Author name: Karim Haddad

Last updated: February 2026 by Karim Haddad, Levantine Grooming Expert

Last updated: February 2026 by Karim Haddad, Levantine Grooming Expert

My teta (grandmother) always said a man’s hands should smell like orange blossom water. She was not wrong about the moisturizing benefits, either. But the larger point she was making, without ever using the word “niche,” was that fragrance should be personal. Distinctive. Not what everyone else at…

There is a barbershop on Warren Avenue in Dearborn that my father has been going to since before I was born. The same chair, the same barber, every two weeks for over thirty years. When I was old enough to sit in the chair myself, I realized that what happened in that shop was different from the…

Every man in my family has them. My father, my uncles, my cousins. Dark circles under the eyes that no amount of sleep seems to fix. Growing up, I assumed it was just the Lebanese look, something we inherited along with thick eyebrows and the ability to grow a full beard by age 16. Turns out, the…

I have killed four beard trimmers in my life. The first one literally started smoking. The second one stopped mid-pass and refused to turn back on. The third one pulled so many hairs that I threw it in the trash mid-shave. The fourth one survived a year before the motor weakened to the point where…

The first time most people encounter oud, they do not know what to make of it. It is unlike anything in the Western fragrance tradition. It can be smoky, animalic, woody, sweet, medicinal, or all of these at once, depending on the source and the blend. My jiddo (grandfather) wore pure oud oil every…

The first time I walked into a traditional hammam (bathhouse), I was 12 years old, visiting family in Beirut. My uncle led me into a tiled room thick with steam, handed me a bar of black soap, and said, “Scrub until you see your real skin.” That experience, the ritual of it, the warmth, the almost…

I started shaving at 14. By 16, I had a five o’clock shadow before lunch. If you are reading this, you probably know exactly what I mean. Thick, dense, fast-growing facial hair is a genetic gift that comes with its own set of challenges. Standard grooming advice written for men with fine or…

If you grew up in Dearborn, you know the smell of oud before you know the word for it. It was in my jiddo’s (grandfather’s) jacket, layered into the fabric of the couch where he sat every evening, and it drifted out of every barbershop on Warren Avenue. Oud is not just a fragrance note. For men…