EDGE 10.0: The Decade in Men's Grooming

In celebration of our tenth anniversary, EDGE is proud to run the latest installment of "EDGE 10.0: The Decade in," a retrospective series of features looking back on the past ten years of headlines, politics, personalities, trends, music, film, parties, etc... written by Editor in Chief Emeritus Steve Weinstein, and the current editorial staff at EDGE.

Since its birth 10 years ago as a Boston-based New England regional website, EDGE has considered "lifestyle" as essential to its readers as news and entertainment. Certainly, there are few aspects of life or style as essential for gay men (yes, even bears) as grooming.

A few days before Halloween in 2004, with the website itself still in its infancy, EDGE announced that Jason Salzenstein would become EDGE's first style editor. He would afterward give readers tips on everything from skincare to manscaping.

Salzenstein, already well known in style circles as image, and marketing consultant and professional shopper with clients around the world, was especially expert at ferreting out the most interesting - and interestingly named - new grooming products for men. It was a subject near Salzenstein's heart. As he wrote in 2006, "Every month the EDGE Grooming Team receives literally dozens of new products; are we complaining? Hell no! We love it."

In 2005, for example, he introduced a men's product line from Boston's best-known makeup artist, David Nicholas. Appropriately named M.a.N., the line included bronzers, brow definers and control powders. OK, it's makeup by any other name - but, as Salzenstein pointed out, "Do you think any man in Hollywood leaves his house without makeup on?" (Hint: They don't.)

In 2006, Salzenstein discovered Prawduct from Robert Hallowell, the "Kitchen Beautician." Made with neroli oil and Vitamin B5 and no fragrances or artificial coloring, Prawduct was one of the many products that were capitalizing on increased public awareness of the harmful nature of chemicals - on their person and the environment. A few years later, he told readers - pointedly, female and male - about, neuLash, a natural product that would add strength, length and volume to eyelashes.

In a bit of fun, the intro to Salzenstein's advice on keeping great skin through travel and urban grime told readers, "Aside from his acerbic wit, EDGE Style Editor Jason Salzenstein is known for his glowing complexion... not to mention his complete lack of modesty." Salzenstein's recommendation: something called SuperFood Facial, "an exclusive treatment from The Body Deli" in Boston.

Did anyone say "Martian Mud sunscreen"? Yes, but other than cutesy names and natural ingredients, the other big trend in men's grooming in the past 10 years has been advanced lab science - or at least naming a product to sound that way. Cast in point: TBP4Men, from The Perfect Body. "Nature is the best chemist," Salzenstein wrote in 2006 of parent company's The Body Perfect. The ingredients seemed to prove his point- chamomile, goldenseal, corn, Mexican wild yam.

Sounds good enough to eat, right? Often, ingredients in men's grooming products really did seem closer to a menu in a locavore artisanal vegan speakeasy than something to rub on your skin or in your hair. Canali Men, for instance, was a scent described as containing "spice, citrus, fruit, and exotic woods" among other things. But all, Salzenstein wrote, "pure sex any way you wear it."

EDGE's next style editor, Mark Thompson, was even more descriptively floral. "The August heat has you melting in your apartment and melting on the train - and then freezing in the office where the A/C is blasting full-tilt boogie," Thompson wrote in an August 2011 guide to grooming, Thompson. "Meanwhile, your skin is a schizophrenic mess, schvitzing and glistening."

Thompson's elixirs of choice to fight the August blahs included Koh Gen Doh's "vitamin water for your pores," including a spray made up of clover and calendula, licorice root and angelica, artemisia and gingko biloba; and an Oriental Plants Skin Lotion Spray, with even more edibles. Much more severe sounding, OM4 was a line of products "rich in antioxidants and polyphenols derived from red wine extracts." Still, it makes you hungry.

Maybe it's purely coincidence that the current style editor, Matthew Wexler, is a trained chef and culinary artist of the first order. That can only come in handy when reviewing grooming products these days, as we've seen.

But wait: here's another trend that has taken men's grooming by storm. Last year, when Wexler reviewed winter men's face products, he wrote of products named HeadLube (moisturizing lotion for bald men), Blade Butter (shaving) and a Velvet Tuber lotion. Apparently, more and more cosmetics companies - at least the boutique and out-there ones - are facing up to the fact that we buy a hell of lot of their products. And sex always sells.

On the opposite side of the ledger, these companies continue in the glorious tradition of butching up their products with ultra-macho names, like Kiehl's "Heavy Lifting" men's moisturizer.

Before leaving this voyage to Groomingland, attention must be paid to one other trend worthy of note: Handmade products offer that exclusivity. The word-of-mouth marketing of such micro-costmetics manufacturers adds to their chic, according to contributor Ian Michael Crumm, who added that Philadelphia-based Duross & Langel's price point "won't induce wrinkles,"

Finally, there is the all-consuming issue of the ultimate in manscaping. If you're one of those real guys who winces at the very thought of ripping out hair from the root Down There, don't read the article, published earlier this year, that described California chain Stript Wax Bar's male version of the infamous Brazilian bikini wax.

Men can take it all off or, like their favorite porn stars, leave a small patch that resembles Hitler's mustache on an elephant. "Nothing too sculpted but men really want a trimmed look all over," owner Katherine Goldman told EDGE. "Even a little bit off the brow can add definition and change your look."