by Matthew Paul Bailey
Daily Lobo
Your grandmothers were right all along.
Tucking in your shirt and presenting yourself smartly makes people admire and respect you. My grandmother always used to tell me to wear shoes and make sure they were clean.
It took me 22 years, but I am beginning to listen to the wise old girl. People will judge you on your appearance.
That is the way our world works, so why not prepare yourself for this trial and represent yourself in a way you can be proud of?
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A smartly dressed man is one of the most life-affirming sights one could witness - apart from a beautiful New Mexican woman in her summer or gym attire.
But I wish to comment on something that was fashionable in your grandmother's era - the high fade haircut.
This hairstyle is abominably unfashionable, the very epitome of bad style.
It was the standard haircut for men as they were puking in their boats before D-Day and for those who looked like civil servants from the '50s and '60s.
I did not expect to witness this ugly spectacle when I arrived in the most prosperous nation in the world. America should be a cultural leader, but the high fade diminishes this possibility.
The symmetry and simplicity of the cut make it so very ugly, and those of style glimpse and view it with wonder and sadness. This hairstyle and the amount of people who sport it make me doubt the future of style.
If a fad so bad can persist for such a long time, maybe we lucky fashionable few should not try to fight it. Maybe we are doomed to see the persistence of bad fashion from the past rear its ugly, half-shaved head forever.
I do not fault anyone with the haircut, but I beg of you, please, allow your hair to grow a little bit - just give fashion a chance.
As a man with long hair, I can tell you there is no better feeling than your beautiful, silky hair flapping in the gentle summer breeze, or flicking back your wet hair in the rain.
The Backstreet Boys knew how sexy this was, and it can be just as sexy for any of us.
On the subject of hair, I feel it would be appropriate to touch on facial hair. Moustaches are an infallible fashion no-no. The only time someone of college age should experiment with this terrible thing is Halloween or if you are considering becoming a serial killer.
Goatees are not particularly good fashion anymore because it is 2005, and not, as many people seem to wish, 1998.
I wanted to have the ability to grow hair on my face in my somewhat misguided youth, so to speed up the process I began shaving at the early age of 13. Now I have some fashionable designer stubble. A little bit of stubble is a fashion mainstay, my brothers.
Nothing better illustrates the fashion equilibrium, which every knowing man should try to attain.
That equilibrium is the broad fashion equation to success: Care, but look like you don't.
