Will You Shave...Please?

This post is in response to blogger Nandini Deka's tag for the #WillYouShave campaign. Her humorous take on shaving, or rather, not shaving gave me giggles galore, and I could not help but laugh imagining God, the almighty, wringing his hands in exasperation as all the not-so-eligible womenfolk dump the idea of marrying an unshaven God, and decide to head back to earth instead. God's grand swayanwar, which was planned as a heavenly event turns into a dumb squib instead. 

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In my last post about the importance of shaving and grooming, I had written about a true incident where a so called blind date borne out of a matrimonial website goes awry when the groom-to-be Sarthak turns up unshaven, sporting a shabby stubble. The bride-to-be Snigdha is clearly not impressed and this first impression leaves her in doubt about how to proceed  further regarding this matchmaking effort by her parents. 

Now many of you would say how important is shaving in determining how good or bad a person is. Indeed. But imagine going out for a formal meeting, employing extra efforts in putting your clothes and looks together, only to find that the other person has a pretty lethargic and casual approach towards what you considered formal and important, so much so that he does not even bother to get rid of his unkempt stubble before dragging himself down for the meet.

Stubble trouble

So our lady Snigdha was naturally dejected that Sarthak came in looking so ungroomed, and this showed on her face. Sarthak too could sense something was amiss, the chemistry they had developed over phone calls was missing now when they sat facing each other.

The small talk between them too sounded forced, and this got Sarthak thinking.
'Is something wrong, Snigdha? Am I missing something?' he asked in a concerned voice, since he had taken a liking to the lovely looking girl sitting in front of him.

'Umm...nothing...just that your beard is...well, do you always keep it this way?', she asked in a matter-of-fact tone.
'Errrr...no, not at all! I prefer the neat, clean shaven look! This is just for an amateur play I am performing in. It's scheduled for Saturday evening.'
Snigdha heaved a sigh of relief! 'Thank God! You will look much more handsome without this stubble! Once the play is staged, will you then shave it off please?' she laughed, her cheeks blushing a deep red.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.

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I tag my blogger friends –

Nandini Deka, who writes at Nandini Speaks,

Swarna Rao, who blogs at Swarna's Diary, and
Khushboo Motihar, who writes at Munni of all Trades to share their take on #WillYouShave activity. The word limit is 300 words. When you write, please mention that you picked the tag from me.

Here are the suggested prompts for the write-ups –

For men - 

• Missed chances - Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
• Luck of confidence - Will you leave your fate in the hand of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be your best every day.

For ladies - 

• An instance when stubble came in the way of a man's chance to make a good impression.
• An instance when a well-groomed look ensured that they stuck gold on an opportunity given to them.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.
Photo Courtesy: www.etsy.com

Bye Bye No Shave November!

This post is in response to blogger Khushboo Motihar's tag for the #WillYouShave campaign. Her matter-of-fact take on lazy men turning up unshaved for formal meetings only reiterated what my thoughts on the issue.  And it's not just us, many bloggers of I've interacted with share the same sentiment that men with unkempt beard or stubble leave a not-so-perfect impression.

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November is gone, and it has left me feeling happy and well, relieved. Relieved, yes you read that right. I am relieved because I can now hope about seeing more men embracing December with a clean shaven, spic and span look. I have had enough of seeing quite a few of them dressing up their laziness in garbs of fancy causes. So bye bye to ‘No Shave November’ and a warm hello to squeaky clean (hopefully) December! 

For all of you have not heard about the concept of No Shave November, it’s a custom of ‘not partaking in the use of a razor for the entire month of November’. This custom is more heard about in the west, where men let their facial hair grow free in the month of November. Of late No Shave November has been associated with spreading awareness and raising funds for cancer research, but the men I see around me seem clueless about the cause, and use the hype around ‘No Shave November’ as a nice excuse to not shave for a month!

