Conference quark::mennotes-v1

    I've tried a beard and mustache - it was uncomfortable in the summer,
    and didn't do anything for my looks.  (After I shaved it off a number
    of women told me that I looked better without it.)  As for my hair-cut,
    I've sometimes wondered about getting it cut different, but it is
    important for me that it be low-maintenance - towel dry, pull a comb
    through, and go.

    
    preening is boring

> preening is boring

Only if the person doing the preening is no good at it.

	-- Charles the peacock

    Yea, when I was in college, we used to cut each other's hair to
    save money for the booze.  But the ultimate achievement came when
    I tried cutting my own hair once.  That was actually a week before
    I had my interview with DEC.  Everybody stared at my hair for the
    next few days and tried not to laugh.  I finally decided to go
    to the barbar shop and got a Marine's hair cut, and that was all
    the fella could manage.  Right now, I go to a cheap barbar shop
    in Marlborough ever 2.5 months and ask them to cut it as short as
    possible without looking ridiculous.  My hair style seems to change
    every week with a cycle of 2.5 months, and I haven't got bored by
    them yet.
    
    Eugene

>> preening is boring

>Only if the person doing the preening is no good at it.

 Maybe that's it. I'm with Bob. No plumage, no preening.

    Its true that women have many more choices and chances to change their
    appearance, and that sometimes I wish I could (I like change), but this
    is one of the differences between the sexes that I personally LIKE, and
    hope don't change!
    
    
    OK, why you ask?  Well, when I was married, it was fun to think that I
    could 'fool around' with a blond once in a while, without my wife
    getting upset!  (I don't really think I need to add that it was my wife
    with died hair that I was 'fooling around' with, do I?  Didn't think so
    ;-)
    
    Anyway, I'm with the "low maintenance" end - hair style has to be able
    to be combed, not blow dried, and has to be able to recover from
    driving with the windows open, or playing basketball at lunch...
    
    And clothes?  I'm boring there, too...   I have to wear a tie to work,
    so that makes my choices limited - I wear the tie that was picked out
    with the suit and shirt ;-)...   And how many other guys decide what
    clothes to wear by what color socks you happen to have in the drawer
    that match (or are close enough ;-)??
    
    Dave

    I heard that Albert Einstin use to have the dupe sets of clothing as so
    not to have to make a decision reguarding fashion. Imagine three or
    more tweed jackets. Makes like eazy. Put on your uniform and away we
    go.

    I've always been dissatisfied with my appearence, and I'm always
    changing it. The beard gets longer and shorter, I shave my neck and
    cheeks or I don't, and my hair goes from Harvard Square preppie to Ann
    Arbor hippie depending on my mood and prospects for employment. I
    *like* the fact that the clerk at Softpro in Burlington does a
    double-take each time I arrive there (at six month intervals) and
    remarks on "You're back, and you look different, as usual!"
    
    On the other hand, I've been wearing the same pair of pants (same
    style, that is) and the same set of a dozen colors of polo shirts for
    about four years now. I find it a great simplification, to NEVER have
    to plan my wardrobe in advance, to spend about one second each morning
    selecting today's polo shirt from the closet. My wife and daughters
    make a production out of dressing each morning, vying for the ironing
    board! Then there's all that shopping, and all that expense, and trips
    to the dry cleaners. No thanks!! I *am* beginning to sicken of the
    khaki-and-polo-shirt look, but I'll probably just substitute something
    else (Hawaiian shirts and bluejeans?) and then beat the death out of
    that.
    
    - Hoyt

I'm low maintenance.  Same short hair cut, same mustache.

I told a friend once that my taste in clothes is "conservative with 
just a little bit of phoof (frill)."  I dress much better and more 
intresting than I did a few years ago, but I'm still pretty basic.

The only thing about my appearance that I'd like to change is that I'd 
like more muscle.  But I would rather play sports than lift weights.
So I live without it.


							--Gerry

    
    Same here....low maintenance. I really haven't changed much
    in appearance since my late teens either, forehead excepted.
    I just try to keep myself attractive for my wife and
    I always value any input she offers.
    
    Some people, after not having seen me for many years, remark
    on how little I've changed. I can only attribute it to my
    many vices and unhealthy life-style.
    
    							Hank
    
    

    My hair style has changed over the years but not much. Most of the
    change there is related to having less of it to worry about. Fine
    by me.

    I can't get all that excited about cloths either. I have my slacks in
    a number of colors I like. Also mostly polo shirts for work, tee shirts
    for working around the house. Suits are for fun. Although I do like
    ties. So ties are basically the fun dress up area for me.

