Mens Hair Goop

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A lot of men are on the fence as to what to do, put goop (or paste) in their hair or not. After this major step of jumping into the styled world, where do you go from there? Do you use a gel? or the ol’ hairspray? Or some sort of goop? Should you go old school with some plain ol’ Vaseline?

I’m pretty sure, once you jump into the grooming world, you want to use some sort of goop or paste, unless of course you’re going for the Wall Street, 3 piece suit and tie every day kinda look with a slick for your hair. In which case you’ll want to go for a wax or grease, maybe even a gel would do the trick… but if this is you, chances are you’re not looking for advice from a blog and you’re going into $100 haircut and grooming at the closest salons once a week.

Anyways, I’m going to highlight a few products that I use, or that have been recommended to me by hairdressers so you can know what to do.

1. Sexy Hair’s Short Sexy Hair Frenzy found at Amazon for ~$17… I’m pretty sure its new!

2. Axe Messy Look found on Amazon for ~$23. I use this stuff religiously, so it works perfect for me. Can barely tell most of the time its in there, but it holds my hair in place.


3. Tigi Bed Head Manipulator on Amazon for ~$17. This stuff comes highly recommended and is a little bit lighter.

4. Aveda Control Paste. It runs for ~$25 on Amazon. I read a few blog posts to get this one recommended to me, but it sounds like its pretty good stuff. They say it smells nice.

5. Chi Twisted Fabric finishing paste goes for ~$8 on Amazon, so its the cheapest of them all. Sometimes I find that the simplest cases sometimes have the best products. This one definitely has the simplest case…

6. I don’t think I could feel right without doing some American Crew Defining Paste. Its on Amazon for ~$13 as well. I used this stuff before, not the defining paste, and it was to shiny and oily for me after a long day of work. So I stopped using

7. And the last, but not least expensive is the Redken Maneuver Working Wax. It weighs in at ~$32, so its a heavy hitter. It comes recommended as a product that you can still run your hand through your hair and not feel greasy. This is a good thing that most girls enjoy.

So, thats what I got. Can anybody else recommend some great products? I’m curious to start trying out some more.

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Chicken au de Rouge -or- Red Chicken Spaghetti

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Tonights dinner was what I call Chicken au de Rouge, and yes, I do think I’m fancy because I put a French twist to the title. It consisted of fried chicken with a red tomato paste on a bed of spaghetti. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and its a recipe I stole from my girl Sare, but she’s nice like that and doesn’t mind sharing a bit.

Ingredients:

  1. Onion (2 slices)
  2. Carrot (1)
  3. Mushrooms (4)
  4. Orange Pepper (1/2)
  5. Red Pepper (1/2)
  6. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Spices:

  1. Sesame seeds
  2. Poppy seeds
  3. Paprika
  4. Ground coriander seed
  5. Basil
  6. Oregano

To start off with, get some water boiling for the spaghetti. While your waiting for this, I emptied two cans of tomato paste (little small ones) into a pot, and put the heat on very low, leaving it to simmer. I added about 2 cans of water to this mix over time, stirring the entire sauce constantly. Take 3 cloves of garlic, mash them up into a paste, and add this to the sauce. Also, take about a tablespoon of basil, tablespoon of oregano, and two cloves and add them to the sauce to give it flavor. Don’t be afraid to go crazy on these spices for you cannot have to much. Stir it lots. At this point I put a lid, very loosely and crooked, on top of the paste, just to keep the pot from spitting out the paste all over, not to keep the steam it at all, in fact, you want to let it breathe. Stir this frequently to keep the paste from burning on the bottom of the pot.

By now, the water should be boiled, put the spaghetti in there, and keep it boiling. I don’t use salt in the water, but do as you choose.

Turn on the chicken now. I spiced it with some sesame seeds, poppy seeds, paprika, and some ground coriander seed, along with a splash of extra virgin olive oil to keep the texture nice and juicy and non-stick. Stir occassionally.

Take the time now to cut up your vegetables. I cut my onions first, so I could put them into the chicken right away to get them roasted a little. I used half a red pepper, half an orange pepper, 4 mushrooms, 2 slices of onion, and 1 carrot.

I wait until the chicken is just about finished cooking, that is, there is no more pink showing on the chicken. I stir the chicken occasionally, so when it gets to the point of almost done, there is only about 1 or 2 chickens that have a slight bit of undone (pink) to them. Flip those pieces showing pink so they cook, wait about 2 minutes, and then at this point add all the veges to the mix, and cover the pan with a big lid to let it steam cook for a few minutes.

The spaghetti should probably be done by this time, so strain that and set it to the side.

When the chicken mix has been steaming for a few minutes, remove the lid, and pour the tomato sauce (that you’ve been stirring constantly!) into the chicken and vegetable mix.

At this point, I don’t like to let it cook for to long with the sauce in there, I like each thing to keep its own taste, and I like my veges to be a bit hard. I keep the heat on low, so the sauce doesn’t spit everywhere, and let it simmer for a couple of minutes, until I get to hungry to wait any longer, and then serve!

As you can see, I added some cucumber slices, and red & orange pepper slices to add some gourmet appeal. I’m trying to remember the old axiom: “Appearance is everything.” Its a long and slow battle trying to make dishes pretty.

I’d love to hear if you make this, see any pictures, and how you liked it if you try. Any suggestions on how to change the recipe?

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