About Us

Hello!

Welcome to

Rough and Tumble Gentleman

On this page we’ll share a little about us, our website, and the principles that guide how we do what we do.

Let’s start with an introduction. My name is Joe, and I’m the owner and steward of this website. 

I’m glad you’re here.

If you have questions, comments, or feedback I’d love to hear from you. 

You can email me at joe <at> roughandtumblegentleman <dot> com or visit our contact page.

There are some mega-sites devoted to shaving, grooming, mustache, and beard care, skin care, style, and men’s fashion. 

We’re not one of them … yet

Think of us as more of the “scrappy new-comer” who wants to shake things up and make something new, unique, and enjoyable.

How are we doing that? By following some pretty solid …

Editorial Principles

Editorial Principles for RoughAndTumbleGentleman.com Our aim is to write the sort of articles we would want to find on the internet – articles that:

  • answer questions accurately, 
  • teach new things clearly, and 
  • always leave the reader satisfied and save him (or her) time.

What does that look like? 

It’s pretty simple, really. It comes down to treating our readers with respect. 

We publish honest, trustworthy, helpful content backed by real, hands-on, and earned experience.

If we’re writing a review of a beard oil or mustache wax – it’s because we’ve tried it ourselves. 

It sounds pretty basic (and something everyone should do), but you’d be surprised how rare that actually is on the internet.

In our articles you’ll usually see photos of a member of our editorial team using the product we’re writing about in the article. 

And we’ll give you our honest take on it so you know what to expect if you buy it or try it.

We won’t promote products we have not or would not use ourselves, and we won’t promote products just for the sake of earning an affiliate commission (one of the ways we keep the lights on around here).

We don’t accept free stuff from brands in exchange for positive reviews. 

You deserve to know that what you’re reading is honest, trustworthy, original, and (most of all) helpful. 

There’s enough garbage on the internet. You won’t find it here.

You don’t deserve curated online reviews or sponsored advertorials that mislead you by only telling you the good stuff.

Here at RTG we promise to give it to you straight – the good, the bad, and the snark (SO much snark!).

What We Aren't

What We Are Not We aren’t professional photographers. You might see our kid’s toothbrush in the background of our product photos. Your kid has teeth too, right?

This is real life, brother. We’re not faking it. 

We aren’t professional barbers. Our advice on how to use clippers, trimmers, or electric shavers may not always align with industry best practices. If you think we made a mistake, let us know!

What we publish is what works for us (and what we think will work for you too), but we’re always open to learning, and love receiving kind feedback.

We aren’t YouTube influencers. Although the ones we know are pretty cool, we don’t have the time or expertise to film good videos with a high production value.

So we’re going to stay in our lane and deliver awesome blog articles for you.

What We Are

We’re real men being real. By sharing our earned knowledge and actual experience with others who want to get better at grooming, self care, and improve their self esteem, we hope to carve out a space where we provide value and readers appreciate what we do. 

You may not agree with our opinions or advice. That’s ok with us, as long as we earn your respect by doing our best, as best we can.

We are caring men. We believe that it’s ok to take care of yourself, so you can do a better job of taking care of others. 

What We Are As husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends we have varied roles, but these often include acting as provider or caregiver. This can be rewarding … but also lonely. And the weight of the responsibilities we carry can sometimes overwhelm, or feel too heavy. 

Small acts of self care can go a long way toward building ourselves up into the best men we can be. We care about you, and will do what we can to get you there.

We are writers. Sure, we’re men who love to share about beards, shaving, style, and the tools we use to look and feel our best. But we enjoy writing and publishing our articles to share our thoughts on a wide range of subjects. 

I live in Maine, have an MFA in creative writing, and I’m a full time blogger. 

We have others on our team from cities small and large around the country, and world.

We value diversity of opinions and experience. We think that by sharing the knowledge of diverse men (and occasionally women) from varied backgrounds, we all come out ahead. 

We can think different things, and come at topics with different lived experiences. We want this to be one place on the internet without a binary “right” and “wrong” way of categorizing everything.

What You'll Find On This Website

Real reviews, hands-on photos of us testing each and every product we write about, and transparent writers laying it all out there – the good, the bad, and the snarky.