But you know how the wise men say that sometimes one has a to pay a price for aping the west and following trends blindly. Something exemplifying this age old wisdom happened with an acquaintance   recently. This will read like a quite a cliché, but in the last week of November, he was short-listed for a face-to-face interview with the HR Manager of a top notch finance firm. Now this yuppie type had been upping his so-called coolness quotient all through the month of November, in the name of showing solidarity with 'No Shave November' month, though slyly admitting that it gave him a valid excuse to avoid shaving.

No Shave month is gone, pick up the razors please!

So he arrives for the interview, immaculately dressed, but for his shabby beard. Needless to say, the beard comes up for dissection in one of the interview questions.

'So you say you are following a trend, Mr. Rao. Does that imply that you will keep following all the trends that come up, and will put them before company's priorities and code of conduct?'
Ah, too bad for Mr. Rao, all his confused babble of yes sirs and no sirs and sorry sirs, failed to change the Manager's decision in his favour. 

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.

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I tag my blogger friends –

Nandini Deka, who writes at Nandini Speaks,
Swarna Rao, who blogs at Swarna's Diary, and
Ranjith, who writes at A Light Hearted Talk to share their take on #WillYouShave activity. The word limit is 300 words. When you write, please mention that you picked the tag from me.

Here are the suggested prompts for the write-ups –

For men - 

• Missed chances - Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
• Luck of confidence - Will you leave your fate in the hand of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be your best every day.

For ladies - 

• An instance when stubble came in the way of a man's chance to make a good impression.
• An instance when a well-groomed look ensured that they stuck gold on an opportunity given to them.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.
Photo Courtesy: shavingemporium.co.uk

Ungroomed Groom? A Big No!

Snigdha looked at her reflection in the washroom mirror. Perfectly arched eyebrows, big kohl-lined eyes with a hint of mascara on the lashes, and glossy pink lips - the light makeup look suited her. Generally she was averse to makeup, but given the occasion, she had decided to put some effort in looking presentable. And now as she looked at herself in the mirror, a smile of satisfaction lit up her face. Touching up her lip gloss, she mentally complimented herself for the effort she had put in, in preparing for this first meeting with Sarthak, the guy her parents had shortlisted for her from a matrimonial website.

They had been talking for two weeks now, getting to know each other before meeting in person. And finally the first face to face meeting was fixed for today in this cafe, close to where Snigdha lived. Taking advantage of the proximity of the meeting point, she had arrived early, to get some extra time for her nervousness to settle down. The tactic was worth it, as half-an-hour on her own here had eased her up and now she eagerly awaited Sarthak, looking up every time the café door opened.  When it did open to let Sarthak in, Snigdha was taken aback by what met her eyes, for the man in question had sauntered in wearing what looked like two day old stubble!

 Stubble is trouble

The unshaven look was a big turn off, to say the least. It seemed suggestive of a callous attitude towards personal grooming and hygiene. ‘This is not how one comes for a first ‘date of sorts’, careless about unsightly black and white stubble,’ she mumbled under her breath. Ungroomed - this was her first impression of Sarthak. And for obvious reasons, it turned out to be the last too.

*This post is inspired by a real incident, the names, of course, have been changed.
**This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.

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I tag my blogger friends –

Ranjith, who blogs at A Light Hearted Talk,
Manjulika Pramod who blogs at Pendown
Nandini Deka, who writes at Nandini Speaks,
Swarna Rao, who blogs at Swarna's Diary, and
Khushboo Motihar, who writes at Munni of all Trades to share their take on #WillYouShave activity. The word limit is 300 words. When you write, please mention that you picked the tag from me.

Here are the suggested prompts for the write-ups –

For men - 

• Missed chances - Stories or instances where you missed out on an opportunity because of a non-shaven face.
• Luck of confidence - Will you leave your fate in the hand of destiny or will you step up and say yes to a well-groomed face to be your best every day.

For ladies - 

• An instance when stubble came in the way of a man's chance to make a good impression.
• An instance when a well-groomed look ensured that they stuck gold on an opportunity given to them.

This post is a part of #WillYouShave activity at Blogadda, in association with Gillette.

Photo courtesy: iamdavegray.com