Art of Manliness - Latest Comments in The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

I Browse — Sun, 25 May 2014 17:19:46 -0000

Why shouldn't a man pluck his eyebrows? Many men grow extremely thick eyebrows that can grow to such length and density that it can throw off the look of their entire face. If I didn't pluck my eyebrows, they'd grow so long, low, and thick, that they'd completely cover my eyelids.

There's nothing manly about having a couple of caterpillars chilling on your forehead.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

RUS — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:10:21 -0000

i havnt gone vegetarian in a while, but once when i did for a couple days i did NOT have to wear deodorant!--TRUE STORY. on another not, i must say I dig the way the author assumes the reader already has a woman in his life; its empowering to the reader. I've never been the "neatest" person on earth so my dad used to tell me "cleanliness is next to Godliness" and all that acting as if I was soooooo much more disgusting than i actually was which history clearly proves isnt true lol. im gonna send him this article.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Austin — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:04:06 -0000

I am trying to utilize Ben's virtues in my life and I am particularly concerned about cleanliness. I agree that many people think being a man is getting wasted-drunk, sitting on the couch watching football with crumbs, and beer cans lying all over the place. That is NOT I repeat, NOT the art of manliness. True men keep themselves clean, and are not slobs.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Daniel — Tue, 04 May 2010 01:40:14 -0000

A good way to deal with bad breath is to drink more water. It really works!

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

samuel lwarence — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:27:43 -0000

i'm just having a tough time trying to maintain cleanliness.Actually there are cirtain people who are psycholoigically trying to break down my efforts to keep clean,and therefore i remain in lousy circumstances. I'm literally at a loss as i have used up all my creative options of fighting them.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Xyzzy Elzix — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:36:06 -0000

@Joe Ossenmacher-Bedford - The idea is to *not* "cram" the q-tip in your ear.

Its purpose is to use it more as a "swab", no less as you would around an open sore.

If you're worried about cramming more wax into your head, use a kleenex or tissue, twisted up into a point. That way, it's a a softer & more gentle way of keeping your hearing crystal.

Cheers! =)

-=*+[z']+*=-

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

summeraine — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 10:56:43 -0000

personally, i think a good rule of thumb is to shower every day. if you miss a day when you're camping or something, well, ok. as a woman, i do like a natural man scent and dislike anything perfumy or artificial, but you really have to be clean. every morning, men. again before bed if you were sweaty during the day. please.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

William Shears — Thu, 15 May 2008 02:39:09 -0000

I agree in principle but must differ in part.

I pluck my eyebrows. Not to a finely contoured line like women, but I remove the ridiculous strays. For you see, a solid line of brow hair diverts the sweat from my forehead far better than a sparse forest covering my forehead.

Consider also that it was custom for a Samurai of feudal Japan to shave his forehead every morning. A custom of the time, but I think it is a reasonable thing to take from. Besides, theres no reason to have super bushy eyebrows unless you have been hunting bears or terrorists for months on end, in either case it is required.

Shaving between eyebrows is imprecise and a bad idea. Pluck that trash, it will look far manlier. Well groomed hair makes you look like a stud. Overgroomed hair makes you look more androgynous than is attractive.

As said, Q-tipping the ear is a medically unsound practice. If you have a lot of problems, drop some mineral oil in to soften it and irrigate with a water syringe or a morning swim. By the same token, trim, don't pluck, nose and ear hair. You have hair there for good reasons.

And last but not least, smelling like a man. It's true that most women find the smell of a a man who has just finished building a footbridge over the creek for the neighborhood children incredibly sexy, but that's not the same as wearing soiled shirts. An honest sweat combined with the lingering smell of soap/deodorant (that you should be wearing) should be the norm after any exertion, unless of course you have been hunting terrorists or wrangling cattle. Trim your armpit hair to a reasonable length and it will cut down on the stench too.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Sean — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:27:39 -0000

# Sean on May 5th, 2008 9:25 am

I have a bold unibrow and been told to shave it. I am feeling fine and try to ignore some of smiles I get from some people. I do not see any reason behind having seperated eye brows.

Ironically, my name is also Sean and I use the same logic.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Brett — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:04:03 -0000

@Wrathbone-There's definitely exceptions to every rule. I was just thinking of guys who wax their brows to look super defined and arched. It makes them look feminine. But exterminating caterpillars is a worthy reason.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Wrathbone — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:15:37 -0000

"Trim your unibrow. While men should NOT pluck or wax their eyebrows, there should be a clear separation between each one."

I HAVE to wax in between and underneath my eyebrows...seriously, they look like two giant caterpillars squaring off above my eyes. Sometimes cleanliness means going that extra cosmetic mile if it's really needed...

