After seven days in the beautiful Moroccan weather I find myself back in London soaking in all this cold wet weather. I’ve opened up my suitcase, pulled out all the stuff I bought and its clear to me what the best thing I bought was. I started using it a few days into my trip and the benefits are clear. I paid twenty dirhams which equates to around £1.30 for 100ml of pure argan oil. I don’t have much hair on my head at all but I got a lot on my face.
Argan fruit, seeds and oil, used for cosmetic and alimentary products
I’ve been applying it twice a day and my beard has become darker, thicker, shinier and softer. I must admit, I have no clue how long this will last for but what I do know is I look a lot better with it in my beard than without.
I’ve used beard balms before and I know for a fact they all have argan oil in them but I’ve never thought about actually using pure argan oil by itself. The only negative I have come across so far is that when you initially apply it, it smells kinda funky but that smell goes after 15 minutes or so.
Should I Use Argan Oil?
If your hair is tough, or brittle or even itchy then yeah I suggest using it. I’m usually caught, pulling out my beard because its itchy but in the last week I haven’t pulled out any.
If you have nice soft hair then there isn’t a need for you to use argan oil, just go enjoy life. (I’m jealous of you.)
Price
As you can imagine the price from a Moroccan night market is going to be a lot different to a UK retailers price. It may be worth having a look around but make sure you go for the 100% pure argan oil. I trust Boots and Holland and Barrett with this kind of products but your welcome to have a look around, you’ll probably get a good deal on sites like eBay as well.
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Good luck on your journey to nice shiny hair, wherever you choose to apply the oil. Apparently its good for massages too (wink wink.)
Marrakech, Morocco September 2015 – Booked! Once I booked my plane ticket there is only one thing left to do, go shopping! Packing the right clothes on holiday is about as important as remembering to book the holiday itself. What you pack will depend completely on where you’re going and what you intend on doing while you’re there. A lot of thought goes into planning a holiday and the same amount should go into planning what you’re taking along the journey.
Travel Guide For Men
Here are some questions you should be asking yourself or google;
– Hot or Cold?
– Rain or Shine?
– Swimming?
– Partying/Raving?
– Fine dining?
– Getting Muddy/Dirty?
If you’re plan is to relax by the pool and check out the markets then shorts and vests will do. However if you’re going to leave the hotel at 10am and get back for midnight, you’ll be out in the cold after sunset so might be worth bringing a jumper and/or trousers.
Going out to eat in nice restaurants? Bring along a dress shirt and some smart trousers. Want to stuff your face with kebabs and burgers on the market stalls – leave the dress shirt in your wardrobe and pack a polo or printed t-shirt in it’s place.
Raving? If you’re one of those that will be going out at night and getting messy, then you probably won’t be able to wear the same outfit again on that holiday so you better make sure you pack a few outfits. Similarly if you plan on going on a camel or quad biking through the desert, you definitely won’t be wearing that outfit again.
What I’m Taking On Holiday
Although this is supposed to be a travel guide for men, I’m going to instead take you through what I’m taking to Morocco. As it’s a hot country and to be honest quite sandy/dusty one, I’m only taking a few things. I have no intention to go to any fancy restaurants or to any events that require a shirt and tie. I don’t plan on going to the beach or going out partying. My plan is to go around the markets, haggle with some Moroccan’s, ride a camel, do some quad biking and eat loads of fresh Moroccan food. With this in mind I plan my outfit around all these things and if you’re going on holiday soon you should be thinking carefully about what you intend on doing.
Jumper/Jacket
No need for a jacket as hopefully the weather will be amazing and if it isn’t then I’ll prob buy a waterproof jacket or something while I’m there. I won’t be packing a jumper, I don’t want to waste suitcase space but I will be wearing one on the way to morocco, you just never know with UK weather.
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T shirts
The obvious and easy choice for me here is white t-shirts, I’m going to take two crisp white t-shirts from ASOS. I want people to know I’m around and no better way than blasting the sun’s ray off my t-shirt and into their eyes. There’s a natural love for a fresh white T that exists in all our hearts.
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As I’m going quad biking and will be getting acquainted with a camel I can’t always wear a white T so my next option are the wonderful printed logo t-shirts. I managed to grab two bad boy t-shirts from Primark for £3 each. I’ll also be taking my favorite UCLA T-shirt with the huge logo on the front. You always need a branded logo t-shirt wherever you go.
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primark t-shirt for £3
Trousers
Who needs trousers in morocco? Well strangely enough I do. I’m bringing along my Zara trousers and my grey H&M tracksuits. I’m a big track suit fan and I love lounging around in tracksuits and my H&M tracksuits are the just thin enough for me not to burn in my hotel room.
Shorts
Probably the most important part of my luggage is selecting which shorts to take. I’m going to be walking around in the hot markets and I’m not looking to get pick pocketed so 3/4 length shorts with solid pockets (zips and buttons.) Needless to say, I plan on doing a lot of swimming so I need some good shorts. I learnt from my previous experience with swimming to bring quick dry men’s 3/4 length swimming leggings. They’re amazing, you wear them under your shorts and 5 minutes after getting out the pool they’re dry. I’ll also be bringing along 2 cotton shorts to wear just to be comfy and keep my legs cool.
