Saturday, March 10, 2012

Manpolish: The love affair between men & nail polish

Summer is almost here and I feel a need to be bold and sassy. Flip flop weather brings out the need to display my summer toes, or in the famous words of my law school colleague and live male alter ego C.S.Gorman “summer hooves.”

I like nail polish. In fact there were years when my nails never saw the light of day without nail polish. The fondness quickly faded once I joined a female collegiate club side rugby team and had to keep my nails extremely short. Coupled with the constant worry of embarrassment of peeling nail polish, I decided that less is more and eventually settled on none at all.

Lately I have seen many males with a penchant for nail polish. The weird thing is, male celebrities wearing nail polish is common place in our society. Many have seen polish on the nails of celebrities such as Seal, Dave Navarro, David Beckham, Johnny Depp and Cash Warren. Nail polish on regular professional non-celebrity males is an anomaly. So, you can imagine my eye brow raise of surprise to see men wearing nail polish. Why is this surprising? Who designated nail polish “for females only?” and more importantly, why is the topic of “manpolish” blog worthy? Well, because the topic interests, intrigues and confuses me at the same time. I live in small town Arkansas and seeing young men wearing nail polish is evidence of the power and pull of fashion, the retail industry, social media and societal trends. There are actually websites like alphanail.com that sell nail polish for men. Don't believe me? You can see for yourself by going to Alpha Nail

After a brief soul searching, I have arrived at the conclusion that we are all slaves to fashion in some way. I like to wear nail polish because I love bright bold colors. I also like nail polish because quite frankly nail polish hides the imperfections on my toes. If wearing nail polish is a male’s way of expressing themselves, then manpolish it is! I have a feeling that this is one fashion trend that might not easily catch on with the males in my household, unless I can find nail polish in camouflage or hunting vest orange!


What are your thoughts on this? 


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2084068/Why-real-men-wear-nail-polish.html 


http://www.divinecaroline.com/22072/39473-men-nail-polish

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/nail-polish-men-latest-trend-grooming-article-1.971247

2 comments:

  1. I've been married to a beautiful woman for 21 years, have two teenage sons. We've been going to the nail salon together for about 3 years for manicures and started getting pedicures about 2 years ago at the suggestion of the husband of a client that is a construction worker. My wife loves that I take care of my hands and feet, and that I'm a bit eclectic. I'm a musician and photographer and have recently started doing product photography and hand modeling for the men's line of nail polish from BB Couture for Men, who was the first to come out with a line of men's nail polish. I wear polish 100% of the time. Most of the time it's clear, sheer or a matte. I started wearing color on my hands this year, and what I have found is that most people either don't notice, or say nothing, and my wife is very supportive I have also found that by openly wearing polish, other guys are confiding that they get pedicures and wear polish, as well. If others do say something it is either a positive comment or they are just inquisitive. The big fear of most guys is getting ridiculed by someone in public, and it just doesn't happen. I've seen blogs where other guys are getting bolder with colors. I still prefer the more masculine colors like blacks, dark grays and dark blues. Times are changing for the better. Just like long hair and earrings were once only a female thing, and tattoos, pants, voting and driving was a male thing, fashion options are becoming more readily available for guys--as it should be. I wear polish because it protects my nails and I like the way it looks, and so does my wife. Manicures and nail polish is just another thing my wife and I share in our relationship, along with all our other common interests. You are missing out if you don't share this with your significant other.

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    1. What a refreshing and different point of view! Maybe if I convince the hubby to go with me, he will not complain about the money that I spend at the nail salon :-)

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