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Joshua Badger — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:10:04 -0000

I discovered the Art of Manliness a few days ago, and it has had a profound effect on me. I'm currently nineteen years old and a university student in England, and am aware that I do a lot of the things critisised in these pages, I drink and go to bars/pubs and parties too much, I spend far too long watching television and playing video games and am often apathetic when it comes to the news and the world around me (which is even worse considering I'm a Geography student!). While I believe I do carry some of the qualities you champion, this site, and in particular these articles about Franklin's virtues, have forced me to stand up and take a serious look at my life, and what i can do to better myself. Thank you!

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Achilles — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:55:12 -0000

@Brett, I see what you/Ben are saying. I think that if a Man can be clean, he should, but there are plenty of Manly situations where cleanliness is really not possible (ie eating ribs). The rest of the list is excellent though.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Brett — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:27:11 -0000

@Achilles-When we started the blog, we decided to go through the 13 virtues Benjamin Franklin created and listed to help him live the virtuous life. Every Monday we cover the next virtue. This is Ben's number 10, and he came up with "cleanliness" not us. It's not the sexiest virtue, but I do think it's manly to be neat, clean, and organized. It's part of becoming the whole package,

You may want to check the previous posts in the series:
http://artofmanliness.com/c...

Or the original post about Franklin that kicked it off:
http://artofmanliness.com/2...

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Achilles — Tue, 06 May 2008 04:11:50 -0000

No offense, but the fact that you have an entire post about CLEANLINESS puts into question the sincerity of your message. Manliness is entirely unrelated to cleanliness, this is a fact. I will not go so far as to say that to be clean is unManly, only that to be Manly does not require that one is clean. A Man living out of a cave, shooting dear and fighting bears for his sustenance may be very dirty; he is nonetheless more Manly than most. I will review the rest of your material to see if this is an aberration, or if your message about Manliness is a true deviation from the truth.

http://mantivities.wordpres...

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

gautam — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:27:32 -0000

initially i had a mindset that we men need to strive for success and rest of things are immaterial.
even in our busy life ,we will have to give priority to cleanliness ,care for every thing from hair to toe.
an unkempt person has higher probability of facing an unstable career,short lasting relationship.
his personality tends to get repulsive,which makes him fall in to a dark pit of loneliness.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

amy — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:48:15 -0000

i loved this post, ironically, as i have always had a notorious disregard for cleanliness myself and don't notice my husband's disregard until it has reached a profound level. but, let's face it, the post started with ben franklin and finished with tongue scrapers- what more could anyone ask for?

despite my unconventional feelings about "hygiene" and how often one should "shower" in order to be considered "socially acceptable", i do derive great satisfaction from plucking my husband's eyebrows; not in a this-will-make-him-good-looking kind of way but more like i-have-a-latent-mental-illness kind of way.

i have heard different things about the q-tips, but i will say this. if you employ a gentle hand and take effort to avoid cramming the earwax into your ear canal (not rocket science, people, i've been doing it my whole life) you are less likely to have impacted earwax which, in my opinion, blows a week without showering out of the gross-water.

i particularly liked the dose of history major here. it's fun when we get to flex our B.A. alter ego, isn't it?

nice post, y'all. i dugg it, if'n ya know what i mean...

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Rage Kage — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:10:22 -0000

While I concur with most of these points, I think you may be a bit off regarding smelling like a human being. It's true that many women say that they enjoy the smell of a man, but I've known an equal number that enjoy the so-called 'artificial aerosol scent '.

The key, of course, is moderation. There's no need to smell like you bathed in musk, but a little spray here and there or a body wash indicates that you're at least somewhat conscious of your own odor. The perfect balance is when the scent can only be smelled in extremely close proximity.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Sean — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:25:54 -0000

I have a bold unibrow and been told to shave it. I am feeling fine and try to ignore some of smiles I get from some people. I do not see any reason behind having seperated eye brows.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Santa — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:18:40 -0000

Right on. I live in the south and I'm amazed to see these big bellied, beer drinking men in my town who burp and fart around ladies and smell like armpits and they think it's just being a normal guy... but really it's just being a slob. I'm glad to read that someone else out there believes that men shouldn't pluck their eyebrows either. In fact the only reason a man should even use tweezers would be to take a splinter out.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Paul — Mon, 05 May 2008 11:29:43 -0000

I disagree with the Q-tip part as well. They indeed only push the ear wax further into the ear. Wash your ears with soap and you won't need to use the Q-tip.

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Hayden Tompkins — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:51:18 -0000

It's amazing people still managed to reproduce.

"The theory was advanced that bathing opened your pores and thus let in disease. A layer of dirt and odor was thought to stave off infection. "

:shudder:

Re: The Virtuous Life: Cleanliness

Joe Ossenmacher-Bedford — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:06:00 -0000

I disagree with the cotton swab in the ear routine. This only packs down the earwax, and can even lead to a clog that a doctor will have to remove. If left alone, earwax will take care of itself just fine.