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3/4 length shorts from eBay for £6
primark shorts for £5
Accessories
Accessories make the outfit so you better have some good ones. Well as a standard I’m bringing my smartwatch with me. However I also need a cheap waterproof watch for the days I know I’m going to be around water.
Hat’s are incredibly useful on holidays, especially when that baking african sun is on your head sucking the life out of you. What better opportunity to pull out a snap back. Funnily enough, I don’t own one so I went a bought a cheap one I wouldn’t mind losing in the desert or leaving by the pool.
Fanny packs, yeah I said it. No I don’t own one. Yes I will be buying one. As much as I don’t want to and I think back to how ugly my dad looked wearing one when I was a kid, they serve a purpose, a very important purpose. As much as I want to go morocco, I don’t want to stay there and likewise I don’t want my phone staying there. I’m going to be grabbing myself a cheap, thin & waterproof one from eBay to hold my passport, hotel key card and cash.
Wash bag! Don’t know what that is? It’s a small bag you keep all your wet products in. I.e your toothbrush, you’re hair gel, toothpaste, sunscreen and anything else you might need on your journey to keep you feeling at home.
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Pack Nothing
It’s important to make sure you pack a whole bunch of nothingness into your suitcase to make sure that you have space to actually bring some stuff back with you. Great thing about packing nothing, it’s free.
Tinie Tempah is well known to us for his many talents and recently he has become a bit of a fashion icon in London, for good reason too. He is very well dressed and is never afraid to express himself in his outfits and wear things others probably wouldn’t. This weeks Get The Look is one of Tinie Tempah’s more simpler outfits but still lets people know what he’s about. If you’re looking to dress casually smart on the weekend, this outfit and it’s many variations will serve you well.
The Look – Tinie Tempah
Considering we are well into spring now and approaching summer it just makes sense that we start adding more colour to our outfits. The colours of spring are warm, bright and light. What this look does extremely well is take all those spring colours and turn them into a pretty decent outfit without looking like a toddler wearing flowers.
The blazer, the main piece of the outfit, is a warm salmon colour. The spring colour scheme continues from the blazer onto the pastel jade trousers, combined with brown suede tassel loafers. The outfit is completed with a darker tie, white shirt, lapel pins and a watch.
The Suit
You have a few options in the suit department in regards to which colours you want to work with. With the blazer you can go with MOST of the different colours in the spring colour palette shown below (avoid the dark colours.) The only rule you need to follow is that to you should either wear matching trousers or trousers that are lighter than the blazer. I recommend pastel teal trousers like the ones Tinie’s wearing or plain white ones.
In terms of material then I would go with Linen or Cotton. Both these fabrics are fantastic for summer and letting your skin breathe. You don’t want to be walking around in a wool blazer sweating all over the place. Choose how thick you want the clothes to be as well. Even though it’s now Spring, it still can be bloody cold here in the UK.
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Summer Tweed – £65.00
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Jersey – £55.00
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Washed Cotton – £55.00
Burgundy Oxford Skinny Fit Blazer – £70.00
Light Blue Texture Cotton Blazer – £70.00
ASOS Slim Fit Suit Cropped Suit Trousers – £40.00
United Colors of Benetton Mini Puppytooth Trousers in Slim Fit – £35.00
ASOS Slim Fit Cropped Trousers – £25.00
Shirt & Tie
This part of the outfit is basic, you can swap these for anything really. It’s really easy to just stick to white shirt and any dark tie. The dark tie works really well as a balancing act between looking super summery and looking smart. The only important point to make is that you should keep your tie skinny. Thick ties don’t go well with the casual looks and will result in you looking quite odd – keep your tie thin.
Loafers – don’t we just love them? Tinie Tempah certainly does, he’s always seen in these funky cool loafers. The loafers in this look are a dark chocolate brown suede completed with small tassells. Loafers are easy to find online but it’s important you decide whether you want to wear casual loafers or work/smart loafers. Suede is quite versatile and depending on how you wear it and what you wear it with, for example with or without socks, you can really swing your suede shoes from work-smart to smart-casual very quickly.
If accessories aren’t your thing, don’t worry the outfit won’t fall apart without them. However, if like me, you love accessories, then you’re in for a treat with this outfit. Firstly the watch; any watch will do but ideally you want to match your watch to your shoes. Your belt should also follow suit with the watch strap and shoes, all dark brown will go perfectly with this outfit. The lapel pins are can be what ever you want really, I’d probably wear one of my charity badges on my lapel.
That’s it, you and Tinie are now identical twins. As always let me know what your thoughts are on this look from the wonderful Tinie Tempah. Leave a rating up top on how many stars out of five you would give this outfit.
Brown leather holdall bags are amazing for so many different reasons. Whether you own for the convenience of being able to throw all your clothes in it in 5 minutes and head off to another city. Or perhaps you are more like me and just enjoy carrying around a big bag with hardly anything in it just because it looks good.
A good leather holdall is only as good as the quality of the leather and this Racing Green leather is made from oil tanned premium buffalo leather. As with all real leather bags, each Racing Green holdall bag is different with it’s own natural leather markings.
As with every other holdall bag the bag comes with a removeable shoulder strap so you can hang it on your side or carry it as you wish.
Priced at £85.00 down from £170.00, I’d say it is pretty much what you would expect to pay for a decent REAL leather holdall bag. So grab yours here…
