Trendspark: The Retrosexual

Dressing like your dad is officially back in…

Screw the pedicures, manicures and trips to the back waxer. The new trend is mens lifestyle is the retrosexual. All about being a “real man” the retro is backlash for years of Queer Eye and Details magazine.  Dave Besley explores the trend in his book The Retrosexual Manual: How to Be a Real Man and gives tips to Mad Men addicts looking to experience true manhood.  I’m personally having trouble accepting a trend which may allow back hair and unibrows to come creeping back into my daily view, hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

To get you ripped and roaring for a true retrosexual experience, check out the Ten Co-man-ments below.

1. A retrosexual always pays for the date. If she tries to insist, so much the better. He still pays.

2. A retrosexual deals with it. Flat car batteries, house break-ins, cable TV malfunction, earthquake damage — he just gets on with it.

3. A retrosexual never acknowledges he is in a relationship.

4. A retrosexual always carves the Sunday roast. Make sure you know what you’re doing—practise on the cat, spend an hour taking notes at the kebab shop.

5. A retrosexual is never seen in the passenger seat, unless it is a minicab, in which case he asks the driver if he can sit in the front.

6. A retrosexual must never cry in public. When he is alone he can cry in two instances—the death of a faithful dog or his team’s defeat in a Cup semi-final.

7. A retrosexual has a complete set of tools and at least three types of power tool, which he is often seen handling, if not actually using.

8. A retrosexual refuses to see a doctor even if he has a rare tropical disease that means his genitals are about to fall off. He is, however, allowed to let everyone know how he is suffering from the common cold.

9. A retrosexual should have at least one wound, with an accompanying story which lasts at least five minutes.

10. A retrosexual always stands in a pub. Seats are for couples and for Guardian readers.