In addition to Joe (the site owner and manager), here are a few other members of our team you are welcome to contact:

Matthew – Editorial Lead. If you have an idea for a post or a collaboration, you can contact Matt at matthew <at> roughandtumblegentleman <dot> com, and

Michael – Writer / Editor. For press inquiries or questions about specific posts, contact Mike at michael <at> roughandtumblegentleman <dot> com.

Topics We Enjoy Writing About Most

We’ve tried to make this website pretty easy to navigate, and hope you enjoy exploring it on your own, but in case you’d like to know what we like to write and publish articles about, here are some of our favorite topics:

Achieving the Perfect Shave

Shaving (and in particular wet shaving) is one of our passions.

And we’ve got a lot of content about it: product reviews, tutorials about wet shaving and dry shaving, and guides to help you through every stage of the shaving process.

We’ve got a lot of articles for readers who are new to shaving: Learn About the Different Types of Razors, Discover the Benefits of Shaving with Cold Water, Learn About Shaving Against the Grain, and Tips for Shaving With the Grain, and even tips on how to be green like our article: How to Recycle Razor Blades

If you have *any* suggestions on shaving content you’d like to see, jump over to our Contact page—we love writing about shaving, and we’re all ears.

Achieving the Perfect Shave

Big, Beautiful Beards

Big Beautiful Beards

There’s no wrong way to grow a beard, but there are definitely things you can do to have a better one.

We’re un-apologetic beard lovers, and think it’s great that as men we have the opportunity to express ourselves (and present ourselves to the world) with our individual take of the perfect beard.

You may not want to grow a championship beard – you may only like to maintain a 5 0’clock shadow, but however you beard, we’re here to help you beard boldly!

We’ve got a range of posts on how to grow a beard, long beard maintenance tips, and many more. 

We also have a long list of beard styles you can adopt that can work for your face shape and features.

Skin Care (because we have it too)

A friend of ours was recently complaining that the only place he could find decent help on how to take care of his skin was on women’s beauty sites. 

We’d like to change that. 

So we’ve written a ton of posts about skin care, skin care products, and best practices for taking care of your skin.

A lot of time men only focus on skin issues if they shave, but even bearded men need help caring for the skin below their beards. 

Check out: Skin Disorders to Look Out For, Skin Care Tips for Wet Shavers, and Witch Hazel After Shaving if you’d like to start learning about some simple ways you can take care of that big beautiful organ (no, not that one) that holds your body together.

Skin Care for Men

Commentaries, Interviews, and Op-Eds

Commentary and Op-Eds

We love writing product reviews and tutorials, but it’s a lot of fun to branch out a little. 

After all, what good is a men’s shaving and grooming website, if you can’t write about other issues that men are interested in? 

Check out Three Things I Learned From My Barber, which we feel is a good example of this style of writing on our website. 

We also feature some great interviews with a few interesting companies we’d like to highlight and bring to the fore.

We invite you to read our interview with Kate and Brad of The Copper Hat, or our interview with Stan from Above the Tie to see if this style of article might be your cup of tea (or coffee …  or bourbon).

Advice and Guidance for Men

A lot of shaving and grooming sites are pretty heavy on the product reviews and pretty light on anything of substance—anything that actually helps someone be their best person and navigate their life. 

While we want to stay in our lane, we’d also like to create a community where men can share what they’ve learned, or find support for taking care of themselves in ways that go beyond grooming and skin care. 

For us, we think this means sharing resources that will help men be their best selves, or find help when they need it (and know that it’s ok to ask for help).

To see some examples of this, check out List of Personal Resources & Help for Men and article that explains How to Find a Good Barber.

Advice and Guidance for Men

About RTG (past, present, and future)

Our Legacy Logo

Since 2017, RoughAndTumbleGentleman.com has been growing with a unique vision built on publishing excellent, helpful, and honest content. (that’s our old logo)

In 2023 we are updating the look and feel of our website. We’re making these updates to reflect our growth to-date, and as a nod toward where we hope to be in the future.

Today, we strive to create an authentic, helpful, and trustworthy website men can look to for the best grooming and self-care tips on the web.

It’s an ambitious goal, and we’re not there yet. But every day we work to get a little closer.

If you’ve got a suggestion for the site, a topic you’d like us to write about, or just want to say hello, please hop over to our Contact Page—we’d love to hear from you.

Affiliate Disclosure: 

This website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for websites to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

Copyright © 2024 RoughAndTumbleGentleman.com

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