In the post introducing why geeks should care about fashion, I concluded with:

The next article will cover the first and most important step. If you’ve got great clothes but don’t have this handled, you’ll simply look foolish.

That step would be your haircut and overall grooming. To help you understand their importance, let’s do another visualization exercise.

Imagine the guy dressed up in his Urban Outfitters threads. He’s looking good and has a bit of fashion sense.

Now imagine the same guy, but replace it with this haircut:

The image in your head should look completely ridiculous. A guy dressed up nicely, but he’s rocking a mullet? It would be obvious to women that this guy simply doesn’t “get it.”

The lesson here is that hair and grooming are first — the clothes come second.

Some haircuts clearly look better than others, and have a big effect on your attractiveness to women. As a quick and dirty experiment, I asked women which picture of Colin Farrell they liked best:

1

2

3

Some liked the first and some liked the third. But none liked the second Miami Vice “stringy-greasy” look. It’s clearly not as attractive as the other two.

So get a good haircut, ideally one that complements the shape of your head and face. This is why it’s important to find a good hair stylist. They’ll give you informed advice on what will look good, and keep you away from cuts that won’t.

If you don’t know a good stylist, check for a local “best of” guide in your city. For example, Denver’s Westword newsmagazine has a yearly Best of Denver. In it they list the best places for a haircut. Call up a couple and ask which stylist is the best at men’s haircuts — this should give you some leads.

If you don’t have something like this in your area, find a guy with good haircut and ask him where he gets it done. And remember, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune. I pay $20 plus tip for a cut at Moxie — considering how critical this factor is to your visual appearance, it’s easily worth the money.

As a final example, here’s my “hair evolution” over the past 10 months:

I would rarely get compliments about my long hair, but after I cut it, it was made very clear from women that I’d done the right thing. The whole bleached hair experiment… well, it’s gotten a mixed reception.

GROOMING

Grooming is very, very important to women. This includes facial hair, body hair, fingernails and toenails. Basically, women equate your level of grooming with your level of cleanliness. Hippies aside, women want to be with a clean guy.

I admit I was confused for a bit about facial hair, and it was Johnny Depp that led me astray. Women would rave about how hot he is and say things like “oh my god he’s so beautiful,” but he always had patchy and odd-looking facial hair.

Mr Patchy

I suspect he has weird facial hair because he’s almost “too pretty,” and tries to ugly himself up a bit.

Mr Pretty

Just keep in mind that Johnny’s the exception, not the rule.

There’s not a whole lot to grooming: keep your facial hair neat, consider getting a Philips Bodygroom, and keep the nails trimmed and clean. Women will thank you for it!