legacy products came when I thought about those men trapped in a cubicle under false lights who stare out the window all day longing for the weekend when they could ditch the tie and head up into the mountains. The men who could feel the call of their forefathers in their bone marrow the way the great frontiersmen of our past felt the need to strike out into the unknown and test their mettle against the gods and nature.
-Jeff P. at Rugged Legacy
Every day we step out into a scenario where we need to earn. Like Woodenleg, we need to prepare ourselves for going out an doing battle. As Jeff put it: we’re trapped in a modern world. We must adapt to that, but do it with a spirit of pride. For some people, that cubicle can be a battle. For others it’s traffic. But make no mistake about it, we’re all involved in our own personal little war against this modern world. We need to do all that we can to make it easier on us and having the right tools for the job is an essential part to victory. That said, I asked Jeff what must-haves should every man have in his medicine cabinet.
At bare minimum a man should never be without a good razor (single blade safety razor is preferable), a good cologne (like Rugged Legacy Solid cologne, for that matter), and a good pomade (again, Rugged Legacy). With those 3 basic items a man can make himself presentable enough that he will leave a lasting impression on those that he encounters throughout his day.
So whether you’re drawing inspiration from Civil War generals, greasers, sitcoms like “Mad Men”, or movie stars like Steve McQueen, James Dean, or Dwayne Johnson, you need to give a shit about how you look. Grooming is a huge part of that—bigger than we often give it credit for. I hope that you found this post not only informative and inspirational, but encouraging. I hope that you check out RuggedLegacyGrooming.com and give Jeff a follow on all social media platforms as well. He’s good man out there, at war against this Empire like the rest of us.
Find Jeff and Rugged Legacy Grooming at the links below:
and on Twitter