    In general people who are pre occupied with fashion and dress always
    seem less serious to me. But that's probably because I don't see it as
    worth being serious about.
    		Alfred

    
    re charles 
    
    how skilled you gotta be to drag a hairbrush across the stubble .. ?

    
    My appearance has changed considerably in the last 5 years, i.e., since
    I've been a part of corporate america.  I used to be a pure jeans and
    t-shirts/sweatshirts kind-o-guy because I could wear them to work. 
    Now, I tend to dress a little on the trendy side (which means I spend
    far too much on clothes).
    
    As for the hair -- what can you do with what you ain't got?
    But then, as my voice teacher always said, "They only put marble on the
    finest furniture!".
    
    	Greg

Beards and Mustaches are about all I do, my daughter really gives
me a hard time about it thou..  

other then keeping short hair or growing long hair,, which
is an on and off again thing with me.

Once I got my hair permed, BIG MISTAKE!  Never again.  my GOD the crap
I took over that...  Plus, I did look pretty stupid...

    I once got a perm too. Wow! I got a lotta razzen for it. I let it grow
    out and I looked like the mad professor who was doing roids, I lift
    weights, no I don't do roids either. But the vision of one of my
    friends who made the remarks, was that the prof is much smaller in
    statue than I am...:0)

    Your alls replys are really great.  Kinda cute.
    
    I like when my husband changes his look everyonce in awhile.  I
    like his mustache.  He probably looks better with it.  He have the
    mustache for about 2 years or so, then shaves it.  At first, he
    looks kinda scary, but then I get use to it.  Mostly he wears his
    hair long, running down his neck.  He has a long neck.  
    
    I hate when he tries to cut his own hair, 'cause he enlists my help.
     I can not cut hair worth a dime.  I cut my own bangs all crooked. 
     So, on paydays we go to the cheap hair salons where you take a
    number and he gets his hair trimmed.
    
    Ever since he's moved out here, he started sportin a pony tail.
     I kinda like it though.  He's changed a bit since I've known him
    last.
    
    I love the way he dresses.  Jeans and rustic shirt.  I hate his
    baggy jeans though.  I like them snug around his rear, but he buys
    new jeans to big around the waist unless I'm there with him.
    
    We kinda clash sometimes.  He's actually taken back one of my outfits
    'cause he thought it was disgusting.  I get such a laugh thinking
    about this.

    Oh, God, a perm... ;-)
    
    A month before my wedding, my fiance convinced me to get a 'body wave'
    (whatever the hell THAT means ;-) - well, I didn't know THEN, either,
    and ended up getting a perm...   The look on her face when I got back
    was priceless...   I kinda liked it, 'cuz it was definitely low
    maintenance, but I was a minority of 1...    Now, 'cleaning out' stuff
    after our divorce, I still got a major chuckle out of some of the
    pictures..  So guys - don't agree to a major hair style change before a
    major event - you'll regret it!  ;-)
    
    Here's a related question - do you guys hate clothes shopping as much
    as I do??  I last went in, lets see.. 19...  a while ago ;-)  I BADLY
    need some new duds (I had put off getting it until I sold my house, but
    now I need a new excuse ;-)...  My next plan is to make clothes
    shopping part of one of my next dates - whaddyathink, will it work? ;-)
    
    Dave

I don't mind clothes shopping a bit, and I rarely have trouble finding
something I like that fits.  (Indeed, Leslie will never tire of telling
about the time when we were mainly shopping for her wedding outfit.  We had
concluded that I needed a new suit to wear for the wedding, and I said "Hey,
there's a Brooks Brothers store - why don't I walk in and see what they have?"
So I did, and there on the 50% off rack was the perfect suit, in my size yet.
She's the kind who will shop for weeks before she finds something "which will
do".)

My clothing style has changed over the years.  I used to wear slacks and
a dress shirt.  Various women over the years have suggested that I try
to dress a bit more casually, and I swapped the slacks for jeans.  My
wardrobe is almost all blues and grays, which I look good in, but it's
rather boring, so Leslie is trying to get me to "brighten up" by suggesting
I wear more colorful shirts.  I got a few this past weekend, mostly
madras plaids, and they do look good.  But I'm overall a conservative
dresser.

As for my body, while I'm trying to lose weight, otherwise I have no
complaints and don't feel the need to "experiment".  I have never grown
a beard or a moustache, and don't intend to start.  My hair is fine as it
is.  I did get contact lenses a few years ago which made a significant
change in my appearance.

