United States
On the retail beat for Retail Brew, part of the Morning Brew empire. More than 500 articles in The New York Times in numerous sections including Business, Style and Arts. Other outlets include New York magazine, Salon, Adweek and Studio 360. Previously served as editor for alternative newspapers in Pittsburgh, Maine and Boise.
There’s a new drugstore category that’s really growing and, fittingly, is about really growing: beard care. It would have been a challenge to find a single beard-care product in CVS or Target a decade ago, but, in most stores today, the facially hirsute are greeted with an assortment of beard oils, balms, shampoos, and conditioners.
When Eobuwie, an online footwear retailer in Poland, decided to open its first brick-and-mortar location, it made a choice that seemed more than a little counterintuitive. It didn’t put any shoes in it.
So many things stink about the pandemic, and one of them-thanks to more people in one household working, schooling, cooking, Pelotoning, adopting pets, and showering less-is that it really *does* stink.
Good thing men are warming up to some new tools. Some men working from home and growing beards for the first time are coming to the realization that their facial hair is a tangle of waves and curls. But Matt Vilanova discovered how unmanageable his beard can be years ago.
Thanks to better procedures with more natural-looking results, beard transplants are on the rise.
The Internet is up to its armpits with women who dye their armpit hair, including Miley Cyrus, who displayed her pink underarms in a photo posted on Instagram.
More women are face-shaving, and fears that it will turn them into Zach Galifianakis are unfounded.
About 30 men gathered at the Wall Street Humidor, a cigar shop. They had come to shine their shoes.
A couple of decades ago, men were reduced to borrowing products from women, but now the shoe is on the other well-pumiced foot.
Shaving brushes are soaring in popularity, part of a broader resurgence in traditional shaving practices.
Why men increasingly are getting butt-enhancement surgery and wearing shapewear.
Advertising and Media
The hottest trend within the fast-casual segment: build your own. The format was up 22 percent in sales in 2014, compared to 11 percent for made to order.
It made the industry sexier, but also made us question how far we'd come
Sales of hand sanitizer surged during the Ebola scare, increasing about 56 percent in October 2014 over the previous year. And a hand-sanitizer billboard company soared.
Call it progress, or clutch your pearls. Bathroom humor that would have been rejected by network standards departments in earlier eras is now sailing through-and going viral.
More Americans commit suicide than die of breast cancer, but corporate support for mental illness is decidedly scant.
Banana Boat is introducing what it says is a first in the sun-care aisle, a men's line, and the commercials are no day at the beach.
Social Media
How Pandora listeners suddenly got a one-on-one concert.
For LinkedIn members who change jobs, a change of underwear.
A stunt to pass off frozen meals as restaurant cuisine backfires for a Con Agra brand.
Health
A celebrity-free departure for relating to the overweight.
Imagining a parade of of the pantless in incontinence products.
More effective than telling smokers that their habit shortens life expectancy: the risk of disfigurement.
pets
Many hotels that claim to be dog-friendly actually shun all but small breeds.
Dating
Hoping to strike a chord, JDate also strikes a nerve.
A singles site that skirts dating.
Books and Publishing
How a usage panel shapes how we use and pronounce words.
With audiobooks, couples have to compromise on something else besides pizza toppings: authors.
The strange case of how David Foster Wallace's voice sounds in his footnotes for his audiobook.
Public Radio
Photographer Amanda Jones takes pictures of dogs - and her work is in high demand.
What if retired Senator Jesse Helms could recite a lesbian love poem by Gertrude Stein?
A a new film currently in production called American Standard takes place entirely in New York bathrooms, public and private.