When Mankind Grooming Studio opened its first location a couple years ago, it ushered in a new era for the men of Toronto. While many gents already took to waxing, pedicuring, manicuring, facializing (it’s a word now), and spending as much on their hair as “the fairer sex”, Mankind Grooming helped offer up a broader appeal – one where the groomee didn’t have to feel embarrassed to enter spas with flowery names like Stillwater to meet the groomer.
Skip forward a few years, and Toronto’s men have moved passed the judgement of metrosexuality and into an era where soaking one’s feet in a bath of hot water and salts is as masculine as chopping wood… So long as you’re sitting in a barber’s chair, of course. Services geared towards the callouses of man are not frivolous. They’re not a necessary evil. They’re just necessary.
I personally don’t take nearly enough time to delight in getting pampered. Case in point: After a great couple of hours getting my hands softened, my feet scrubbed, my blackheads extracted (maybe that part isn’t best described by the adjective “great”), and errant hairs removed by the lovely Roxy at Mankind, I made a solemn vow to indulge in a treatment of sorts at least biweekly. I’ve yet to return. Sigh… the pitfalls and perils of life disallowing “me” time…
Which, of course, is what Mankind Grooming is all about. Every detail, from the decor (weathered wood, traditional barber’s chair, flat screen television tuned into TSN), to the services (the Smooth Hand Luke, the Gandalf, the Alpha Male), to the stylists (trendy, relaxed, experienced), is carefully honed to appeal to the sensibilities (or lack thereof) that come alongside masculine bravado. A pedicure isn’t frilly when you’re sitting in a Takara Belmont chair reading the latest issue of Sharp Magazine while a cute vixen pumices your callouses away with more elbow grease than you muster during your at-home “me” time. A facial isn’t merely for the vain of appearance when tears are welling up in your eyes as dozens of blackheads are being savagely squeezed from the inner recesses of your nose’s pores. An afternoon at the spa isn’t shi-shi-frou-frou when a haircut, manicure, pedicure, straight razor shave, facial, and waxing is branded as Leader of the Pack.
Mankind Grooming Studio allows a dude to be a dude while getting GQ‘d, because, ultimately, even men want to be front cover-ready. We just don’t want to share page one with ’50 Shades of Pink’…
Images borrowed from Mankind Grooming Studio.