So overall, I don't spend any significant amount of energy on changing
my appearance.

			Steve

I like clothes shopping.  

Try using the book "Color for Men."  It really helped me to have more 
fun with it.  (And to buy stuff that looks better on me.  It was a 
revelation for me to stop looking at how nice a shirt looked in my 
hands and to start to look at how good it looked when I held it up to 
my face in a mirror.)


							--Gerry

Way back in high school I had long blond hair.  But when I went to college
on a ROTC scholarship and followed it with 4 years active duty, I had to 
get it all cut short.  When I got out in '87, I started letting it grow
long again.  I had it permed four or five times, most recently over a year
ago; I really liked the way it looked, and I even had it frosted twice, that
looked good, too.  It pleased me.  Currently, I'm letting it get longer yet,
and I usually have it in a pony tail.  I'd perm it again but the chemicals
damage it every time, and it won't grow longer if I keep chemically burning
it.  Each of the steps, (longer, perming, frosting, ponytail) was explicitly
an experiment with changing my appearance, taking a risk.  Each time, the
important thing is that the results please me; I'm not doing it for anybody
else.  (My former manager in software services had coniption fits over it,
but since my customer (NASA) couldn't have cared less, he couldn't do much
about it, except screw me on a review.  The manager told me he expected me 
to wear a beard (like him) instead, which was ludicrous because my facial
hair is rather sparse.)  I also found it much more comfortable to wear
casual, comfortable clothes at NASA; suits just don't fit in there if you're
doing real work.  (My manager also had fits about that, but again, he was
hoist by his own rule, "anything's ok if its ok with the customer".)

DougO

I've changed the way I look in many different ways in the past.  I've gone 
through many different versions of beards, mustaches and goatees (sp?).  Once
I even shaved off most of my beard at lunch, but kept the goatee, and nobody
noticed 8-(.  My beard is very noticable (full, and it's red, whereas my hair
color is blond.), so I would have thought that someone would say something,
but no one did.

I also got my ear pierced when I lived in Germany in 1986 (There, little 4 year
old boys had it done, so I thought, 'Why not?')  and I grew a ponytail while
I was in Taiwan in 1987-88 (My parent's never knew what to expect of me when 
they picked me up at the airport 8-)

Right now I'm pretty happy with the way I look, so I don't think I need to 
change much.  I've had my hair the same way for about 3 years.  I do like
to shop for clothes, but part of that is that I've lost 20-25 lbs. over the
past year and I'd like something that fits!  (Remember that Dave Barry article
about being in a restaurant, every one else gets dessert, and he goes into the
bathroom to try on a pair of pants.  That's how I feel right now.)  Right now,
I'd rather be buying clothes than shopping, but we'll have to get in a bit 
better financial situation for that.

Well, off to get my haircut tonight!

>>>Ken

    Ha! I'm the poly-ester king here! I use to wear jeans and T shirts, and
    with the lifting I looked ok. Now, well I wear poly-ester! Poly pants,
    shirts, socks, even skivies!:) Ba-Ha-Ha! Don't throw a match at me!
    I'll go up in a blazen glory like a Budist priest. Hey! Now I know why
    there is a big fight over the mid east! Think of all of us who would be
    naked!:) Wow? Some of us look much better with cloths on than off....
    Yha know?? 
    
    

    This is a great note.  I have been thinking of trying some newe
    style lately, but quite frankly when you get down to it, men's clothes
    consist of pants, shirts, sweaters and jackets, and that about covers
    the waterfront.  Oh, yea add ties, the only place to really show
    individuality.
    
    Now for the real question.  Why is there so little choice in men's
    clothes, when with the women there is no end?  My wife says it's
    because men dress to look alike and women to look different.
    
    I like to look good, but don't spend more than 15 seconds each morning
    deciding on what to wear.  So what drives the lack of choice for
    men?  Is it something to do with the male psyche, i.e. aversion
    to shopping, desire for low maintenance)?  Or is it culturally driven?
    Think of the  European males of the 16-18th centuries they sure
    were into preening and fancy dress.  Or maybe it is just an American
    characteristic (Europeans say we Americans are a sloppy lot
    with too much causual dressing).
    So what do you think?
    
    Paul

    
    Why is there so little choice in mens clothes???
    
