Too many guys have been instructed that midlife is a disaster, and that all the things is downhill from there. That was not my very own expertise or the 1000’s of males I’ve seen in my scientific follow at MenAlive since we launched in 1972. I’ve written seventeen books to enhance the psychological, emotional, and relational well being of males and their households since my first e book, Inside Out: Turning into My Personal Man was revealed in 1983, the yr I turned 40.
In his e book Studying to Love Midlife, my colleague Chip Conley, co-founder and CEO of the Trendy Elder Academy, says,
“In my view (and that of a rising variety of sociologists), on this planet with increasingly more centenarians, midlife could final from 35 to 75. Simply as adolescence is a transitional stage between childhood and maturity, possibly a part of the midlife position is to be a transitional stage between maturity and elderhood.”
Conley exhibits us that midlife needn’t be a disaster, however a chrysalis to essentially the most passionate, highly effective, productive, and purposeful time of a person’s life. But, we will’t do it alone.
In a current article, “Gameday is a Sport Changer within the Rising Males’s Well being Area,” I launched you to Dr. Evan Miller, who I had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of extremely efficient program that had the potential to assist thousands and thousands of midlife males. I requested Dr. Miller how he got here to be concerned with males’s well being points.
“Just like you, my background is on the scientific aspect,” he instructed me, “I’m a PhD in scientific psychology so I come at this entire medical well being care world from a really psychological angle. After grad faculty I acquired proper into the habit therapy trade and began a therapy heart.”
He went on to inform me how he got here to understand that it was higher to assist tackle males’s wants earlier than they have been having severe well being issues. After having his testosterone ranges checked and discovering they have been very low, he was capable of head off potential issues and later based Gameday Males’s Well being.
“I needed to forged a wider internet,” Dr. Miller mentioned, “and needed to get the typical mainstream man feeling higher.” Gameday Males’s Well being has grow to be successful with facilities all through the nation.
Hammer & Nails: From Shark Tank to Mainstreet, Males Are Wanting and Feeling Nice
After I met Aaron Meyers, the President and Chief Working Officer of Hammer & Nails, I discovered one other kindred spirit who cared in regards to the well being and wellbeing of males. The imaginative and prescient started with Michael Elliot and his unsuccessful request for funds on the favored T.V. sequence Shark Tank in September 2014.
Life for younger Michael Elliot was laborious. The previous ward of the state was solely twenty and had been homeless in Philadelphia for nearly two years. He had no formal schooling, no household and no help. As an alternative of letting the circumstances that led to his tough life drag him down, the younger man used his appreciable dedication and intelligence to make his life successful.
Elliot had quite a few enterprise concepts that failed, however he by no means gave up. An uncomfortable expertise throughout a manicure and an concept stemming from it led him to open a nail salon with a distinction, it was focused in direction of males reasonably than girls. Solely months after conceiving the idea, he opened his first Hammer & Nails salon in Los Angeles in November 2013. After six months working the enterprise he utilized to look on Shark Tank, primarily to curiosity one of many sharks in serving to him to franchise the enterprise nationally, and was accepted.
Although he couldn’t persuade any of the Sharks to put money into his concept of a salon for males, Aaron Meyers understood the imaginative and prescient, believed within the concept, and had the experience in franchising to make the enterprise successful. I just lately had the nice fortune to interview Aaron Meyers and be taught extra particulars about this revolutionary and distinctive program for males.
“We’ve constructed a person cave, and it has all the things you’d count on and extra,” Aaron instructed me. “You get your individual TV and distant, noise-canceling headphones, a complimentary frosty beverage, and each seat is customized crafted together with your consolation being precedence primary. You’re going to really feel like a modern-day king. And, oh yeah, you may get a haircut, shave or a manicure & pedicure, to assist hold your look on level.”
Aaron instructed me they deal with profitable mid-life males, however they’re seeing increasingly more youthful males. Males of all ages are searching for a male expertise the place guys can chill out and get the sorts of pampering we’d get at an costly well being spa. No matter our age and no matter we do for a residing, we wish to be at our greatest. Hammer & Nails is manly look after the person who is able to embrace complete care and wellbeing.
As of 2025, the variety of franchises had grown from 13 to 41. There at the moment are 10 areas in California, 9 in Ohio, 3 in Virginia, 2 in Texas, 2 in North Carolina, 2 in Connecticut, 2 in Florida, 1 in Arizona, and 1 in Pennsylvania. And there are extra coming. Suggestions from clients have additionally been optimistic. Take their West Hollywood location, for instance, it presently has a 4.8-star score out of 365 critiques, with many praising the barber store for its talent and repair. Some have even described their barbers as having “magic fingers.” You may take a look at their areas right here.
I bear in mind my very own experiences with grooming. Rising up, I didn’t suppose a lot about haircuts. I might get one when my mom complained I regarded scruffy and I might at all times go to the identical barber store near our home. The proprietor, Eddy, would often reduce my hair, usually a fast buzz reduce. It has solely been lately that I’ve come to see the worth of a full-service expertise.
I had the nice fortune to search out Martin who was an old-time European barber in my hometown. He and his spouse, Helga, owned somewhat store in Willits. Helga took care of the ladies and Martin helped the lads. He took his time and labored to provide the model that may make you look good. However the most effective half was the pinnacle, neck, and shoulder therapeutic massage that accompanied the reduce. It was the most effective a part of the expertise. I might typically see him as a substitute of getting a therapeutic massage, he was that good.
As I’ve gotten older, my ft have grow to be extra necessary. I stroll daily to remain wholesome and getting my toenails clipped is tough to do myself. There’s a salon on the town the place girls get their fingernails and toenails clipped, however even strolling by on the road you possibly can odor the chemical compounds. A buddy mentioned he went to get his toes clipped and I gave it a attempt. The expertise left a lot to be desired. All of the workers wore masks to assist them breathe. The patrons acquired used to the poisonous chemical compounds, however I care an excessive amount of about my very own well being to simply accept a poisonous setting. I’d reasonably anticipate Hammer & Nails to come back to my city.
“Right now’s extraordinary man deserves a grooming expertise that tends to the entire man,” Aaron instructed me in our interview. “In an area that’s removed from take-a-number haircut farms and pedicure stations that reek of acrylic fumes. It’s time to care in regards to the care that goes into males’s grooming. And it begins at a spot the place males’s care is all we care about. That, and drink.”
To be taught extra about Hammer & Nails you are able to do so there. To observe the in-depth interview I did with Aaron Meyers, you are able to do so right here.
If you need to learn different articles on males’s well being and wellbeing, come go to me at https://menalive.com/.