    Well, remember the Nehru (sp?) jacket? ...or the dreaded leisure
    suit??? When I remember those, I'm quite thankful our choices
    are limited. :-)
    
    							Hank

There are so many women's choices because women have been brainwashed into
thinking that:

	1.  They need to throw out their entire wardrobe every three
	    months and buy whatever the latest "in" style is, even if
	    they like what they have and the new style is suited only
	    for mannequins.

	2.  Lightning would strike them dead if they ever saw another
	    woman wearing the same outfit.

	3.  They LIKE to spend five times as much money on an item of 
	    clothing as men and get one made only one-fifth as well.

Reading the "Cathy" comic strip provides a good insight into the world of
women's clothing.

				Steve

I have a Bizzaro cartun hanging by our coffee area that speaks to this.....

A man in a suit is pointing to a chart showing a man in a business suit and 
one in baggy pantallons and Fez, similar ot what 18th century turkish gents 
might wear. The caption says...."so it is decided. this will be the 
standard dress code for men from now on. (Meaning the fez and baggie 
pants). Women will of course continue to be able to select from a wide 
variety of styles and fabrics as always."

Seems to fit.....I gotta wear a tie and shirt with suit or sportscoat, the 
ladies may wear nearly anything that is cool, appropriate to the season, or 
fitting with their current mood of the day. And they certainly take 
advantage of it! 8^)

    	Vic

    I guess the reason for men to conform and women to differ themselves
    goes back to some point where if you stepped too far out of line either
    your gonna be called noughty names that have to do with guys liking
    other guys too much, or some crap. Yes there was the Neru jackets and
    such, as there is some of the Rap dress today. I cannot immagine myself
    at the age that I am getting into something like a REAL baggie pair of
    pants, getting a hair cut that looks like a rubber erasor, or a butt
    head, and grow a Mr. T Starter kit someplace. I think its the age of
    where your are is your peer group wearing today.
    
    	How about this one boys and girls! Here in New England where there
    really is only three seasons, July, August, and winter we all go to
    the beech with our sawed off jeans or baithing trunks looking like the
    locals would look, like at Hampton beech N.H. Now you take a drive
    north across the border to Maine, and visit some beachs there. You find
    the Canadians with their post stamp bikinis on the men. Some guy wears
    that at our local beach and they are going to arest the poor man for
    over exposure. I cannot say whats right or wrong, I am just pointing
    out a differnce in dress umong ourselves. 
    
    	I have a dress code for Dec, another for home, and a third for
    driving limos on weekends. I watch many kinds of folks in many
    different uniforms go here and there. Why do you notice folks who fly
    business class traveling in suites and ties and the rest of us travel
    like we are going for a ride in the family car? I have noticed a real
    cute one. Its the dead of winter, this couple is traveling to a warm
    tropical island place and they have the cloths on their backs and an
    over night flight bag? Hint? They were traveling to a place where you
    wear your birthday suit!:) All they needed was their tooth brush and
    some coconut oil. Sounds like fun to me!:)
    
     

    Lets see.  I would have the time machine turn me back to 30, let me fit
    into the athletic cut suit with the fitted shirt, stretch me to 6'+,
    make my hair grow much thicker.....put more money in my wallet..... 
    etc.
    
    paul f

    
    see the man with the horns, trident and red tights..
    
    fix you right up..

    Re .29 & .30.  I am already planning my next life.  Too far along in
    this one to make any serious changes.
    
    paul f

I guess that this is sort of a retraction to my earlier reply.

A couple of weeks ago I went and got my hair cut, and from a (slight)
mis-understanding in my description of how I wanted it cut, it got cut shorter
than I usually have it.  So since my hair is about an inch shorter than I
usually wear it, I suppose that I've changed my hair style.

Rich

    Well, I just got on the scales yesterday after a workout and I hit
    160 (on the way down).  I haven't weighed 160 since 1970 at the end
    of basic training at Ft. Campbell, KY.  That's 30 pounds down from
    my all time high.  I feel great.  I look great.  :^)
    
    						- Vick

    Wow, Vick, that's great.     
    
    I went from 195 to 165 a few years ago, which is my ideal
    weight (basic training at Lackland AFB in 1958), so I think
    I know just how you feel.  (I've been under 170 since then.)
    
    I'll toast you with a glass of ice water at lunch.  ;-)
    
    Wil

    Wil,  Congrats yourself.  My wife is totally disgusted by the fact that
    I really don't have to suffer much to lose weight.  I just have to cut
    out some of the crap and get plenty of exercise.  The hard part is
    keeping up the psychological wherewithal to keep doing it.  But I
    guess you know that.  Thanks.  - Vick